Plants that self seed:

1. Cut off seed pods/heads or deadhead them. Only allow a few seeds to mature so you can save a little seed to trade or offer friends.

2. You can let the area grow if you like it and you have space.

3. Put them on your Plants to Trade List (Seeds I Want, Seeds I Will Trade, Plants I Want, Plants I Will Trade) here on Houzz

4. Offer little plants on Facebook or Craigslist, to people in your church or at work. Many people love a new plant or a new adventure.

5. Pull up and throw away. Sometimes it's just necessary. There are invasive plants that are beautiful, but still invasive.

Heidi

its the throwing away that just kills me. I give many away but I am having trouble finding takers for everything. I guess I need to be more aggressive about deadheading.

I like growing natives, so one of my favorite seed sources is Prairie Moon Nursery in Minnesota.They have a great selection.The best place I know of for medicinal plants and herbs is Richter's Herbs.They have an amazing selection of seeds and plants from all over the world. I usually try to deadhead plants that self seed all over so I don't have to pull up a lot of seedlings. I like growing the red salvia coccinia and verbena bonariensis for the hummingbirds and butterflies.They both self seed a lot so I try to deadhead most and just save a few seeds.The verbena bonariensis is a little more difficult because it starts dropping seeds while it's still blooming and looking good.There are some plants that are a little more difficult to deadhead effectively.This year I'm trying to keep my dill deadheaded so it doesn't come up everywhere.No matter what I do I always end up pulling out a lot of unwanted flower seedlings along with the weeds every year.I've just accepted it as a part of life.

right now the plant that is giving the most trouble is Rose Campion. It is trying to take over my whole yard and I can't give it away fast enough. Milkweed is another one. I guess that's what happens when a suburb girl tries to garden like a country girl. lol!

Rose Champion is easy to deadhead and that will keep it from spreading.I got rid of all mine this year,it's easy to pull up.Milweeds spread by underground roots.Some kinds like butterfly weed won't spread.The common milkweed can take over a garden because it's underground rhizomes spread out in all directions.You have to dig the milkweed out with as much of the roots you can possibly get.Even then you might still get new shoots popping up and you have to dig those out too while trying to get all the roots you missed the first time.I don't believe in spraying so I can't recommend it.

If I have any left over and no one wants them, there's the side of the road and depending where you live, fields ,there's always place to put them. or leave them.