Volunteers

 Let's talk about volunteer plants.

When you have your garden in the same spot several years in the row you're likely to get volunteers, plants that have self-seeded where you did not plant them. Sometimes we treat them like weeds and pull them. This is especially true of vining plants. You don't want squash taking over your lettuce.

Sometimes it's beneficial. This year our kale and dill were hampered by frost and we lost some of the plants. But we lucked out and had volunteers elsewhere in the garden that added to the harvest.

But those aren't the volunteers that interest me the most.

This is Herb.

This pumpkin was one of the only things that grew in my herb garden. We have never grown pumpkins in that spot. We dumped a rotten pumpkin there two years ago. And Herb is the result.

I'm also amused by these tomatoes. I picked them from a plant that sprouted on the edge of my compost pile.

Do you have any volunteer plant stories?