30
2009
Volunteers
An article by 
We started veggies from seed, we planted seedlings and saplings, and now we are tending volunteers?
sunflowers
Yes, I can’t resist a plant that reseeds itself! There is something exciting about tending plants that put themselves in the ground when we don’t know exactly what might come from the volunteers. Above are sunflowers that grew from dropped birdseed.
tomato volunteers
When we moved the compost bin earlier this spring, we didn’t consider all the seeds lurking in the dirt below. Tomatoes and squash are popping up now. The sunlight isn’t great, but if the tomatoes and squash can survive we’ll add to our harvest without adding to the cost of start up.
squash volunteers
Two potatoes couldn’t wait to grow and now have happy homes in the garden. One is an errant potato that was never harvested last fall. The other is a sweet potato that started sprouting in the potato bin and Alex just couldn’t help but find a spot for it.
sweet potato
The most surprising find was some chamomile flowers that popped up among the grass. We can’t keep them all but moved some into a flower bed.
Do you have any volunteers in the garden this year?
Potato Growing in the Compost Bin
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Hi! I am Rachel Tayse Baillieul, a home-cooking, backyard-gardening, unschooling, earthy homemaker in Columbus Ohio. Hounds in the Kitchen is where I share my family's adventures. Thanks for joining us!
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I love volunteers too! Last fall we planted pansies in six pots and I hoped some of them might come back this spring. No sign of them in the pots, but all over our patio – in the cracks in between bricks – are lovely little volunteer pansies of all color varieties. I am letting them stay. They look so cute! I need to take a picture.
i have a happy cilantro plant between my raised beds, from last year and I’ve pulled up some scallions as they’ve popped up.
[...] of green tomatos on the vine. A very few have started blushing red. One cherry tomato plant (a volunteer) has given us our first two ripe tomatos! pop in your mouth [...]