• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • John F Dean
  • r ransom
  • Jay Angler
  • Timothy Norton
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Tereza Okava
  • Nicole Alderman
master gardeners:
  • M Ljin
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • thomas rubino
  • Megan Palmer

Year of the volunteers

 
Jen Fulkerson
gardener
Posts: 2010
Location: N. California
1015
2
hugelkultur kids cat dog fungi trees books chicken cooking medical herbs ungarbage
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It's strange to me that the year I have the most trouble starting seeds is the year I have volunteer plants popping up all over.
A tomato grows in the seed snail I started. Also a tomato next to my compost pile. The biggest most healthy pumpkin I ever had is taking over my food forest want-a-be.  The earliest squash also growing in the Food forest want-a-be.  Hollyhocks, but they always reseed themselves. Zinnia and a melon, probably cantaloupe in one of my raised beds. many, to many Malabar spinach, and lots of radishes everywhere. Borage also always reseeds itself, but this year the plants are huge. Large  leaf plantain . Also some kind of melon seed that kept germinating when I use my worm castings.
With the exception of most of the Malabar spinach I will let them grow and hope for the best. If they are good, I will try to save the seeds. (I honestly always intend to save seeds of veggies I enjoy, and usually don't get it done)
This last winter was very mild, so maybe that is the reason for so many volunteers. I will enjoy seeing what I get.
Did you get volunteers this year?  Do you let them grow?
Good luck with what ever you grow.
PXL_20260506_023804036.jpg
Malabar spinach
Malabar spinach
PXL_20260506_021921002.jpg
pumpkin
pumpkin
PXL_20260506_021859240.jpg
squash
squash
PXL_20260506_023118529.jpg
tomato and radishes
tomato and radishes
 
Amy Clarke
Posts: 20
Location: PNW 8B
12
forest garden plumbing chicken
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
volunteers are the best, and what a bounty of them!

I've got volunteer borage all over the place, and the kale is growing increasingly feral as I let it set seed each year. Plenty of calendula that I don't remember planting, and the strawberries that I thought I'd killed with neglect are popping up in random places that they like better than where I put them.

Soil has yet to warm up enough to tell whether last year's tomatoes and tomatillos have moved themselves in yet.
 
Joao Winckler
Posts: 122
27
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
The volunteers always seem to outperform whatever I actually planned. My best tomato last year was one that came up through a crack in the path next to the compost heap. Didn't do a thing for it and it just got on with it.
 
The government thinks you are too stupid to make your own lightbulb choices. But this tiny ad thinks you are smart:
Willow Feeder Bundle: Movie, eBook and Plans
https://permies.com/wiki/359686/Willow-Feeder-Bundle-Movie-eBook
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic