Archive for the ‘plant it’ Category

What do these flowers in my garden have in common?

Answer:  They all came from hardy volunteers.  By that I mean, they reseeded from another plant in my garden.

That plant either spread in the same area, or sent it’s seeds to a different part of the garden and the plant grew.

Either way, the new plant is usually welcome in my large flower beds, saving me from having buying plants to fill in empty areas.  They are most welcome because I  usually move the small plants to areas of my garden where I think they will look nice and be a great addition to my garden.

When you are weeding, be on the lookout for seedlings that might be volunteers from established plants and either move them, or enjoy them right where they grow.

To move a hardy volunteer, simply dig all around the plant, leaving a nice clump of dirt so as not to disturb the roots.  It’s best to move plants either early in the morning, or in the evening, and not during the heat of the day.

Don’t forget about your friends either.  It’s fun to exchange and share plants that come from volunteers.  Many plants in my garden have come from volunteers from my mother-in-law Kit’s garden.

Some of the annual plants I’ve loved that send off hardy volunteers are:

• Cosmos
• Larkspur
• Canterbury Bells
• Love-in-a Mist
• Cleome
• Allysum

Some perennials that send off volunteers (though I am not really sure if they call perennials “hardy volunteers”) are:

• Daisies
• Columbine
• Lavender
• Anemone
• Coreopsis

While some volunteers can seem a bit weedy at times, I welcome most in my garden as a way to save money and keep my garden in bloom.

Now if I could just get a few volunteers willing to weed my gardens!

Learning to produce our own food is essential if we are to ever truly take control of our own lives.  It liberates us from the role of passive consumer, remote from real decisions, alienated from nature. -Primal Seeds

This past weekend, we were finally able to plant our vegetable garden.  Our whole garden is usually planted  no later than May 15 most years.  But the weather this Spring has been unseasonably cool.  More than a few neighbors planted their vegetables, only to have them wiped out by a killing frost.

Ever year as we plant our vegetables, I am struck by what an act of faith it is.  The plants seem so small and helpless in the big space of earth around them.  It’s hard to imagine that they could ever amount to much.

But year after year, most of them surprise me, and provide our family with an abundance of delicious things to eat.  I can almost just taste those garden tomatoes now.