Volunteers Welcome Here!
I’ve read several postings about people with squash volunteers and can relate, since I have a nice pumpkin vine currently growing in my compost.
Since my garden had so much destruction this year, I’ve taken a very liberal view toward volunteers. If it’s a desirable plant, it’s pretty much been left to grow, regardless of where it planted itself.
In addition to the pumpkin, I have a whole bunch of nasturiums that have cropped up in various beds and on the path, and those I’ve left to grow as they please. Pretty flowers that you can eat – what’s not to like?
I also have a volunteer tomatillo, a couple of nice sunflowers, a tomato, and – the biggest surprise of all – a muskmelon and watermelon also appear to be trying to grow! Might I have homegrown melon after all? I’m trying not to hope for too much.
Cosmos seeds apparently sprayed out in a nice arc when the tree fell and happen to have conviently seeded themselves in an otherwise empty area. So, suddenly I have a cosmos bed.
The only volunteer I’ve been removing are some of the ground cherries. Those things seed themselves everywhere if you let them, and we just don’t need more than 6 plants. Luckily they are very easy to remove.
So, regardless of where they’ve decided to grow this year, I have a whole bunch of nice, new plants to enjoy.
Now, if all those weeds would just stop seeding themselves too….
August 22, 2012 - 7:06 AM
I have an acorn squash growing out of my compost bin. It has one nice looking squash on it. I also have a cantaloupe plant with several good sized melons. Then there are the tomatoes – a small red tomato in my flower bed. I had tomatoes in there two years ago. We also have a small oval shaped tomato in the garden that could be a “Juliet”. I also had dill re-seed in the garden this year from last year. I am going to capture the seed for next year. Last year it did not do well but this year after reseeding it has done wonderfully.
I, too, am letting all my volunteers grow except for the ground cherries. We grew them 3 years ago and didn’t care for them but they keep coming back each year.
It is “putting up time” here at our house, so I need to get back to the tomatoes – the Icicle and Amish Paste are ready for picking and canning. Then the corn is ready so need to freeze some. This morning it is chopping bell peppers and freezing them. Busy, busy.
I like my ground cherries, just don’t want that many. The best way to eat ground cherries is to pull up the husk and use it as a handle and dip the cherry into dark chocolate. Yummy!
I have a gorgeous volunteer grapevine that grows up the side of my front porch and provides a lovely natural privacy screen. I had to cut it way back/down this week — my homeowner’s insurance threatened to drop me because of it! They had sent someone out on a routine (annual? biennial?) check and must have thought it was something way more damaging than an annual vine that dies back every year. Maybe I will buy a trellis with the money I save from my low rate plus multi-policy discount on the auto insurance.
Change insurance companies. Did you give them permission to trespass on your property?
You’ve all been much more fortunate than I have with volunteers this time. I mulched around a couple of volunteer squash plants that produced what appeared to be a mix of crookneck/delicata squashes and ornamental gourds but without the best qualities of any of the parent varieties. We’ve never planted ground cherries but have always had them. Today I took a break from canning beans and tomatoes to grub the fall panticum? grass out of two of my blueberry beds. A couple of the grass “rugs” had diameters beyond my 5’4″ height. Reminder for next year: early mulching is much smarter than delaying until grasses are forming seeds.
My first time on this blog. Maybe you don’t “do” trees. I planted a 13′ sugar maple in November. It came out about April 1, and looked great in April-July. It’s starting to turn color early………about 6 weeks early. We have had plenty of rain this summer and I’ve watered it as well. I gave it some fertilizer in April and June as well. Thoughts?
Rick, welcome aboard. Good to see you over here. You might look at this:
http://www.ehow.com/info_10063197_maple-tree-start-turning-color-losing-its-leaves-early-august.html
Thanks. I see some of my Weather Journal blog buddies are here.
Welcome aboard Rick. Glad to have you.