Free book Friday!

Steve Engel says:

We have a wonderful volunteer tomato plant that came from who knows where but now it provides our family with terrific tomatoes every year for months and months.  We love volunteers!!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 7:54 am.

hotsabi says:

I would say that Sunflowers are always popping up.
In my veggie garden as well as nearly every pot on the porch.
Of course feeding the birds is what brings them on.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:01 am.

Linda Genis says:

I was sad when my leonotis drowned in the rain last year, but was pleasantly surprised when a new one popped up in a planter the following spring.  Tghe planter was more than 20 feet from where the original plant grew.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:01 am.

Lynn says:

I am intrigued by the idea of growing my planter boxes vertically and would like to learn more.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:03 am.

Janet C. says:

Lavender! It pops up everywhere.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:04 am.

Linda Mendelssohn says:

How does that tomato plant pop out of a crack in the patio cement slab?

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:05 am.

Karen says:

I had a crape myrtle pop up in my flower bed a few years ago.  I transplanted it and it is now about 5 feet tall!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:08 am.

Anita says:

I have been contemplating aesthetically pleasing structures for my vegies this year, and this book looks like it will provide inspiration!
I had some construction work done in my yard and one of the losses due to collateral damage was a favorite cuphea of the bat-face type that was the brightest orange/purple (my favorite combo) and bloomed forever. After I put the yard back together and we had a rainy fall/winter, up popped that cuphea! I was soooo happy!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:10 am.

Susy Stone says:

I had raspberry plants show up in my Viburnum hedge row. Should have pulled them out but instead I enjoyed the fruit!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:10 am.

Lee Ann Bailey says:

Jeez, I’ve got a real problem with pulling out volunteer plants, even when it ruins my color scheme. I had a woodland bed of hellebores, astilbes, Solomon’s Seals, and mertensia when some orange bellamcandas popped up.  I just couldn’t bring myself to pull them out. (Of course, they weren’t all blooming at the same time…)

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:24 am.

Kim Wever says:

Oooo, I saw so many neat vertical gardening demonstrations in the South of France and Costa Brava, Spain last summer while on vacation.  I didn’t have a chance to take many photos b/c we were driving through the countryside as I noticed tomatoes and beans on all different style vertical props.  I would love to get my hands on this great resource of vertical ideas

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:24 am.

Sharon says:

Several volunteer cherry tomato plants came up, and they had wonderful fruit, all summer long.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:29 am.

Jennifer says:

I had a columbine pop up out of nowhere, have never planted one.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:35 am.

Susan Bulger says:

A milkweed came up and impressed me with its intricate flowers.  I saved seeds and now have a new hobby ‘farming’ monarch butterflies.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:36 am.

Kathie Burns says:

Mushrooms popped up in a section of my lawn that I was deliberately NOT watering because I wanted to
kill it.  I knew something was wrong.  Thanks to the mushrooms presence I discovered a leak in one
of the sprinkler pipes.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:44 am.

Denise says:

Asclepia Physocarpa popped up right smack in between my herb tubs and its been a ‘patient’ wait for the butterflies to stop laying eggs in order to move/get rid of it.  Just a week ago, I asked my garden helper to help me move a concrete table (it’ll actually need three burly men folk to do the job) in order to create more ‘farmland’ for edibles.  I’ve been thinking about a raised bed made with the broken concrete that now serves as flooring under that heavy thing.  Enhancing a planting area with vertical elements sounds great!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:46 am.

Mary Doyle says:

Planted a pack of catmint seeds a few years back.  Now it’s everywhere but always pretty.  Money well spent!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 8:57 am.

Rebecca Ayraud says:

I was happy to find two little violets growing in the untended area beside my garage this winter.  Their blooms certainly stand out beside the ladders stored there!  The mother plant is far across the concrete driveway separating them!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:04 am.

Rebecca Walker says:

Foxgloves! The seeds from the previous years flowers scattered and now they are all over the garden : )

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:09 am.

Jill Patterson says:

Some years ago, as my family was leaving for the airport for my partner’s mother’s funeral, I noticed a snapdragon blooming where we had never planted any and years after we had planted any snapdragons at all. The snapdragon is my daughter’s favorite flower.  When her grandmother came to visit, the two of them always planted snapdragons.  I think this was her grandmother’s way of saying goodby to us all.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:14 am.

Jen Thompson says:

I planted some winter lettuce (So Cal) - had a volunteer red leaf in our lawn…

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:15 am.

Monika Tanhill says:

I had planted lamb lettuce years ago - in a half wine barrel. I sowed arugula seeds a few weeks ago and they started pushing up as expected. AND when I was ready to harvest a few young sprouts, here they were: lamb lettuce “rosettes” a handful, ready for my daily salad!!!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:23 am.

Nicki Pike says:

In addition to a number of volunteer tomatoe plants, we have a couple of flowering plants that I cannot identify and we never planted! Volunteers are fun!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:24 am.

Susie Wallace says:

Watermelon and cantaloupe in our lawn! We live in our front yard under our triple trunk Sycamore.  We have eaten a lot of meals at our picnic table there.  I always feel so guilty mowing over all the watermelon and cantaloupe seedlings :(

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:25 am.

jess says:

I guess it’s not totally unexpected, but I have often been surprised by the legs my lilacs have developed. They really, really want to be a hedge. I’ve grown plenty of compost tomatoes and potatoes, too.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:26 am.

Laura says:

Some friends of mine had planted some edible squash and non-edible gourd plants. When they wanted to change their garden, they thought they had taken out all of the plants, but the decorative gourds kept coming up all over the yard. We had many jokes over the years about decorative gourds.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:31 am.

Ellen B. says:

There is a fig tree in the asphalt in my alley.  The neighbor’s gardener digs it up periodically, but it comes back.  It has just reappeared and I’m going to rescue it this time, hoping it is the kind that can be propagated by stem cuttings.

Did you know that figs were probably the first cultivated food?

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:38 am.

Maryann says:

a locquat sprang up in the middle of my garden , unfortunately it didn’t transplant but I couldn’t leave it as it would have shaded my sun loving color plants.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:50 am.

Barbara says:

Last spring a red poppy appeared amongst some stock seedlings I was growing. I have no idea where it came from, but was delighted to see it. Red poppies were one of my late father’s favorite flowers. Having it in my garden made me feel as if he was signaling his enjoyment of my gardening efforts.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:53 am.

michele Meyer says:

I have a large assortment of euphorbias in my garden. They are wonderful to look at with their contrasting foliage -lime greens and bronze- that add knockout color to a bed. Not only are they beautiful, but they are very loving, giving, easy to grow and full of surprises. I am always delighted when I find their little seedlings in curious, obscure, and “perfect places”  to grow a new plant.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:53 am.

Connie Beck says:

Matilija poppies….can make it 30’across a driveway!  But they are so gorgeous we just make room for them.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 9:54 am.

Kylee Baumle says:

Once upon a time, I had Korean violets in my garden. I loved their gorgeous veining and bluish color. But they disappeared for some reason, and several years went by. I looked for them to buy again, but couldn’t find them. Then one summer, I was crouched down on our brick patio, weeding between the bricks and lo and behold, there was a tiny Korean violet seedling coming up between two bricks! I removed the bricks, gently lifted the seedling and put it in a protected place and prayed it would thrive and spread. Now, nearly four years later, I once again have a small colony of the Korean violets!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 10:20 am.

Mary says:

I am so exciting about Mel Bartholome’s square foot gardening and I really use the book you are giving away.  I had piles of dirt in my yard while a stone mason was putting in a wall for me and I noticed a tiny little plant…..I kept watching it and transplanted it into a big bucket and it turned into the tallest and most beautiful red calla lily. It was a wonderful surprise to me.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 10:50 am.

Garden Goddess says:

Vertical gardening makes a lot of sense.  I grow my tomatoes in 5’ tall cages to maximize the sun to leaf ratio.  Beans and peas are another good crop for vertical gardening.  I’d love to find out some more ideas!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 11:02 am.

Sharon K. says:

I didn’t plant any broccoli year but there’s one out there along with some cosmos - I have no clue where they came from!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 11:14 am.

Riley says:

My compost has a wonderful array of fruit and veggie seeds that stay strong. My landscape is always a surprise with strawberries, rasberries, pomegranates, lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro and an occasional bell pepper popping up. I think my sandy soil helps. I’m in the process of creating a raised planting bed purely for compost to see what happens.

Note: I don’t turn my compost often. There are lots of worms and everything breaks down into black gold but hardy seeds survive. I love it but I do have to weed out some that don’t work with the design.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 11:30 am.

Jeannette says:

Last season, I planted arugula in one of my raised beds.  When the season was over, I took out the rest of the plant.  Unknown to me, seeds had fallen from the plant and now I have all kinds of arugula plants around the base of my raised bed.  It’s nice, actually, because when I need some for a salad or another dish, I just go pick it.  I hope I can keep up with it.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 12:35 pm.

Donna Ross says:

I love the way I get New Guinea Impatients popping up all through my planter boxes.  They are wispy enough not to interfere, but they add beautiful color that fills in the green patches.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 12:49 pm.

cynthia stetson says:

Two actually, tomatoes and zuccini, of course the usual surprise of flowers too.  This past year I had more gifts than usual of plants and veggies popping up in places where I did not plant them.
thank you

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 12:52 pm.

Donna Minick says:

I used to have poppies interplanted in the rose bed for extra color.  They died out, but last year I had one volunteer.  That “mother of a thousand plants” has returned tenfold with poppies popping up all over.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 1:34 pm.

Victoria says:

I usually have either tomatoes or pumpkin popping up but this year I’m seeing lilikoi, coffee and poha berries in and around the garden.  The lilikoi easily gets out of control but the flowers and subsequent fruit are so wonderful it’s hard to pull up the errant plant or two.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 2:53 pm.

Jean says:

Last fall I harvested a miniature pumpkin from my compost. I did not plant anything like that. It must have been a gift from a bird!

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 3:23 pm.

Nancy Shaw says:

I planted a yellow pear tomato a few years ago.  Every year since then I have had volunteer yellow tomatoes.  Last year I had a dozen volunteer plants come up.  I dug them up and took them to a cub scout meeting on gardening.  The scouts planted them in pots and throughout the summer reported to me on the progress of their plants.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 4:06 pm.

Karen Sala says:

I have corn in many places popping up from the seeds for the birds and chipmunks and squirrels…. also sunflowers grow here and there from the birds food too,, I love it,

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 5:37 pm.

Marilyn Seminara says:

When I was very small I lived in Buena Park and the soil was very sandy and oranges grew well, but vegetables not so well.  Yet we always had yellow tomatoes that were the shape of Italian tomatoes that returned year after year.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 5:48 pm.

Judy Sundermann says:

Sweet peas are popping up everywhere. I let them go to seed and they spread far and wide.  They are easy to remove if they land in the wrong place, and I’m always excited to see what color they are.

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 5:57 pm.

Gayle says:

A cherry tomatoe plant volunteered right next to the trash can and produce like crazy

Posted on February 17, 2012 at 10:12 pm.

Christine W. says:

Peach trees, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley,.. Just to name a few.
You name it….it’ll pop up somewhere in my garden

Posted on February 19, 2012 at 11:22 pm.

Sarahliz says:

The best spaghetti squash I ever grew was a volunteer.  I still can’t quite figure out how it ended up where it did.

Posted on February 21, 2012 at 6:34 pm.