Volunteers in the Garden

I love volunteers. Particularly, I love volunteers in the garden. People that volunteer in gardens are great. My topic today is the plants that volunteer in the garden. Volunteer plants are those that sprout from uncultivated seed. Seed dropped from previous plantings or spread by birds can result in volunteer plants.

After the Great Deer Debacle earlier this summer (my blog of July 20, 2012), I was especially grateful for the volunteer pepper and tomato plants. The deer had laid waste to my formal plantings so I let the volunteer plants grow to replace the carnage. I transplanted some of the pepper plants into pots on my deck to insure their survival.

Jalapeno Peppers

Now I’m harvesting jalapeno, green peppers, and grape tomatoes from those volunteer plantings. Thank you, volunteers!