Updated on January 21, 2023 by Elizabeth
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This post may contain affiliate links. It doesn’t cost you anything extra but if you use these links to buy something, we may earn a commission.
Do you ever get volunteers?
Volunteer plants that is.
We sure do.
And it seems like we have a lot of volunteers right now.
Especially baby bok choy. There is a lot of baby bok choy in the lettuce right now.
Baby bok choy is always seeded into trays and then transplanted, so I don’t know how these guys came about. But they did!
Did you note the empty 4-pack that’s keeping the lettuce company like a good little pot? Maybe we’re shifting the lettuce dependency from the empty 4-packs to baby bok choy plants….
There’s also cilantro and tomatoes. Although I know how they came about. Both crops were grown in that tunnel previously. The cilantro was allowed to go to seed, and dropped tomatoes just get plowed into the soil.
Boom. Instant future crops.
On their time table. Not ours.
It’s still fun to see tomato plants voluntarily growing in January.
Future volunteers is one of the risks of trying to save seeds. All the cilantro in this planting of lettuce. Another tunnel, where we grew swiss chard to seed, also has lots of swiss chard volunteers.
An outdoor field has dill.
And of course the volunteer tomato and pumpkin plants.
For the most part, we leave the volunteers alone. After all, it’s something to harvest and we didn’t need to actively plant it. #worksmarternotharder (you know, the problem with hashtags is there’s no spell check. I must’ve looked at that hashtag a billion times making sure I typed it correctly).
Plus, the volunteers let us know the soil is a-okay for growing in. If nothing wants to grow in that spot of ground… you’ve got a problem.
And one more volunteer picture, just because it is so big and beautiful: one salad turnip.
Some seasonal inspiration:
Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Sweet Potatoes
Open Tue-Fri 9-6, Sat 9-5.
Closed Sunday & Monday.
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