We didn’t plant potatoes.
We didn’t plant squash yet.
We didn’t plant broccoli in ten different spots.
And we definitely didn’t plant lettuce along the flower border.
But the garden had other ideas.
Apparently, it’s volunteer season. This garden appears to be the Peace Corps of plants: showing up, spreading out, making themselves useful. Or at least present.
The Brassica Cooperative
Last year, I deliberately let a few of our brassicas (broccoli, a few kinds of cauliflower) bolt. I’d bought mostly heirloom varieties for that reason. I had every intention of harvesting the seeds properly.
And then… life.
I missed the harvest window, work got busy, and I never was really sure what the seed pods should look like when they were “ready.” Eventually, I just let the plants tower into bloom and hoped nature would sort it out.
Apparently, it did.
Now I’m finding little volunteers popping up everywhere: leafy little brassica babies in random corners of the garden. Some might be broccoli. Some might be cabbage. Some are definitely something. I’ve started herding them into the Brassica Cooperative.
They’re unbothered. They’re united. They’re leafy.
Potatoes with agency
I also wasn’t going to grow potatoes this year. But apparently, last year’s spuds never got the memo. Or the shovel.
A surprising number of them overwintered and came back strong. We found little potato plants in multiple beds, including one wedged confidently between the peas, like it signed a lease. Another giving orders to the soon-to-be tomato patch. More organizing themselves in the pathways.
I’ve never transplanted potatoes before, but we gave them a fresh row. It might work. It might not. But they’re already doing their thing, so I’m trying to keep up.
Lettuce
Then there’s the lettuce, volunteering along the flower row like it wants to be part of the landscape design.
It’s sprinkled in front of the petunias and snapdragons like it belongs there. A decorative fringe of leafy greens. The edible edging I never planned, but kind of love. Soft, frilly, persistent.
If the flowers are there to attract pollinators and the herbs to smell good, maybe the lettuce is just there for morale.
Surprise squash
There’s also a rogue squash growing in the strawberry bed. I don’t know what kind. I sure didn’t plant it. It has no business being there. And yet… here we are.
What’s next
See if the Brassica Co-op will unionize
Hope the potatoes settle into their new digs
Let the squash finish whatever it’s doing
Avoid string-trimming the lettuce
Tell people this was the plan all along
The volunteers are busy. And I’m mostly staying out of their way.
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