Does it look too hot to go out there and work in the garden this morning? Yes. I thought so, too. Which is what I get for waiting until 7:30 a.m. to consider the possibility. Besides, Will and I were outside yesterday evening...I was mowing and he was weed-eating. We just kept it up until almost dark. And I'm feeling kind of blasted from it today. Like a fool, I got too close to him while he was working around the pond, and as I passed him on the mower, a rock went 'TWANG!' against the side of my neck. It was stupid, besides being alarming and painful. What does all of this have to do with volunteers in the garden? nothing. We'll just put that in our personal 'Department of Lessons Learned'...Volunteer plants in the garden can be something surprising that you never planted in the first place, or something that you planted in the past that has re-seeded itself and springs up once again. Sometimes it comes up in the same place you planted it. And sometimes it comes up in an altogether different place. We like our volunteers, and they provide interesting interplay in the garde, so many times we just leave them alone. 
In the back of the garden, on the very last row next to the fenceline, we set out a row of Mexican Sunflowers last year. These are fabulous flowering plants, and get very tall, sometimes 8 feet or more, covered with beautiful big, orange flowers. The bees and the butterflies absolutely love them, and we tend to let them grow wherever they appear. They have sprung up back there with the eggplants and black-eyed peas. These are the ones the bunnies didn't eat when they were small. We also planted an entire fenceline of them several years ago, in preparation for our daughter's wedding. No matter what I plant on that fenceline (zinnias this year and last), there are always Mexican Sunflowers in the mix.
These we don't mind. Then there are things we kind of do mind, but there's not much we can do about...like the poly-headed
sunflowers.
When we planted these (again, for the wedding), we didn't know they were perrenials, or if we did, we didn't think about it much. We were in a planting craze at the time, and when we sat with the 'kids' and ordered all of the flowers we would plant for the wedding, more than a dozen different types of sunflowers were chosen. These we put on a different fenceline, and when they re-appeared the following year, we were pleasantly surprised. But they were leggy and got out of control, and didn't bloom well the second year, so we thought we'd get rid of them and plant something else. HA. The roots are very deep, and send runners and we have decided that they cannot be conquered, short of a major plowing operation. So, looks like they will be part of the permanent landscape! 
And then, there is the Evening Primrose...ah, me. I hardley know what to do about this one. As yet another experimental herb-growing adventure, I thought I'd plant a flat of Evening Primrose and make a row in the permanent herb beds. Actually, I had so many plants that I made TWO rows of it. It behaved itself last year, and made beautiful plants and stunning flowers. Again, I thought that maybe I would do away with it, or narrow it down to one bed rather than two. I didn't give it much thought at first....
I didn't know that evening primrose is a HEDGE! And a migrating hedge at that! This year, the plants came up in rows, yes they did...but outside of the rows I planted them in, and to top it all off, there are stray bushes of primrose here and there all over the herb beds! I'm not sure what the ultimate solution is, but after they've played themselves out, I'll see if I can't formulate a plan. I don't want to get rid of it altogether, but I sure would like to think I have some control over the situation!
In the back of the garden, on the very last row next to the fenceline, we set out a row of Mexican Sunflowers last year. These are fabulous flowering plants, and get very tall, sometimes 8 feet or more, covered with beautiful big, orange flowers. The bees and the butterflies absolutely love them, and we tend to let them grow wherever they appear. They have sprung up back there with the eggplants and black-eyed peas. These are the ones the bunnies didn't eat when they were small. We also planted an entire fenceline of them several years ago, in preparation for our daughter's wedding. No matter what I plant on that fenceline (zinnias this year and last), there are always Mexican Sunflowers in the mix.
These we don't mind. Then there are things we kind of do mind, but there's not much we can do about...like the poly-headedsunflowers.
When we planted these (again, for the wedding), we didn't know they were perrenials, or if we did, we didn't think about it much. We were in a planting craze at the time, and when we sat with the 'kids' and ordered all of the flowers we would plant for the wedding, more than a dozen different types of sunflowers were chosen. These we put on a different fenceline, and when they re-appeared the following year, we were pleasantly surprised. But they were leggy and got out of control, and didn't bloom well the second year, so we thought we'd get rid of them and plant something else. HA. The roots are very deep, and send runners and we have decided that they cannot be conquered, short of a major plowing operation. So, looks like they will be part of the permanent landscape! 
And then, there is the Evening Primrose...ah, me. I hardley know what to do about this one. As yet another experimental herb-growing adventure, I thought I'd plant a flat of Evening Primrose and make a row in the permanent herb beds. Actually, I had so many plants that I made TWO rows of it. It behaved itself last year, and made beautiful plants and stunning flowers. Again, I thought that maybe I would do away with it, or narrow it down to one bed rather than two. I didn't give it much thought at first....
I didn't know that evening primrose is a HEDGE! And a migrating hedge at that! This year, the plants came up in rows, yes they did...but outside of the rows I planted them in, and to top it all off, there are stray bushes of primrose here and there all over the herb beds! I'm not sure what the ultimate solution is, but after they've played themselves out, I'll see if I can't formulate a plan. I don't want to get rid of it altogether, but I sure would like to think I have some control over the situation!
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