Heh. Glad today has gone well.

Ooopsie?

No oopsie. A significant part of my composting strategy is "didn't have time to eat that melon before the fruit flies came? toss it off the deck and see if it volunteers next year!"

Is that what I call my 2 random tomato plants that just grew in my garden? Volunteers?

Yep. Those are volunteers.

Yep! It sounds so much nicer than "I thought it was a weed and then it started making tomatoes".

Given how impossible it is to plant anything in my front yard, I give every green thing a chance to show whether it is weed or something interesting. Unless it is a ivy or vine, because those go crackers and make a mess. It's how I found out those useless lily-like grasses were my favorite kind of tiger lily! (that had not bloomed for as long as my neighbor has been here, which is something like 6 years.)

It's how I found out those useless lily-like grasses were my favorite kind of tiger lily!

My sistah! I found a huge (and totally overcrowded) clump of daylilies growing under a useless shrub I hated and murdered to death!

(I gave them nicer soil and breathing space, but it was already past this year's blooming season -- but I expect them to be actual lilies next year.)

Very jealous of people with gardens. I'm going to try some herbs on my windowsill, but I would love some actual yard to plant more.

I don't know if it was the heavy snow or the fact I thinned them out this spring in exasperation that they bloomed this year. I guess I'll find out next summer. Of course, I was out of town for the 10 days they were at their peak. My neighbor took a picture for me. They were pretty.

That's so awesome. We let lots of weeds grow, cause it's the desert and any green is good green. Except the tumbleweeds because those are the devil's own plant.

And one of the volunteers is this really lovely ground cover that we've let mound everywhere, putting off tiny white flowers, but mostly lots of little greenery. It's almost completely filled the bulb bed this year, covering the die back from the flowers. Next year I think it will totally cover. Plus it looks awesome cascading over the rocks around our tiny garden pond...whereupon the tadpoles eat it. Total win.

Time to figure out what flower bulbs go into the bed for next year. This year's rabbit report: no grape hyacinth or crocuses, all totally eaten. But limited tulips, definitely daffodils, and irises, yay! Plus all the alliums, which is fine because I actually like the round flowers the onions and garlic put up. They're a little large and unwieldy in scale, but they're still blooming when nothing else in the garden is.