Whoop Whoop! That is how I feel when I find a volunteer. Volunteers are everywhere but I’m not talking about the kind you need to solicit for your kid’s school event. I’m talking about the kind of volunteers that arrive each Spring,
little baby plant sprouts that poke up in the most unexpected places in the garden and yard. Keep your eyes peeled for them so your avid weeding does not lead to sacrificing them unknowingly.
Today I found a Spanish Lavender volunteer tucked alongside a very mature Rosemary shrub. What a great find! I also found a Japanese maple innocently growing in a neglected garden pot on a deck I keep meaning to spruce up. It is a deck without a water source but alas, this beauty is growing strong amongst the 4 other pots filled with verifiable weeds.
Plants spread by all kinds of means; by underground runners, by division, by layering and by spreading their seed. Volunteers spread via seed venture off on their own away from the parent plant to chart their own course in another site in your garden. So when I found both of those volunteers they were close to the parent but far enough away to consider them special to have survived.
So what do you do with these volunteers? How do you put them to good work? Why did they come to you? Some volunteers will need to be relocated to a more suitable location, others can stay where they have landed, and others need to be slated to be given to a lucky recipient!
Because I can do quite a bit of financial damage when visiting our local nurseries, I look at these plants as little gifts from the universe. Finding them is also good for stress relief! Watching out for them is worth the cautious observant pace I encourage you to set because it is a reminder to slow down and really appreciate all of the abundance that is so freely given. My volunteer friends are always welcome in my garden.