Andre Hartslief
The thick clouds and sudden rain has passed and I lost all hope that anything would grow in our garden patch. We’ve never stopped throwing kitchen waste on parcels of soil regardless of where we were living, in order to make compost, to use in the following year.
One recent morning, I threw out some salad offcuts and added some grass-clippings to our compost pile, when something caught my eye. I saw some cucumber plants growing from the compost pile and they were flowering, but they seemed too small and weak to grow any crop. How surprised was I a few weeks later, when, after the mentioned sudden rain, several ripe cucumbers and babies were visible!
-
Have you ever “discovered” a free harvest
-
Yes
-
No
-
We also have a compost bin where we throw excess vegetables cutting and fruit rinds (and seeds). The usual free harvest are the bitter gourd that bears fruits in a month or so. We also eat the leaves of the bitter gourd.
I am feeling very happy for surprise cucumbers.
Yes, compost piles are famous for surprises like that.
They have such an amazing name, Howard, volunteer plants! I wonder how strawberries will do? They like kind of damp spots, I think. Thank for commenting.
I had strawberries start growing under my peach tree because I was eating strawberries outside and threw the stems there. A few of the seeds (they are on the outside) must have been left on. If I hadn’t recognized them I would have weeded them out; and, they propagated many plants for me over the years. Sometimes it pays to let things be.
My sister used to find volunteer plants and veggies.
That’s amazing Carol, what a wonderful name for them, volunteer plants. Almost like self-sacrifice. A noble human gesture under certain conditions of course. We had a McCain’s brand frozen pea
TV advertisement running of all these little peas floating up into heaven. The backing song was Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in The Sky” McCain’s must have lost a ton of $$$ with that one! I was a dad of three very impressionable young kids back then and they wouldn’t eat them…
here’s that same advert, brrr, scary… https://youtu.be/h1VJ9n8juto
I always get volunteer tomatoes, lettuce and basil .
That is incredible Dawn. Thanks for sharing that information with us.
What a pleasant surprise. We were able to get some cherry tomatoes from some seeds that had dropped on the ground the previous year.
WOW! teeny-tiny volunteers, I love them, but now I heard they aren’t’ good for me, according to (Doctor Steven Gundry) Perhaps I should think of them as these peas Lol. https://youtu.be/h1VJ9n8juto
This is called Good Luck
I agree Witty, good luck for us who get to eat them but not such good luck for them, Lol.
I would call that a happy accident!
I couldn’t agree with you more Ghostwriter. Thanks for commenting.
all over the Midwest of the US, they alternate crops. One year fallow, two years soybeans, one year corn.
For the years after the corn (fallow and soybeans) corn grows in the crops. They call that corn volunteers!
Thanks, Doc, for sharing that interesting information with us all.
you are most welcome. The seed companies used to pay us money to walk the fields and pull up volunteers!
What a nice surprise seeing these cucumbers. I like them with a salad.
I really love them fresh and since they are the Dill variety, we have also pickled some in a sweet-sour vinegar base. Can’t wait to try them…