Garden Volunteers

As an amateur gardener I've always heard about "volunteers", plants that volunteer themselves without you having had the intention to plant them where they bloom. Last year I was pleasantly surprised to find a very large dill plant "volunteering" beside our house. I had no idea where it came from but it was gorgeous! It produced so many dill pods that I even planned to get some pickling cucumbers and try my hand at making pickles, but I got busy and lost track of time.

Also last year, we planted watermelon and cantaloupe seedlings in a section of our back yard that doesn't have really good soil and doesn't grow much...we didn't figure they would grow but thought it was worth a shot. We had torrential rain about two days after putting the baby plants in and they drowned, they never got bigger than having simple cotyledons before dying off. Since that time we've successfully planted rosemary and a rose bush in that area.

Imagine my surprise the other day to see volunteers in the area in between the rose and rosemary! I am not sure which it is (maybe both, or possibly neither) but these appear to be watermelon and/or cantaloupe plants! And they are beautiful and healthy! I could hardly believe my eyes.

I can't wait until we can figure out which it is...I only hope these don't die off!