what is self-seeding in your garden?

[sepeters]

Last week before I went out of town I thought I saw some volunteers coming up. I came home after a week and it is confirmed.
So far I have positively identified cockscomb. I think I see romaine and have 2-3 other things popping up that are still too tiny to tell.
What is volunteering itself in your bed?

[rainbowgardener]

Right now, the only thing volunteering in my garden is snow...



Come growing season, I usually have lettuce, tomatoes, squash, some trees and flowers pop up, sometimes vervain and other herbs. I let the swiss chard go to seed last year, so I'm hoping some will come back on its own.
I keep trying to get the basil to re-seed itself, but no luck so far.

[cynthia_h]

Chard, kale, and arugula are my most reliable self-seeders.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[imafan26]

I have perilla, marigold, nasturtiums, tomatoes, black sesame, lemon basil, plantago (laukahi),fennel,culantro,strawberry (runners), chilli peppers, asparagus, day lily (produce fans), gotu kola, lalot (runners) , Hibiscus acetosella (false roselle), mint (running), India mustard, and allyssum. They are coming up here there and everywhere including the pathways, between the brick pavers, and other parts of the garden right now. I am moving some, pulling them out of the pathways, and let some rotate themselves around the garden.

Of course the weeds nut sedge, clover, and baby's tears, Fukien tea, snow bush, and some others I don't know the names of never stop coming.

I am hoping the stevia, sunflower and safflower will come up and seed again.


.

[rainbowgardener]

Oh I forgot... lemon balm and rasberries are trying to take over the back yard.

[soil]

I have more volunteers than planted things. Greens of all kinds, berries, veggies, even fruit trees.

[Bobberman]

Lots of weeds! Moonflowers every year. Tomatoes especially the small ones. Some sunflowers!

[Royiah]

Don't know if this counts but while I was digging up the grass so that I could start my new raised bed in my garden I came across wild onions and on closer inspection I found that my yard is covered in them!
Now I know why my dogs are always digging stuff up and eating things. Their after the onions! Always thought they were after grubs and different bugs.

[cynthia_h]

Don't know if this counts but while I was digging up the grass so that I could start my new raised bed in my garden I came across wild onions and on closer inspection I found that my yard is covered in them!
Now I know why my dogs are always digging stuff up and eating things. Their after the onions! Always thought they were after grubs and different bugs.

Onions, including wild onions, are toxic to dogs. They can cause Heinz body anemia, where the blood becomes too thick to circulate through the blood vessels. It can be fatal.

Pull those onions up, including their roots. I had wild onions, but since I have very little "yard" (= dirt) space, it took only two seasons of dedicated effort: one to pull up everything I could find via identification from leaves and, later, the white flowers; the second season to pull whatever I had missed the first time.

My dogs like to run outside and eat grass. Fresh winter grass is evidently quite yummy; they'll stand there as if it were a salad bar and just chow down for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, eating only the tips. I laugh and call them my "Bernese Mountain Sheep," but Vergil was the most impetuous of any of my doggies in this "salad bar" habit. He would just start grabbing away at anything! Vergil was why the onions had to go STAT / ASAP.

Background info on toxicity of onions in domesticated animals:

American SPCA
veterinarymedicine.dvm360.com
First-person experience by a now-vet, then-vet student re. her own dog
vetmedicine.about.com

Cats are even more at risk from onions than dogs are: it takes a smaller dose, on a grams/pound basis, to poison a cat. "But cats don't like onions," the experienced cat owner will respond.

Ah, but has the cat owner ever fed his/her cat human baby food when all else fails? Check the label of that baby food...it may contain onion powder or garlic powder.... Make sure it's onion- and garlic-free. BTW, onions and garlic are related to lilies (members of the Liliaceae family), all parts of which are toxic to dogs, cats, and other animals, so play it safe and keep lilies out of the reach of any dogs or cats under your control as well.

Since it's been raining in Louisiana, those onions may come out of the ground fairly easily for the next while. Bonne chance!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[imafan26]

I actually have fed my cats baby food. chicken and beef. The vet recommended it. He said cats would eat it only when they are sick. Cats like grass and mint but usually don't chew on plants. Watch out for the chocolate with the dogs.

I also have grass as a weed invading my perennial and vegetable garden.

[sepeters]

Wow! You guys have some really exciting stuff coming up! I would be sooo happy if my tomatoes self seeded, but I suppose I'd have to stop gobbling them all up for that to happen. I took the bulbs out of the shed and discovered the tulips, garlic, and shallots were growing in there in the dark, so they're all potted up or in the ground now!
There are still new tiny things emerging from the soil that are unidentified