Due to the recent addition to our family--and all the time and attention he requires--I have let some parts of my garden languish. The larger lower raised bed, where I usually plant most of my vegetables, lay fallow last summer and continues to sit untended this winter. My neglect, combined with an unusually rainy November and December, has led to some interesting developments. Specifically, quite a few volunteer plants.
Pictured above are several volunteer fava beans, sprouted from seeds that fell from unpicked pods, and a couple of fennel plants that are growing new bulbs from the roots left behind after last year's hasty harvest. There are also a few peas growing in another part of the bed.
As you may have guessed from looking at the photos, I haven't watered, weeded or planted in this garden since last April. I have thrown in some dirty straw from the chicken coop from time to time, but that's the extent of my attention to this particular garden. Despite that, I think I may actually get a few peas this year, and it seems likely some favas will be harvested as well.
I've decided to keep neglecting this bed until this Spring, just to see what happens. Perhaps I have stumbled on a new kind of low-impact gardening for myself. Plant every two years and then ignore. Although, I have a feeling that if it weren't for this year's unusual rainstorms, many of these volunteers would not have appeared.
How warm is it there!? I can't believe you're having anything sprouting right now. We just had snow two days ago, and I'm in the pacific northwest...
It's actually supposed to be 80 today! But a more typical winter temp is low-to-mid 60s during the day and 40s at night. That's why so much produce is grown in Southern CA. We have year-round gardening. The only downside is that the phrase "plant after the chance of frost is over" means nothing to me.