Sunday, June 14, 2009

volunteers

While I was weeding one of my garlic beds yesterday, I noticed some "weeds" I was not familiar with. They had finely divided leaves, and were fairly abundant among the garlic plants. Curious, I rubbed one and smelled it, as scent can often give a clue in plant identification. This plant had a pungent aroma of...dill!

I do recall having a dill plant or two in that bed last year, and not having any use for it since my pickling cucumbers did not fare well. I will keep all of these plants among the garlic; they won't hurt the garlic, which is growing very well, and when I harvest garlic, in a month or so, I can let the dill take over and not have to worry about having enough when it's time to make pickles.

Some of my best gardening is done when I'm not really trying. But I am putting in a good effort this weekend, and I hope to have a lot of beds planted this evening.

4 comments:

Ed Bruske said...

dill can be difficult to grow, but once established it pops up everywhere. We love our volunteer dill.

R.Powers said...

Yes! Dill pickles rule!

RuthieJ said...

isn't it fun to have garden surprises like that? I found some "surprise" strawberries growing in mine this spring too.

Erica said...

I've had a hard time starting dill (which everyone told me is SO easy to grow *rolls eyes* lol). Glad to see you had some volunteer plants, those are the best haha!