Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Volunteers in the Garden

Our little backyard has no grass. What it has is a weed barrier with mulch on top. We do this for two reasons.

  1. It's a trip from the garage in the front to the backyard with a lawnmower because we have to go around the next townhouse and then go through the gate into our backyard.

  2. The ground/soil here is awful, and the grass that grew, or didn't grow as the case may be, was pretty doggone pathetic.
Although mulched, it's not exactly barren; we do keep five flower pots back there. There is also a tree, a lilac bush, a big joe pye plant, plus two little flowerbeds at the back by the fence. One of the flowerbeds has a big Hosta and a little inuksuk. The other has a penstemon and daylilies.

The main mulched part actually looks pretty good, or at least it did in previous years. It's clean look, at least, and dad's forget-me-nots still, somewhat miraculously, sprout in the mulch in spring.

That's in most years, but it's different this year, for volunteer petunias are running rampant. Sue took this photo from the bedroom window. I have labelled the potted petunias. The rest are volunteers growing in the soil-less mulch.


While I have seen the occasional volunteer petunia before, I find this mass to be quite astounding,  In the photo, the flowers above the potted plant extend quite a way toward and even under the deck, blocked from in the photo by the deck and potted plant.

Keep in mind that petunias are annuals here, but somehow, seeds have lived through the winter and flowered in the mulch – mulch, not soil.

Here is another, wider view, with the two pots circled; the rest are volunteers.


I am not sure if I like this helter-skelter look. I think I prefer the clean look of the bare mulch, but I do find the resilience of the flowers to be mighty impressive. They say that life finds a way, and so it has in our backyard.

15 comments:

Marie Smith said...

Determination pays off! Wildflower petunias. Perfect!

Barbara Rogers said...

Those are hardy petunias definitely! They must have decided they could grow and send roots somehow through mulch, or just found the mulch had whatever they needed to live! Amazing.

Patio Postcards said...

Very pretty & yes nature will have her way. I wonder if the mulch heats up as the wood decays & keeps the seeds safe all winter.

William Kendall said...

Quite pretty!

Ed said...

I wish my yard was small enough to mulch like that.

Margaret said...

I love the look and miss the petunias that I normally plant. I've never had volunteers like that! It's amazing. I won't ever plant pansies again though. They go everywhere!

Mage said...

I like that the flowers have bloomed. Can you put a door to the backyard in somewhere?

MARY G said...

Gosh! I think the amount of rain - and watering if you do - must have been just right. The flowers are all good this year - goldenrod rampant in the wild just now and the marsh mallows are much better than usual along county 8.

Red said...

That's pretty good for not much effort.

The Furry Gnome said...

Plants are amazingly resilient, and spread easily sometimes. At least they're pretty.

DJan said...

They are really pretty. I wouldn't mind such volunteers in my garden. Our petunias do sometimes make it to the following year, but it's rare and not anywhere as pretty as yours. :-)

Debby said...

The first thing that I thought was that petunias were annuals. You confirmed that. I love volunteer plants. Helter Skelter doesn't bother me, unless it's scrawled on a wall. *shiver*

Rita said...

I like the wild ones living the unfettered life--LOL! ;)

Joanne Noragon said...

My money is on the volunteers!

Jenn Jilks said...

That's quite unique! Very good to see.