Self-Seeding Veggie Plants Can Provide a Free Crop Next Year

By Mary Williams Engisch and Charlie Nardozzi

When certain plants are left to grow and to go to seed, those seeds can drop, germinate and grow and provide you with a free crop next spring.

This method works well with lots of garden plants, especially lettuces, arugula, mustard greens and even some herbs like fennel and dill.

You've probably seen lettuce plants that have "bolted" or gone to seed in your garden. At the end of the season, the lettuce plant sends up a tall stalk in the center of the plant that then flowers. From there, the flower can drop seed onto the soil where it will germinate and grow the next year. The seeds may drop onto the same soil as the mother plant or in other nearby areas.

Instead of a free-for-all, wind-driven planting party, you can be more intentional with those free seeds! If you have an area you want to use the free seeds in, just cut the bolted stalk of your veggie plant once it starts setting seed. Move it to the area you want the plants to grow and shake the plant to loosen and distribute the seeds onto the soil. That's it! No need to fertilize or water.

The seed will then sit on the soil all winter long. Then in spring when the conditions are just right — the right moisture and warmth — the seeds will germinate. You can also wait till they begin to sprout to dig them up and move them to another location, too.

This method even works with kale, which is a biannual. If you have kale plants in your garden, let them form a flower. In the spring, it will drop seeds, and then by mid-summer, you'll have baby kale plants that you can move around and have a nice fall crop.

Allowing your plants to bolt and provide free seeds is a money-saver. And seeing them germinate and grow next spring by nature's clock and not a calendar also gives you an indication of when to plant your other lettuces and cool season greens.

A question on how to shape up straggly boxwood hedges

A: Wait till the spring! Cutting boxwood hedges now in the fall will stimulate new growth, which you don't want to do as we head into winter. In spring, cut them back significantly and they'll regrow really well over the next couple of seasons.

A question about scabby homegrown potatoes and how to eat and store them

A: If you do have scabs on your potatoes, you can still eat them! Just cut away or peel the scabs off, and the potatoes will be fine to eat. You can still store the potatoes as well. Check them throughout the winter to make sure they aren't beginning to rot in storage.