And I actually mean plants not people. This year I've had an unusually high number of volunteer plants. I've been embracing most of the non-weed ones. To me it only makes sense to let these volunteer veggies and herbs have a chance. If they are able to seed and grow with little attention from me then the must have some sort of resilience that the pampered grown in a nursery plant sometimes lack.

My couple of exceptions to letting them live include:

1. Super invasive plants like mint
2. Volunteers that may take away from the existing plant (ie, tomatoes are heavy feeders and may steal nutrients the other plant could use)
3. An attempt to keep the area they choose "neat" and uncluttered

There may be more but thats all I could think of for now.

After a little bit of googling, I discovered people are really divided on letting them live. Some people love volunteer plants:

"I love to discover volunteers sprouting in the garden because it’s like a surprise gift of healthy plants"

while others would prefer that they weren't so prolific.

Here are a few of mine:

Maybe this is a volunteer watermelon? Anyone have any ideas? Aaron says the plant is not "viney" enough to be a watermelon.

The leaves look like they might have a little bit of powdery mildew , so I'm looking forward to giving Claire's recipe for this a try.

This is a volunteer tomato plant growing near the mailbox garden. Cherry tomatoes possibly?

More tomatoes growing at the base of our front steps. I have no idea how these are growing there. The ground is as hard as a rock and they are growing up through a crack.

These are the volunteer tomatoes that are next to my bleeding heart. And right next to my Solomon's Seal. I've been really conflicted about keeping this tomato plant. I feel like it might be too much for the Solomon's seal but it looks so healthy I can't bring myself to get rid of it.

I also have another plant - not picture here - that looks like some sort of squash plant. Although its flowered and flowered but shown no signs of fruit. I'm eager to know what it is.

We've also had a variety of smaller volunteers scattered through the yard including: tansy, yarrow, poppies and an herb Aaron grew last year that I have yet to ID.

I am interested to hear who else here likes to hang on to their volunteers and if you've had good luck with them.