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Hello Johnny

May 23rd, 2013

As I’ve been working in the potager behind the house, I’ve been finding Johnny Jump Ups everywhere.  I started digging them and using them edge the beds in the potager, figuring them bring some much needed color.  Not only that, they’re edible beauties, I can pick the blossoms and add them to salads.
johnny jump ups 1 (1)
Lucky me, I ended up with enough of these beauties to line the inside and outside of the main circle in my potager.  I can’t wait for them to fill in and start blooming more profusely.
johnny jump ups 1
johnny jump ups 2
I love flowers that self sow readily, at least for the most part.  Things like nicotiana, forget-me-nots and  anise hyssop.  I don’t know if I have found any self sowing flowers that I don’t like yet.

Do you have any flowers self-sow in the garden?  Do you love them or hate them?  

12 Comments to “Hello Johnny”
  1. Marina C on May 23, 2013 at 5:43 am

    I too love Johnny Jump Ups in the potager. As you said, they liven up salads, they are the perfect accent for a lemon curd tartlet or a ny dainty fruit tart. I also have a few tiny French marigolds, also lovely in salads.
    I do try and deadhead them most of the season, as I learnt from not doing it, I would have thousands of seedlings, a carpet in fact, next spring if I did not.
    I have a question for you: do you have a favorite (long handled) hoe? I have been doing all my weeding with a short Japanee style hoe, but I need something I can use standing tall to give my back a break.
    Thanks

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  2. Sue A. Nugent on May 23, 2013 at 6:00 am

    I dug a nice pink flower some 35 years ago, from the side of the road, and they have taken over my yard and everyone’s whom I have shared flowers with. It is some form of Primrose. Nice flower, but spreads unreal.I must pull or mow many of them

    Reply to Sue A. Nugent's comment

  3. Adelina Anderson on May 23, 2013 at 6:14 am

    This year we ended up with lots of them carpeting our driveway. I was going to pull off some of the flowers to sugar for a cake decoration, but the porcupine got to them before I could. Little devil. You have to be quick around here.

    Reply to Adelina Anderson's comment

  4. Canned Quilter on May 23, 2013 at 7:08 am

    Love Johnny Jump Ups as well and they have self seeded all along the beds bordering my sidewalk. Been there for years now and continue to seed.

    Reply to Canned Quilter's comment

  5. Crinia on May 23, 2013 at 7:24 am

    We have that flower here, we call it heart’s ease, makes a pretty decoration on a cake. Our most common flower to pop up by its self is Lambs Ear – Stachys byzantia.
    Crinia – (Krin- ee- ah)

    Reply to Crinia's comment

    • Susy on May 23, 2013 at 7:47 am

      Thanks for the pronunciation :)

      Reply to Susy's comment

  6. Emily on May 23, 2013 at 7:42 am

    I usually enjoy the violets that pop up everywhere but this year I did a hard pull of them in the flower gardens because they’d become a constant undergrowth intertwined with gout weed that needed to go. I’m sure they’ll return in some extent.

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  7. Joan on May 23, 2013 at 8:13 am

    I love Johnny jump-ups and I love violets. I don’t have johnny’s in my garden but do have violets, and I don’t want them in the garden. I plant my crops very closely, and the violet roots take up a lot of space that I want my veggies to have. I let the violets in my lawn grow, and snip off a few flowers now and then to add to salads. Yum, and so pretty : )

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  8. whit on May 23, 2013 at 9:43 am

    That border is going to be amazing! Volunteer Johnny Jump Ups are a good problem to have, but there is an annoying problem I have that is associated with them…after I see them, the Irish folk song about a liquer called Johnny Jump Up pops in my noggin and I can’t stop singing it. :)

    At this former nursery we bought, what hasn’t self seeded? There’s yarrow everywhere, chives, poppies, sweet cicely, columbine, alpine strawberries, geraniums, lupines… out of all of them goldenseal will be my nemesis. It’s everywhere…like cochroaches in the south. :)

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  9. Becky on May 23, 2013 at 9:56 am

    Beautiful photos! I’m a newbie gardener, so I don’t have anything planted that self-seeds yet but I’d love to.

    Reply to Becky's comment

  10. Sam on May 23, 2013 at 10:01 am

    Your potager looks like it’s really shaping up! The Johnny Jump-ups are charming, and the lettuce looks so pretty with the water droplets on it!

    Reply to Sam's comment

  11. KimH on May 23, 2013 at 5:45 pm

    love them!! Dont have any flowers here that self sew except Bindweed which I dont love, but I used to have all sorts of things that self sow in other places.
    I do have a full bed of self sowed chard.. Thats pretty yummy! :) I’ll take it!
    Your Johnny’s are gorgeous!

    Reply to KimH's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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