You are not alone. There is a "magic" to volunteers that prevents me from pulling them out. You know they are very hardy because they planted themselves.

I vowed to be ruthless this year, but I know once the babies start popping out of the soil, I will reneg. I even hesitate to mulch heavily in the spring for fear of losing some of this magic. Several will be moved to better locations, but, like you, I will have some unusual plant placements.

Happy Gardening!

I haven't had the heart to pull the milkweed out of the flower gardens. I like that the monarch butterflies likes it so I let it be. Since I let it be it's allowed me and my grand kids several very nice chances to watch butterflies emerge.

Cleome reseeds madly in my largest bed (where I'd really like to get a perfect balance of color/textures/shorts and talls..) and yet I have a hard time pulling volunteers out early as I ALWAYS say I will. But this is the year! I just have too much plant material I want to get in there..they are going to have to be better sharers!

I have mowed around Queen Anne's Lace, Poppies, Bachelor Buttons, Lamb's Ears and Black Eyed Susans and all kinds of little random wild flowers. I just can't seem to mow over a flower! I keep thinking someday I will have a real "lawn" with actual grass but it will probably never happen.

I love to poke around in the gardens in the Spring and see what seedlings are coming up, and there are usually lots of reseeders. Some plants make a few seedlings, some literally make hundreds. Agastache, Cleome, Catnip, Pokeberry, Rudbeckia, the Black Cherry tree, etc. make so many seedlings I have to weed most of them out. Cleome grows bigger and fuller if you give it some space anyway (and pinch). Some plants reseed moderately and make nice fillers like Dill, Cilantro, and Verbena bonariensis. The California poppies and Alyssum self-sow thickly but then end up filling in nicely along the garden edges.

I have to remove a lot of Pokeberry from the neighbor's ginormous Pokeberry hedge makes hundreds of seedlings and they seem to grow huge in one season. I am merciless about eradicating the non-native invasive plants that are growing in the yard like Norway maple, Oriental bittersweet, and Buckthorn, etc. If your Bittersweet is the Oriental type, that is one you should definitely pull. It is a horrible invasive in the northeast, and the vines are so aggressive they can strangle and topple large trees, which has actually killed people in their cars on the Saw Mill Parkway in NY.

Here is a link that might be useful: After Tree Kills Couple, A Search For Answers

While I've never seen any Chinese bittersweet growing around here I've read about the extreme damage it can do. In this region, native American bittersweet (celastrus scandens) is found primarily in wooded areas, where it spreads a lot less than might be imagined. Plant it out in the open (as in a sunny yard) where the birdies can get at it, though, and all bets are off.

Whenever I need to collect new starts, I go to the same place as my mother did more than 40 years ago. I've always loved that stuff.

I've decided to embrace the privet growing uncontrolled here rather than hate it. There is no way I could ever eliminate it, so I may as well put it to good use. I'm pulling up saplings to plant along the edge of the gully that forms the East border of the property. It's a wooded area and there is privet already growing all through the area. Plus, it will be a great place for the birds to feed in the winter.

verbena (way to invasive) bonariensis - tests me every spring. I pull it everywhere and then one morning I wake up and it has found somewhere to flower. and it looks "right" so I leave it - I know that the butterflies will cover it all summer long so it is not that bad - but by fall I remind myself it will be everywhere (once again)in the spring