>Welcome to the jungle at the back of my yard! The wood piles belong to the neighbor behind us. The wildness in the foreground is ours.

We planted very little of this. Most was here fourteen years ago when we bought the house. The jungle growth is stubborn, too. We’ve cut back on the ferns – cut them out almost completely, and they still come back. In small quantities, they’re nice.

Some time in the distant past, someone put in an herb garden. The evidence remains: green onions. I call them walking onions (is that correct? help me out, readers!) because they sprout the tiny bulbs on top that eventually weigh down the stalk. Those bulbs find a home on the soil, send out roots, and start all over again in a new location – hence the “walking” moniker.

Sometimes they get rather large before I find them and harvest. They’re very determined plants – survivors in a rather unfriendly place. They’ll reach for the sun, even when surrounded by backyard jungle cover.

Once in a while I’ll realize I need a little onion for cooking and I’ll remember that I’ve neglected the “crop” back in the jungle. Then it’ll be time to dice these lovely greens and store them in jars in the freezer so I can have fresh(like) seasoning all winter long. Leave the expensive scallions in the grocery store’s produce department; we grow our own, albeit accidentally.