I always enjoy seeing what plants just manage to come up on their own. Every year I have a few that somehow manage to self sow and most of them turn out to be stronger and more prolific than the plants I spend my hard-earned money on. The other day I noticed several had popped up.
It never surprises me to see the sunflowers come up on their own. Those crazy little birds scatter more seed than they eat, I do believe.
The cilantro has already flowered and gone to seed. I always make sure to save the seeds for future plantings (anyone need some cilantro seeds?).
Ahh….but this is what I’m most excited about. I noticed a couple of decent sized tomato plants coming up…I just hope one of them is a grape tomato plant. I had one come up on its own last year and it ended up growing to over six feet in height and was simply loaded with tons of sweet little tomatoes…yum!!
One of the fun things about the volunteer tomato plants is that you don’t really know what you have until closer to harvest time, but I like surprises…most of the time…don’t you?
Related articles
- The Eighth Tomato (saragal.wordpress.com)
- On Volunteerism in the Vegetable Garden (openviewgardens.com)
Filed under: cooking, food, frugality, gardening, life | Tagged: Garden, Home, Plant, Seed, Shopping, Tomato, Tomatoes, vegetable |
Run4joy59's Blog 
How wonderful. I wold love to trade some seeds for that cilantro.
Happy Gardening,
-Kristina K.
Urban Farm Wife
seriously, if you want a few seeds, let me know…goodness knows, I have plenty
I love volunteers! Since I just bought a new-old house, the garden is wild and I have no idea what’s growing. Except a lot of mint. I can’t tell if my latest volunteer discovery is a sweet pea or a sugar pea, but it needs a little trellis.
I would love the opportunity to inherit an old garden…how fun to have the chance to explore and see what someone else planted before you!
How exciting. I’m not a big fan of cilantro, but I have heirloom tomato seeds saved from last year. Since all my seedlings were hit with a late frost, this winter I might attempt growing a few inside. I’m really enjoying reading about your garden. All I have left is 1 cabbage and 1 frail Big Boy with 3 tiny blossoms.
I hate to hear that all your seedlings died…I hate those late frosts…definitely give indoor gardening a shot…I intend to do more of it myself…
I never knew about “volunteers” until I decided to develop a butterfly garden. Some are nice surprises.
It is a lot of fun to watch your little surprises grow…sometimes you win, sometimes not so much, but it’s never boring
I am jealous of the cilantro. I’m in Alabama, and it doesn’t tolerate our summer heat!
My cilantro has just about had it here in the Indiana early summer…you’re right, it definitely doesn’t like the heat…funny that, since I’m always adding it to my hottest salsa!!