I had a mysterious volunteer viney plant growing in the garden (bottom left corner), growing among the volunteer potatoes and the garlic I'd planted.
It looked vaguely familiar with its yellow flowers, but I couldn't quite place it. It certainly wasn't a squash (the flowers were far too small), but I was clueless what it might be.
It started growing a fuzzy green something (fruit? vegetable?), so I patiently waited for it to get more mature to reveal its nature.
Aha. Cantaloupe! Product of another compost burial from last year.
Right now there's just one immature melon, but if the number of flowers is anything to go by, we should end up with a nice crop of cantaloupe before the frost hits.
I love volunteers. They're always so much fun.
Garden Volunteers.
ReplyDeleteNow I don’t care what Planet you’re from; Garden Volunteers are a Blessing from the All-Mighty without a doubt.
As a Stickler-Clean-Garden card-carrying member I “Try”, HAHAHA Yeah Right, "Try" to maintain a healthy Garden, including constant maintenance, and a good cleanup after the fact.
With that in mind, I LOVE it when I get those pesky Volunteers that magically appear seemingly throughout and without manner in the Garden.
A lot of them get removed to the Compost-Pile because of location, but many (maybe not so many) get left to surprise and, yes at times, shock me to see what develops.
So this year I have a wonderful tomato plant growing in a corner of the Carrot Bed (all raised beds in my Garden) well this little gem started to sneak through the one-foot high carrot tops unseen for several/many weeks.
To my surprise it decided to make an appearance with a full cluster of blooms just sticking up there so proud, there was NO-WAY I was going to disrupt it’s advancement. Honestly it was a FANTASTIC decision on my part, now I have zero idea what variety or such this little puppy is, but I picked a few of the 1"-1.5” diameter ripe Maters, OMG and I do mean OMG this thing is fantastic, and I mean FANTASTIC.
Going to snip a small section of Vine and a couple of Maters and see it the local horticulturist can name this Tomato for me.
I’m also going to try to do some “Seed Saving”, hopefully it’s not a Hybrid, but will definitely be worth it if I can get more. Also I’m thinking on taking “Slips” and overwintering some plants for next year, YES, they are that good.
SO, to cut this short HAHAHA Yeah Right
Let those volunteers run the gauntlet and see what develops, one never knows what may soon become your “Most Favorite, XYZ” Garden Plant.
PS: this Tomato is not the first time to be blessed with a wonderful Garden Surprise.