Garden Surprises!

Have you ever gone out to your garden and found something you totally didn't expect? Today I was tending my kitchen compost bin after I had neglected turning it for far too long, and I took a good look at the plants growing "next to" to the bin. Much to my surprise and delight, I discovered some tomato plants growing out of the airvents of my bin! One is a Brandywine, and the two others I'm not sure of but my guess is that they are probably a plum type of tomato. The compost area is a tad shaded so I don't know if I'll ever see any tomatoes from these plants, but they sure are happy and healthy looking. No signs of early blight on these guys, unlike a few of the plants in my tomato patch. I guess it just goes to show the power of compost!

Btw, I did a search and couldn't find a similar topic, so I thought I'd start one. If it's been done already, please let me know!

I think this is a nice idea for a thread. I had some volunteer tomato plants last year. I had grown some 'Big Boys' in pots the year before and I guess one had fallen off and it seeded itself. The funny thing is, it was sitting on a bed of river rock over the top of landscape fabric. Not only did they take hold, I actually had some fruit. Not huge, but enough for a couple of tasty salads. In the same rock with no soil, I have lots of violas that have been seeding themselves for a couple of years from a pot that I got for a mother's day gift one year. now the original yellow flowers are reverting to the bi-color purple & yellow on some of the plants. i just love them. I'm sure if I tried to grow anything in there it would die. of course, weeds do nicely, too.

gram

ps no pics, I'm at work

I have to go get some pics but this year I got a wild white Lychnis that's bloomed all summer, and another small white daisy with foliage like a cosmos - but only about 8" tall.
Also Sensitive Fern has moved into many of my beds and is growing like crazy. I have to find out what conditions it likes because I find that very confusing. Oh - also editing to add a wild Sumac tree, and a beautiful double white iris that showed up in the woods of all things.

I've been wanting a stand of Sumac along a bluff assuming they can take the tough conditions - I know they are a trash tree to a lot of people but we have so many migrating birds that come thru I wanted it for the early spring leftover seeds for them.

This message was edited Jul 27, 2006 8:18 AM

The willdflowers that I found on and around my property were my best surprise. Bloodroot (my favorite) wild sweet william, trout lily, dutchmen's britches, jack in the pulpit. I moved here from 3 miles away and never had any of these at my old house.