Surprise Tomato Crop

[Reds Fan 5]

We discovered about ten tomato plants we didn’t plant growing in a corner of our yard. The only thing we’ve done is stake them. They are producing a nice surprise crop of these yellow cherry tomatoes.

I guarantee we would not have produced a tomato crop like this if we had actually tried 😀.

[jfmorris]

Sounds like an animal or something ate (or pooped) in the corner of your yard, spreading the seeds.

I've been finding peach pits scattered around my backyard all summer, that are gnawed on by some animal. I have a 6 to 8 foot privacy fence all around, so its a climbing critter of some sort like a squirrel that is bringing them from someone else's yard to mine and eating them. I'm not holding out for a peach tree to sprout out there though! And for the life of me, I've never noticed a peach tree across the top of a fence in any direction...

[Reds Fan 5]

We have a privacy fence, too. There are some gaps at the bottom in places, though. We are guessing squirrels or birds dropped the seeds.

[jfmorris]

Interestingly, if this had happened in my yard, my wife would have pulled them up as weeds! She is horrible at doing that to anything that looks out of place.

One year I planted hop rhizomes down both sides of the back yard, to grow up and along the privacy fence. I kept checking, and thought it never came up. Later I found out she "weeded" it out of the yard for me! Thankfully I did not buy the hops, and was given them. Still frustrating.

Last year a friend of my wife's gave us a bunch of bulbs for a flowering lily of some sort, that blooms in May/June each year. I planted them in all the beds in the front and back yard. NOTHING came up this spring except for one lonely plant in the front this year, and some of the ones I put around the backyard, as apparently SWMBO thought they were weeds, and pulled them up when weeding this spring before we mulched the beds... She may have also sprayed them with Roundup that I keep in the garage. Who knows...

[Reds Fan 5]

I came close to pulling them because I thought they were weeds. Our 16 year old mows the lawn so I don’t see the back corners as often as I should. Walked back there one day and about lost it that we had knee high weeds growing and he didn’t tell me. I pulled one and notice a small tomato. It’s been fun. Nice additions to my salads and omelettes.

[synodog]

Growing up we had a watermelon vine grow up next to our patio with a leaky spigot and shade since the patio was north facing. I took credit for it because I didn’t take the trash to the dumpster after mother had set it out for me. The wind knocked the bag over with watermelon seeds and the next time I took the trash out I noticed this "giant weed."

Same thing happened with pumpkin seeds after Halloween at our (wife and I) first house in the bare flower garden.

[Reds Fan 5]

We have a volunteer pumpkin vine, too. It has produced one green striped decorative pumpkin so far.

[Sid P]

You were lucky twice over, as several people around here lost their tomato crop to rabbits. Maybe your accidental plot was small enough that the varmints didn’t notice it…

[Reds Fan 5]

We have tons a rabbits. Our golden retriever likes to blow up the nests. He’s killed several babies. My wife freaks out and gets mad at the dog. I congratulate him for doing his job.

[Sid P]

Reds Fan 5 Tell him "Good boy!" for me.

[captainlee]

That is cool. Our tomato crops in the greenhouses didn't do that well this year and we weren't alone. Growing at this altitude has its challenges. I'm jealous of your crop, glad you got some.

[Reds Fan 5]

Sorry to hear about your tomatoes this year. My dad lives in central Indiana and usually has bumper crops. Virtually none this year off the same number of plants.

[captainlee]

I've heard that from many people this year, don't know what is going on. I know it got really hot here in June and they don't like that.