I've had a few strange volunteer plants this fall. I'm used to lots of weeds but this is ridiculous. Amongst the weed infested backyard remarkably 2 tomato plants have started growing. We've not had a garden and the neighbors don't have any tomato plants to speak of so mysteriously there are these vegetable plants growing in September, in my back yard. In my lawn no less (weedy as it is). Not that I'm complaining or anything, I'm just surprised. They even are growing fruit this late in the season, though I don't think they'll make it to maturity. There is a possibility that the soil that was brought in contained some tomato seeds. If that was the case I wonder why we didn't get any other tomato volunteers all over the back yard.
Probably my most delightful volunteer is the corkscrew willow that volunteered to come up amongst the weeds. It's so strange, willows propagate through limb droppings. The branches fall and the woody limb starts roots and grows up a new tree. There isn't a willow tree in my neighborhood, not anywhere close enough for the wind to be a player in this mystery. The filters our irrigation go through may be congested enough to malfunction and allow weed seeds through but twigs from a tree I highly doubt. An interesting scenario would be that a bird was taking it home for a nest and dropped it in my back yard. That'd make a neat children's book wouldn't it. Quite a journey for the little twig. Now the only problem is where do I move it?
I've had a few strange volunteer plants this fall. I'm used to lots of weeds but this is ridiculous. Amongst the weed infested backyard remarkably 2 tomato plants have started growing. We've not had a garden and the neighbors don't have any tomato plants to speak of so mysteriously there are these vegetable plants growing in September, in my back yard. In my lawn no less (weedy as it is). Not that I'm complaining or anything, I'm just surprised. They even are growing fruit this late in the season, though I don't think they'll make it to maturity. There is a possibility that the soil that was brought in contained some tomato seeds. If that was the case I wonder why we didn't get any other tomato volunteers all over the back yard.
Probably my most delightful volunteer is the corkscrew willow that volunteered to come up amongst the weeds. It's so strange, willows propagate through limb droppings. The branches fall and the woody limb starts roots and grows up a new tree. There isn't a willow tree in my neighborhood, not anywhere close enough for the wind to be a player in this mystery. The filters our irrigation go through may be congested enough to malfunction and allow weed seeds through but twigs from a tree I highly doubt. An interesting scenario would be that a bird was taking it home for a nest and dropped it in my back yard. That'd make a neat children's book wouldn't it. Quite a journey for the little twig. Now the only problem is where do I move it?
