Volunteerism

My morning routine includes a pot of coffee, the New York Times and an inspection of the garden.

This time of year, I’m looking to see if radishes are ready to harvest, lettuce ready to cut and if the strawberries are ripe. And of course, I look for stray weeds. I want to catch them when they are still small and easy to pluck out of the ground. Obviously, I appreciate the aesthetic of having a weed-free garden. More importantly, given how hot and dry it’s been lately, I don’t want any intruder depriving my fledgling tomato and cucumber plants from their much needed water and nutrients.

Looking at the thicket of mint, I noticed a few leaves did not belong. As I reached down to pluck them out of the ground, I realized it was, in fact, a tomato plant. An errant seed from one of last summer's tomatoes must have landed in the mint patch. A volunteer.

Who knows what will come up, but for sure it will be a hardy plant. Perhaps it will be a yellow cherry tomato…. I recall several tomatoes split from the combination of rain and heat. I few of those dropped on the ground. Did I not bother to clean them up? I thought I was pretty vigilant with the rampant blight. Or perhaps it’s a Roma tomato. I remember sharing a ripe tomato with one of my favorite four-year-olds. The plum tomato, dry and ideal for stews and sauces, was too mushy for his taste and he spit it out.

Though I’ve been better about labeling plants this year, I’ll mark this one with a big question mark.