Garden Composting Offers Its Own Surprises

My Tiny Garden Paradise

Special Surprise

One could wax eloquent when it comes to all the wonderful benefits of maintaining a compost bin/heap/pile. But a couple years ago, mine gave me a special surprise.

Because all the kitchen scraps go into the heap, invariably seeds are introduced as well. Those seeds will sometimes germinate in the most interesting places. And they will produce!

The Perfect Place

A volunteer cantaloupe plant showed up in my garden in the very spot where all the lettuce and spinach had come out. (Late in the season, both were done producing.) The perfect place.

At first I wasn’t sure what it was, but as it grew the small fruit began to appear. Soon it took over one whole half of the bed.

The melons were so sweet. I wish I’d kept count of how many we picked and ate, but did not.

Yet More Surprises

This year my compost heap produced yet more surprises. Two volunteer tomatoes popped up, one in one flower pot, one in another. Obviously, I use dirt from the compost heap for all my flower containers.

I let the seedlings get fairly good sized, then dug them out of the flowers and replanted in the garden. I already had 4 tomato plants in that bed—one being a cherry tomato that will vine. (Meaning it goes all over the place!) So it’s going to get a little crowded.

I have no idea what kind of tomato these are, but it’ll be fun watching them grow and produce.

For a writer/author, gardening is my perfect stress reliever!

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