Reading gardeninacity’s blog, Could Sleep-Planting Be A Thing?, this morning made me smile and reminded me of a plant that appeared in our right-of-way garden this spring. I took this photo yesterday. That is a cherry tomato plant : ) 
We have no idea how it got there but we have speculated. I like the ideas that Jason from gardeninthecity had for his mystery plants, (if you are curious click link above). He did not suggest bird poop but it was suggested in the comments. That is one of my theories for our cherry tomato plant. This volunteer is great because we are learning things from its arrival in this space. One is that you can grow cherry tomatoes in the shade. The rock is between two tall American sycamore trees and only gets a little bit of morning light. Also it is doing fine in our clay soil. The bed is mounded slightly around the big rock and does get compost or mulch and regular applications of Microlife 6-2-24 and Maxicrop seaweed extract to keep our soil healthy. So that could explain why it is okay in the clay. 
Another theory of how it got there is that one of our crew or one of the guys working on our house last summer was eating cherry tomatoes while sitting on the rock. However it came to be here it is a very happy surprise, especially now that we are actually harvesting tomatoes from it. They are smaller than the ones I see in the store but very tasty. 
We planted fennel in our inside cottage beds and Chili Pequin peppers in our other right-of-way bed but this volunteer is encouraging me to try other edibles in our beds. Just this week we were able to start harvesting some of the tiny tomatoes. 
Today we are having them in our cucumber salad : )
Happy Gardening!
Ravenscourt Gardens 
The seeds could also have been in the compost, if it didn’t get hot enough to cook them. That has happened to me.
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I did not think of that 😊
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Look at that! Wouldn’t it be nice if more weeds offered such tasty treats? Mine just take advantage of me 😉
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Thanks for the link! That does look like a happy plant. Funny you should mention growing cherry tomatoes in the shade because I’m doing a little experiment with that myself. Of course, you’ve got much hotter weather, I wonder if that makes a difference.
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I have one of these surprises in my garden too. It is much more slow growing. I am leaving it wondering if it will get tomatoes before the plants in the veg garden. We will see. I am pretty sure my plant came in with compost. No matter. it will be fun to watch it grow.
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