Let's hear it for the volunteers!

This patch of entirely volunteer tomatoes has been one of the most fascinating things in my garden this season. This bed in front of the house was empty this spring after we pulled out some overgrown boxwood hedges with issues last fall that had grown far too close to the house, which we plan on painting.

I filled in low spots with my homemade compost, which obviously does not get hot enough to kill seeds, because a bunch of cherry tomatoes sprouted. Out of curiosity, I let them grow and am now enjoying regular, sungold, black and yellow pear cherry tomatoes. 

volunteer cherry tomatoes with direct-sowed poppies

While the deer have definitely chomped these plants, especially early in the season, they haven't bothered them as much as the purchased plants I'm growing in Earthbox containers in the back yard. The volunteers are also producing larger fruit for the most part and are producing well now, while the purchased planted are shriveling up. 

I'm not entirely sure why that is. The seeds are certainly different. The volunteers might get more a little more sun. But I also water them much less, at least directly, although I water the zinnias planted around them and maybe that's enough. There is also clay soil in the front beds, which is likely beneficial this year since we've been in a moderate drought since June.

tonight's volunteer harvest

In fact, without these volunteer plants, my tomato harvest this year would have been quite the disappointment. But with them, I have all I can eat for salads and snacking. Now I have a conundrum, because although a tomato patch in front of the house isn't quite the look I was going for, they have produced so well that I'm tempted to grow more here next year. 

Have you had volunteer vegetables produce better than purposefully planted ones? And is a tomato patch in the front of the house tacky or tasty? I'm also considering incorporating more food into my landscaping and would love to see any pics of that in practice!

Bloom Day: August

 

Dawn Creek pastels Zinnia from Floret

Unfortunately last month's moderate drought has continued and my central Ohio zone 6b garden is looking rather crispy and the deer pressure continues to be high. But I still have some blooms, primarily the late summer stars like dahlias and zinnias.

Dawn Creek pastels Zinnia from Floret

Queen Lime Red Zinnia

Otto's Thrill dahlia 

This is the first year the deer have eaten my dahlias. They've been especially hard on the single dahlias, but seeing this Otto's Thrill dahlia finally bloom this week cheered me up.

A Floret Shooting Stars dahlia

This is my first Floret Shooting Stars dahlia grown from seed to bloom. It's also the only one to bloom so far thanks in large part to the insatiable deer. It's cute, but not quite a stunner like some I've seen.

I also grew some Cleome from seed and I absolutely love them. These ones planted in the ground are larger and more robust than the ones I grew in a pot, but they also get more sun.

Agastache Blue Fortune

The deer, and possibly other critters have been especially hard on my plants in the back, particularly the natives like rudbeckia, monarda, Great Blue lobelia and agastache. I'm not the biggest fan of yellow flowers in my garden, but I make an exception for rudbeckia. It's so cheerful and I hope to expand this patch much more next year.

That's it for my belated Garden Blogger's Bloom Day post this month, but you can visit May Dreams Gardens to see what is blooming in other gardens around the globe.