Audrey a.k.a. the feral tomato plant

I have had some fun in the garden this year watching the progress of the "volunteer" tomato plants.

This one was somewhat of a late starter. But it has certainly made up for lost time. This is only one plant and it is rooted in the garden bed below the deck in an area that loses the sun by mid afternoon.

From the lawn side this is what you see:

 I had to scurry outside this morning when the lawn mowers arrived earlier than I had expected. As you can see the plant keeps over flowing it's boundary and spilling onto the lawn. It was a very quick tidy up to lift the sprawl from the grass and tuck it back in behind the low fence. Undoubtedly it will be back out on the grass in a couple more days.

 Now on the deck it is beginning to take over. Stretching from left to right as well as the interweave among the flowers in the pots, it is 18' or more from left tip to right tip. Because it is sprawled on the ground I had not been trying to pick anything and to begin with the slugs were getting there faster than I was. But now there lots and lots of fruit trusses and many of them are clean and dry and above the dirt level so I have begun to be able to pick some. They turn out to be a large  red cherry tomato. Which is good since most all  the other volunteers are yellow and orange varieties.

And to prove the contrariness of nature; on the same day I was photographing the summer tomato plant which still is producing blossoms I find that the autumn clematis has burst into bloom. Earlier in the season I had to relocate it as it was getting too much shade in the original location. Not satisfied with where I moved it to it has reached out and scrambled over the holly tree on the left and the ornamental plum on the right. It is that latter tree that was providing too much shade for the clematis to bloom in the past couple of years.

There is enjoyment to be had from waiting to see what nature will do despite the best efforts of the gardener.