Last year, GrandBoy and I bought 1 pumpkin plant as we were walking through Poor Boys. It produced 2 smallish pumpkins, one of which rotted on the vine. I pulled up the vines and turned the pumpkin mess over with the soil last fall. As of this morning, we have half a dozen volunteer vines in that little garden with grape-sized pumpkins.

In another bed, the seeds of cucumber parts that were tossed on the compost pile seem to have survived the winter experience and vines are growing vigorously where no cucumbers have grown before. (I recognize the leaves.)

Boy and I have discussed the need to be disciplined in our approach to these intruders, and we seem to be in agreement on the need to pull most of them except that Boy envisions himself as Pumpkin King of his new school and cucumbers are one of the vegetables that he actually eats, so combined with the ever pushy Trumpet Vine and Jasmine (both of which I trim back constantly!) my little yard is being overtaken by vines in an almost Disney-like fashion.

I get volunteer tomatoes all over the place from the seeds in my compost. I didn't think they would actually produce, so I have been pulling them out. But my friend Jerry, who gets the same kinds of volunteers, says he's been eating cherry tomatoes all summer from his volunteers! -- Susan

We get volunteer veggies all the time from our composting. One year we had a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes and those lovely little yellow pear-shaped tomatoes. The next year, hardly any. Go figure. It's a source of pleasure to me to see what nature will come up with next.