A long time ago, I attended Georgia Tech. The primary mascot for the school is Buzz the Yellowjacket. But unlike most schools, Georgia Tech actually has a second mascot. It’s the Ramblin’ Wreck, which is an old Model-A car that you’ll sometimes see during football or basketball games. The term Ramblin’ Wreck originated in the late 19th century and is used to refer to the students and alumni of Georgia Tech. It’s also the first line of the fight song: “I’m a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech and a helluva Engineer.”
Every now and then, I’ll catch myself nostalgically humming the fight song to myself, but this week I was doing it for a different reason. Instead of “Engineer,” I kept singing “Volunteer.” In our backyard, where there were trees before Milton, there is now lots of sun in a large clearing where we haven’t planted anything specific yet. Within the clearing, there is a spot that must have been where we dumped kitchen scraps because a tomato plant just showed up. In gardening lingo, a plant that grows on its own in a random spot is called a “Volunteer.” And like any good gardener, we chose to let this volunteer do its thing. It started small, but over the last few months it has grown to be about 5 feet across! (Not super tall, since we didn’t stake it up.) Just the other day, as we were marveling at its size, we looked down and saw that it was full of hundreds of yellow pear tomatoes. And we did absolutely nothing for it. No water, no fertilizer, nothing. We’re just watching it grow! And now, every time I see it, I sing “a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech and a helluva Volunteer!”
We’ve had volunteer tomatoes before that turned out to be kind of mealy and not very tasty. These, however, are sweet and delicious yellow pear tomatoes. I think there may be more tomatoes on this one ramblin’ volunteer than in our entire bed of tomatoes in our raised bed garden! A good reminder that Mother Nature knows what she is doing.
Hopefully you are getting great harvests from your veggie gardens now. This is why we plant veggies in February/March for harvests here in May just before our full rainy season kicks in. By now, the plants in your garden are probably starting to look a little tired, and that’s normal. Keep watering as needed and finish those harvests before a garden break over the summer.
And since a summer break really is a nice thing, we’re changing our holiday schedule a little this year. For the weekend, we’ll be open normal hours Friday, Saturday, and Sunday but will be closed on Monday the 26th for the Memorial Day holiday. Enjoy the long weekend, and we hope to see you in the garden.
