Tennessee Volunteers

OK, so we definitely like those orange folks from Knoxville, but that is not the kind of volunteer I'm talking about.  Each fall I pile up all the old brush and garden leftovers into a pile that composts down.  In the early spring I till it into the dirt to help enrich the soil.  This is a beneficial procedure because it adds valuable nutrients to the soil, while at the same time taking care of all the yard waste from the fall....win-win.  One side effect is that sometimes some of the seeds in the pile survive and I end up with un-anticipated plants in the garden.  I used to pull them all out (Chip you remember helping me pull hundreds of squash saplings that one year?)  But lately I've gotten in the habit of letting a couple of them go just to see what they are.  

This year, we've got three....one is a squash (and they usually are) that appears to be a spaghetti squash.  Its vine and first massive fruit is in the picture below.

The second one is actually a basil plant! You can see it below sitting to the bottom left of the calendula.

 Finally there is this tomato plant that popped up in the back of the "rock bed" that contains most of the flowers.