Garden Mystery Solved

I mentioned in this POST that our garden was a little sketchy this year due to planting it 2 weeks post-partum in the dusk with a 3 year old helper.  At that time it seemed as though I had tons of tomato plants growing throughout the garden.  I weeded out most of these "tomatoes" leaving behind a row of 5-6 plants.

Well, as these plants got bigger it became clear that my tomato plants were actually....

Now, you may like sunflowers and I will agree that they are very pretty.  That being said in a small raised bed they are overwhelming and their large roots choke out other plants (my peas didn't grow at all this year)!

So, this year I specifically did NOT plant a single sunflower.  I didn't even take the sunflower packet out of the bag.  Plus, sunflower seeds are big so I knew I didn't accidentally plant them.

I couldn't figure out how they got in my garden until my neighbor Lauren mentioned that wild grass grows under their bird feeder.  Well, for about a week after building the garden we hung the birdfeeder on a pole that was adjacent to the raised bed.

Mystery solved!

I still managed to harvest some broccoli, lettuce, peppers (1), green beans, and carrots but hope to have a higher seed to produce ratio next year.  For now I'll stick to growing these....