I started some seeds earlier than I thought

Although most of my seedlings won't be started for a while, I'll be starting some seeds soon (mid-to-late February) for the plants that take a while to get going, like Cardoon. Little did I know that my garden had other plans.

It decided that I needed to be growing some seedlings now!

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This tomato has been sitting on the counter for a couple of weeks I think. I carefully grabbed it last night to use it in our dinner as I was expecting it to be bruised, or split, or moldy -- something that would render it inedible -- but it was completely fine.

So I sliced into it, and found that several of its seeds had started to sprout!

I've seen this before on tomatoes from my own garden, usually on fruit that's stayed on the plant too long.

As you can see, tomato plants are very easy to grow from seed. I haven't done this for a couple of years, finding it simpler to just purchase started plants from the local nurseries or garden departments of big box stores. My main reason for growing from seed in the past has been variety: there hundreds of varieties of tomatoes available in seed form, yet there are maybe twenty different varieties I can find locally as plants. Recently though some of the nurseries have started carrying more heirlooms and a wider selection, so I don't feel a strong need to grow from seed.

I think I want to try some really different varieties this year, so I may have to turn to seed again.

In any case, this tomato tasted just fine (maybe a little like sprouts):

Earlier in my gardening career I would probably have tried to grow some of these plants, as I had more of a "no seedling wasted" attitude. I'm much more realistic now, and know that starting a handful of tomato seeds now will mean that my grow table will be a tangled mass of rootbound tomato plants well before our last frost date.

Of course I do have a small hydroponic setup, so I could grow one decent tomato plant inside now. Hmmm...