Volunteering Vegetable

The other day I noticed the grass was getting long. With the days getting shorter Hubby Tony hasn't had a chance to get around to cutting it, so today after lunch I fired up the lawn mower and did the job. The weather was perfect for outdoor work; 75 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny. I was outside for 45 minutes and barely broke a sweat.

Along one side of the back yard there's a bed that I've planted with a variety of perennial flowers and plants. However, even those low maintenance plants need attention, and I haven't taken care of the bed for weeks. Now it's a ragged-looking tangle of stems, blooms that should have been deadheaded, and annual weeds. Today as I walked by I took a good look at the bed and noticed some vines with large leaves and yellow flowers that looked an awful lot like squash plants. When I investigated, I found out that I was right.

There were two vines that wound their way past the peony bush and coneflowers and sprawled on top of the weeds.  When I moved the vine to the side, I noticed one small fruit hiding underneath the leaves.  The skin was completely ripe, so it came into the house with me.

Grown completely by Mother Nature

The squash is a little guy, weighing in at a little over a pound.  All afternoon I mulled over how the vines had gotten there, and eventually remembered dumping some compost in the bed when I redid the pile in the spring. I guess the compost included a couple of seeds that were still viable.  I've never tried to grow winter squash before, and I'm looking forward to cooking the one that grew all on its own.

Five years ago today: Rescue Plant