Mystery Squash

There is a new landmark in my yard. It's called Squash Mountain.

The excavation for the garage produced a large mound of nice black dirt that's now situated in the middle of the backyard. And it just happened to contain the remains of the compost pile, with a generous helping of squash seeds mixed in. In no time flat, squash plants sprouted.

As summer unfolded, those squash plants grew and grew, quickly overtaking in size the squash and zucchini that I'd planted deliberately in the garden a month earlier. Sun and rain worked their magic. I can take no credit whatsoever. The only thing I did was refrain from pulling them out, even though I figured they'd hybridize and be weird and inedible. But I wasn't ready to move the dirt, so it couldn't hurt to see what would happen.

Well, look what happened!

The squash started to grow. They got bigger. And suddenly they started to look like real squash. Not weird hybrids, but all sorts of real and wonderful varieties!

Look! Here's the harvest. So completely satisfying, and so ridiculously effortless.

An entire bushel basket full of lovely squash. The little delicatas on top are the only ones that I planted on purpose in the garden - all the rest were gifts from Squash Mountain.

No soil prep, no planting, no watering, no weeding. Just tracking the progress (with an incredulous look on my face) and reaping the harvest. It's enough to make me wonder if maybe I'm going about gardening all wrong!