When I lived in Jersey I had beautiful gardens. Gardening was fun and I grew things. Beautiful (should have been on a magazine cover) gardens of flowers and a few tomatoes and peppers. One of the reasons I loved gardening so much in Jersey (in addition to growing the best tomatoes in the world – yes, I said it) was that I could spend one whole day, just one, and do everything. Weeding, mulching, trimming, picking, planting etc., it could all be accomplished in one productive Saturday.

Florida is a little different. We have such a large yard with so many bushes that it takes three our four weekends, working most of the day both days, to weed and trim. Add in the snakes that like to live in the bushes, the very high humidity and long months of hot and gardening isn’t as much of a joy. So for the last few years I’ve stuck with a small plot and a large pot. I pretty much ignore the rest of it, but my herb garden is my thing.

I gave up on planting much this year. With the new job, I just didn’t have time to plant vegetables. I have one kale plant left over from last year’s bumper crop and it is producing again, so I’m good with that. I have great herbs – mint, basil, oregano and thyme – in the pot and my rosemary plant continues to be a beast. Seriously, it’s huge. So imagine my surprise when I walked out last Sunday to get rosemary for my pot pie I was making and saw this …

That is a zucchini plant. A large, growing and producing zucchini plant. This would not be so odd, but I didn’t plant zucchini. I didn’t even toss a zucchini in the garden. I must have tried to compost some and missed, but I have a large, growing, healthy, producing zucchini plant next to my garden. Yes, next to – not in.

As of this morning, I have seven (7) baby zucchini. Seven baby zucchini from a plant I didn’t plant, didn’t water or check on, and didn’t know I had a week ago. If Arthas doesn’t eat them – he is usually very good about not eating things that are in the garden – then I will have a bumper crop of zucchini … that I didn’t intend to grow.