Nice surprises

Well, I promised to post on everything I was growing this year, even those I'm growing unintentionally:

These guys showed up after a day of rain last week, but they haven't gone away. I wanted to try sauteeing them in butter, but Rob said that was too dangerous a gamble.

Surprise Number Two: Remember that vine?

We now have 8 or 10 fist-sized fruits and another dozen or two blossoms. Now I'm going to have to find out how to dry gourds. Everyone's getting bird feeders for Christmas!

The last small miracle was found under the canopy of our vociferous irises and expansive hydrangea:

Yes, our pennyroyal is alive, despite all evidence to the contrary. It looks like I'll have to move it again. It spreads alarmingly fast when it has light and lots of sun, and the leaves smell heavenly - a mix of lemon and mint.

My tomatoes are producing well, and shockingly, the squirrels have left them alone, except for the rotting ones that we pick and leave in the yard for them as a sort of peace offering/distraction. the I have come to realize that I really should have staked them earlier and more sturdily, but at least we're getting fruit, and lots of it.

I'm curious about the dry, black spots that have formed at the bottom of most of the paste-variety tomatoes (most clearly seen on the orange one). Anyone know how or why this happens?

We had a couple of loads of yellow wax beans, but they appear to have stopped producing. And my lettuces are officially flowering. I'm trying to save seeds, plus keep the soil healthy. We'll see how successful that is!

I really am happy with this experiment. So what if everything doesn't work out? The surprises more than make up for it.