My little garden surprise

I love the idea of gardening. Working the soil. Planting a tiny seed. Watching it slowly turn into something edible. It is all very rewarding. There is also some evidence that getting exposure to the bacteria, minerals and microorganisms in dirt helps boost your immune system. It is something my parents and grandparents always did. I'm not the best at it but every year I try to keep up the tradition.

Our backyard was mostly paved over by a previous owner leaving only small planting areas. I hope someday to build some planters to expand my growing capacity but for now I just plant in a small strip.

We compost all our organic matter. Once it breaks down there is not that much but I spread a thin layer over my planting area. Every year we get volunteers that come from the compost. One year it was watermelons. Another was cantaloupes. This year our garden has been taken over by dosakai. I bet you are wondering what is dosakai and how did it get into our small garden. For a while I was also puzzled as to how it got there but then I remembered a co-worker had grown some and gave me a couple to try last year. This plant is a hardy grower and has consumed all the other plants. I was going to pull them all out but I thought why not just let them go since they are growing so well and the things I usually try to grow struggle here with the Texas heat.

So this is what it looks like.

A wonderful mess I agree but it is producing lots of these cute little fellows.

They are native to India and belong to the cucumber family. They are not so good raw but they make a nice addition to an Indian Sambar, Dal or chutney.

I wonder what other surprises will show up this year.