This Year's Garden Mystery

 Every year for the past few years I have had volunteer vegetables and/or plants come up.  Usually I know what they are; sunflowers, tomatoes, cantaloupe...etc.  

Last year I had a couple of mystery gourds come up; one proved to be a cross between a pumpkin and a spaghetti squash.  One was in the actual garden bed, another couple of mystery vines were in the spot where I toss the kitchen scraps.  One actually was a pumpkin, but I think there might have been a gourd out there as well.  I am not sure, I didn't go plundering in the weeds very far.

 This year I have this little fellow:

It initially looked like a strange cross between a birdhouse gourd and a watermelon, and when I posted the above picture on Facebook a week or more ago it garnered much amused speculation.

However, just a couple of days ago I noticed on the far side of it this lovely yellow patch.  From that I presume it is some sort of ornamental gourd.

It is also out in the kitchen scrap area, so for all I know it may be a cross between one of the gourds I have raised in the past 5 years or so (birdhouse, or luffa) and the pumpkin that grew out there last summer.  

It is so much fun finding these surprises and oddities, I think I am just going to keep tossing my old, out of date seeds out there and see what all comes up.  

I am a bit surprised that the deer haven't eaten the vines.  The deer are quite tame; not because we have attempted to tame them, by any means, but because they know we aren't a threat.  They come quite close to the house at night, so I am sure if they knew of the gourd vines they would chomp them down.  The kitchen scrap area is sort of behind a storage shed.  

At any rate, I will keep track of this oddity and see if anything else grows out there.