This Tennessee gal loves her Volunteers (plants that is...)

Go Big Orange! Scarlet Nantes - beautiful and delicious

Lettuces: Bunte Forellenschluss (my favorite), Winter Density and Grandpa Admire's.

I love peas in the pod.

Sunflower and the bean stalk, inspired by The Three Sisters.
Now how will I ever pick the beans?

Again, I have squash in the flowerbeds. (Did you know that was my inaugural post on this blog?) All of these are volunteer though; they just came up on their own. Beautiful, isn't it? That large broccoli plant is gone now, replaced with marigolds, moss roses and sweet alyssum (also volunteer). I'm amazed at what comes back each year and also at how perfectly one crop fades into the next. As the squashes sputter out in a few months, the moss roses and alyssum will explode into mounds of color that last into fall. I can pick up other flowers here and there on sale to fill in any bare spots. 

I say these are "squash," because that's what I planted in that area last year, but this one is looking much more melon-like to me. With volunteers, you are thankful for whatever you get because it's more than you expected. Not unlike my alma mater's football team, now that I think of it....