When we came back from vacation, there was a monster vine growing up the garden, all along the driveway, and across the sidewalk. It was creeping me out, because it had even started climbing up onto the porch toward the front door. We weren't quite sure what it was or where it came from - we hadn't planted it.
In the process of ripping it out, we discovered a big melon under some of the leaves. Bruce thought it might be a watermelon, because it was so green. I think it might have been a pumpkin, since it started turning orange. But this was still puzzling, because I put out plastic pumpkins at Halloween.
But I finally got the mutant vine cut out and stashed away for the yard waste pickup - it took 3 bags to hold it all! And I put the pumpkin melon on the front porch. If the thing comes back next year, I'm going to hit it with Round-up and save myself a lot of work.
