the holy grail of lazy gardening

So I'm a lazy gardener. All other things being equal, I prefer to grow perennial flowers that I won't have to plant each year. I'll make more of an effort for vegetables because there's a tangible benefit involved (yes, I think of edible food as a more valid benefit than "oh, those flowers are pretty"), but I still prefer things that can be planted directly in the ground with no need for transplanting or otherwise fussing. Don't get me wrong, I definitely enjoy gardening. I find weeding to be oddly calming. I just prefer to get as much benefit for my work as possible.

This year, we had something in the garden that's even better, even lower maintenance than tossing seeds on the ground, watering, and waiting: a volunteer cherry tomato plant.

This thing grew in the flower garden on its own. We didn't plant it, we didn't plan for it, and we certainly didn't put in any effort for it. All we did was put some compost aound the asparagus (yes, the asparagus lives in the flower garden -- it's a perennial, so it doesn't live in the raised beds with the other veggies), and this cherry tomato plant was so determined that it presumably grew from a stray seed that hadn't decomposed.

A plant that provides edible food without a speck of effort required on my part is my kind of plant.

And as a bonus, it's pretty cute: