I'd love to garden more than I do, but I don't go outside for longer than a couple of minutes because I can't handle the heat or the sun. So I'm at the mercy of nature and whatever decides to pop up out of the ground.
Luckily, in a tropical climate, that's just about everything.
We have a volunteer papaya tree in our front yard. The papaya tree is about eight or ten feet high and has at least 30, probably closer to 40, baby papayas growing on it. This picture is from two months ago. I should take another soon.
The big leaf at the bottom is thebu, or Costus speciosus, or crepe ginger, and is edible. I make it into a sambol - sliced finely, then mixed with freshly shredded coconut, Maldive fish flakes, minced green chillies, salt, pepper, and lime juice. Very delish.
They also have pretty flowers.
We also have curry leaf trees that pop up everywhere - a neighbor has a tree that flowers and puts forth seeds, so the curry leaf trees are everywhere. The curry leaves are used in curries.
We have a jambu tree. The fruit is a bit like crabapples, but less dense. The neighbors have a star fruit tree with branches that are in our yard, so we get starfruit - lovely, lovely starfruit - from that. The neighborhood monkeys also love starfruit. And mangos and papaya and every other kind of fruit you can imagine.
We have ornamental palms and other ornamental plants as well. For the most part, none of these plants require any work on my part other than for harvesting.
We also have neighborhood chameleons, frogs, snakes, lizards, cats, and birds that visit our yard. Across the road is a bit of a pool in the drainage ditch where tadpoles are growing happily.