Something I haven’t shared much of is Ugly Garden when it’s not overcast and drizzly. There’s a good reason for that. It’s because I live in Seattle.

Even Seattle gets sun sometimes. And when we do it is a glorious thing. Like someone in a bad relationship, we all pretend the good times are here to stay. That the weather will always be exactly this way. For all my bemoaning of Ugly Gardens, well… ugliness, she is not without her redeeming qualities. First of which, is that even if she’s not a looker, she’s functional. Yes folks, Ugly Garden grows food.

Most recently, we’ve been enjoying broccoli.

Finally. Not to be an ingrate or anything, but I put that broc in the ground last September, as a start mind you. Eight months later, clearly this time investment is not for the impatient. While that bouquet doesn’t represent the entire harvest, it was the end of it. Shortly after appreciating those purple beauties, I promptly ripped up the lot of them.

And fed the tastier bits of the remains to the Chicken Ladies.

Broccoli out. Pumpkins in. With some soil amendment in between. I’m sure the pumpkins will go quicker. Sure, they will.

We ate the broccoli, and I’ve been flush with spinach for weeks. All that, and the promise of so much more food.

There’s those potatoes I mentioned.

Completely respectable looking cucumbers.

With a name like Agnes, how can you go wrong?

The first of our basil is in, requiring night time protection from bottomless plastic jugs, but in the ground and surviving (so far) nonetheless.

And then there’s the lettuce table I’m completely enamored with.

In fact, while technically outside Ugly Garden borders, I have a whole affiliate corner that’s in darn good shape.

Lovely lettuce table, with all 3 boxes planted at different times. Precarious pot tower, inherited from a moving friend, (free!) containing, entirely repurposed plants, excepting for one. Two tomatoes without homes. They didn’t make the cut for the tomato bed proper. I potted them as either sacrificial lambs or an insurance policy. If something goes wrong, I’m hoping it happens to these two (shhh). Otherwise, if I loose my entire bed, I’ve got a second string. Strategy, I’m calling it. Tomato insurance. And last, but not least, my happy little columnar.

While I am still in a mythical free arborist chips holding pattern, delaying any purchase, I did start the process of laying down cardboard in preparation for the arrival of surface cover. I’d show you a picture of that. However, this post is about Ugly Garden being pretty. Broken down boxes laying on the ground, not doing her any favors.

We may never find those wood chips, at least not the free ones. However, The Husband struck pay dirt with a load of free brick. The Husband, master barterer and border assembler.

The purpose of this border is to denote where raspberries end and the rest of the garden begins.

I like it now. Of course, I will like it a lot more when I’ve got some damn chips or rock or at this point shredded paper (ok, not really) on the ground. I’m desperate. You get the picture.

Speaking of The Husband’s projects and free materials, I am also happy with the gates he produced.

It’s amazing the things that come out of a garage, even a teeny tiny garage. He made two of these out of old bed frames and panels from a retired X-Pen. Add some spray paint and hardware, viola!

It’s May, and things are coming together. Not pictured, but still in the ground, there’s fennel, dill beans, basil, and those parsnips are just starting to germinate. My garden’s full and I’m hopeful for a good year. Or, at least one full of learning…and some wood chips.

What do you have growing? How is your spring garden shaping up?