Ugly Garden’s Bounty
Such as it is.
I reserve the right to re-use the title of this post at such a time when said bounty is either greater in volume or entirely of my own production. Because these…
Did not come from Ugly Garden. Oh no. Those beauties came from my awesome-hippy-old-man-neighbor’s garden, who is out of town and allowed us to pilfer in exchange for collecting his mail. Score! The man is kind of a genius. He has absolutely no fanciness. No raised beds. No cool equipment. Just loads of produce. I envy his rebel garden.
Even these…
Nearly a garden milk jug full of, slightly less pretty, but nevertheless damn tasty raspberries, still not from Ugly Garden. Yet another pilfer. A generous friend also out of town, with an over grown patch. Why, yes I will pick your raspberries for you. Between the two stashes of free, I’ve got enough for at least one round of jam. Three cheers for the gardener vacation!
The raspberries from Ugly Garden.
Excuse me. The raspberry (singular) from Ugly Garden.
Admittedly, this is not Ugly Garden’s fault. I can hardly hold it against her. My raspberries are young. They take a couple years to establish. There should currently be no such fruit to photograph in Ugly Garden. I know this. And yet. Raspberries seem to be flowing from everywhere. Except my backyard. Again with the envy. More than a little. Don’t even talk to me about the brocoli.
Quickly moving on to the win category, quite possibly the prettiest cabbage I’ve ever seen. Yes, I’m a little biased.
I’ve grew four of them. It only took me nine months. N.I.N.E.
Cucumber productivity. The gherkins are amassing.
Round 1 of my beloved fridge pickles are brining away. Whether or not there will be cucumber production for a batch of pickles proper remains to be seen, but we are off to a strong start.
Speaking of starts, that is something we do have in abundance. Good solid starts. Starts closing in on almost ready’s.
Fennel, almost ready for roasting.
Onions, any day now.
Chard, I am ecstatic to see due to my continued lack of spinach.
Green Tomatoes, lots and lots of green tomatoes.
Such is the plight of the Seattle Tomato Grower. I refuse to comment any further, for fear of jinxing myself.
And finally, who knew pumpkin flowers were so pretty?
Certainly not me! They look almost tropical. I’m a little concerned my pumpkin patch will jump it’s borders, and take on the tomatoes in an out and out turf war. There may need to be some sort of trellis intervention.
There it is. The prettiest of this post? Not from Ugly Garden. Misleading title aside, we are getting there. We are solidering on. Still. Despite all that, there is bounty to be had. From joining this guild of gardeners and throwing myself into our common plight, I think my fellow members are taking pity on me. This bounty comes from pretending to be a gardener. Rather than actually being one.
What are you harvesting? Or almost harvesting? Anything? Better yet what are you benefitting from in someone else’s garden?
Comments
No such luck with friends who want to share. I did get a cucumber, a zucchini & 5 cherry tomatoes. Cominbed with a little lettuce it will make a decent salad.
That is a beautiful head of cabbage.
As you may suspect from my lettuce table challenges, I envy your salad nearly as much as everyone’s raspberries.
I have to say, no finer head of cabbage have I ever seen! It’s a beauty even if it took 9 months.
Thanks for the cabbage appreciation. She also tastes lovely, stir fried with a little sesame oil, onion and almonds. Yum!
that is indeed a fine cabbage. and my tiny excuse for a herb garden will eventually spread to ‘garden’ status. next year, my friend. you are more than welcome to pilfer some sage/thyme/basil/chives if you want.
How’s your basil? Mine is meager, but resilient. It’s elevated above the dog leg lifting height.
I have green tomatoes. And snow peas. And some tiny lettuce (akin to your first iteration of the lettuce table). Some tiny cilantro. I have some (promising?) brussel sprout starts, and some tomatillo starts. I lost my basil. Some canes that I thought back in March might be raspberries are in fact raspberries planted by a previous tenant of the house, so I have well established raspberries! And some of my strawberries are producing, but the bulk were planted in an area that I now know is not sunny enough (and I don’t remember to water them enough). There’s always next season, right?
That’s sounds like a pretty darn respectable harvest! Tomatillos even!
And from what I’ve heard “next season” is the mantra of all gardeners for all time.
Tons of tomatoes, lots of okra, cucumbers galore, green beans, purple sweet beans (turn green after cooking) zuchini, squash, and green peppers. Lost of basil, rosemary, sage, etc. Yay! but still waiting on blueberries. It’s been really hot here so we lost a few plants, but we still have way too much. We canned pickes with a lot of cucumbers, but many have gone to the compost pile.
Cucumbers in the compost? I could weep. I think summer just got started over here.