During the last year, we focused mainly on fixing up the inside of our house. But 2011 is all about the outside, and we got to work before the holidays so we could eat out of our first food-producing garden come early spring. So far, so good. Take a look!

We're grateful that we have a lot of real estate to work with. Our first raised bed (the one pictured here) is four feet wide, eight feet long, and a foot and a half deep. It needed a cubic yard of dirt to fill it up! A literal ton of dirt.

We love this beautiful bed, and it's been providing us with weekly rations of spinach and lettuce already. Soon it'll also provide cilantro, turnips, and radishes. Oh, and don't mind the wire and netting. It's to keep out the neighborhood cats, and while it's a bit of a pain having to undo our cat-traption every time we harvest, it's certainly better than watching our beautiful garden become a litter box.

We've already begun our next two backyard summer beds, which are each four feet wide, ten feet long, but only six inches deep. After learning a few lessons from this first bed, we decided that the newest ones would be lower to the ground, but longer, and we'll also be planting them with a grid, according to the square foot gardening philosophy. And between the two of 'em, we needed just under a cubic yard of good dirt.

Related posts:
• A No-Hassle Garden: Square Foot Gardening
• 5 Inspiring Kitchen Gardens for Small Spaces
• Look! Keep Your Garden Organized

(Images: Amber Byfield)

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