DIY Build an Edible Garden

A key element of #SpeakeasyStyle is delicious food and crisp cocktails served to friends–so, we’re gonna need fresh ingredients. Here’s how to DIY build an edible garden with a variety of shapes, textures, and styles to make your garden both functional and eye catching.

First off, we waited a year after purchasing our house to build our garden because it takes a year of watching your yard go through all of the seasons to know where the sunny spots are. Here in Seattle we have tons of large beautiful trees, but that proves challenging when trying to grow a bounty of vegetables. After a year of watching how the sun moved across our property, we located the front yard as the best spot to grow our crops.

Because our garden is in the front yard, we wanted to ensure that it was both functional and stylish. Here’s how to build an edible garden that is not a total snoozefest:

• Mix Up the Shapes: we built classic rectangular cedar raised beds, but also mixed in circular charcoal gray metal circles of varying heights. This also helps to provide a variety of space and depth to diversify the types of vegetables you can grow.

• Vary the Materials and Textures: earthy organic wood paired with industrial chic charcoal gray metal mixed with colorful ceramic pots creates an exciting mix that keeps your eyes engaged.

• Think Outside the Yard: through our year of sunshine reconnaissance, we also realized that one of the sunniest spots to grow food was actually our bedroom balcony, so we revamped the balcony and created floating raised beds to grow even more food. By DIYing free wooden wine boxes into stylish floating raised beds and adding tons of pots, we almost doubled what we could grow in the front yard, adding more square footage to our property’s homestead potential.

Due to supply chain issues, a long hunt for quality cedar wood, and rain on the weekends, it took us a few months to build this garden. All of our plants are teeny tiny and the garden is just taking shape. Next year will be the first time we start to see the front yard in its full glory. Until then, we will get to enjoy the fruits of our labor in fresh summer salads, unique herbal simple syrups for cocktails, and salsa for days.

Next up is painting the red brick a charcoal color and adding a picnic table to enjoy the garden. Of course, we’re going to do an intricate design on the picnic table, because every detail should be exciting! Yes, #SpeakeasyStyle is just as important outside as inside. More to come…