just don't dig up the whole lawn, the landlord said.

On a warm snap in the middle of January, I purchased our first gardening implement - a hoe - and we went to town digging up our future victory gardens. If you can believe it, there are hardy pansies planted in the garden where I am working in the photo and they are *still* in bloom right this very moment. 

The two spots that we are working on in these photos are the future sites of our raised vegetable beds. Both sites will have removable cold frames (thanks to a SWEET dumpster find of two perfect-condition windows with sliding doors for ventilation!! WOO HOOO!) so we can experiment with planting early and harvesting late. You'll also notice that we have a bunch of huge lava rocks - these excite me, but I'm not sure what we'll do with them yet. Maybe a makeshift raised bed for our corn and squash?

Look at her go. Isn't she just so cute ripping up that turf?