ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

AstroTurf Couch

A year ago, ReadyMade challenged readers to reimagine their outdoor spaces on a razor-thin budget. Three teams submitted plans that won them $300 to fund a garden makeover. Frankly, we’re impressed by what they’ve grown.

by Katherine Sharpe

Photos by Erin Kunkel

Christina Amini and her wife, Elspeth Stowell, wanted to enjoy their patio area more, but as renters, they couldn’t build immovable fixtures. So with neighbor Sarah Keizer they designed a garden with modular, movable parts. A sense of fun reigns supreme in their space, with a “lawn chair” covered in AstroTurf, a fire pit made from an old wheelbarrow, and the “raised bed”—a real bed frame filled with soil and planted with a “quilt” of lettuce and chives. Amini scored chairs at San Francisco’s Building REsources salvage yard and kept costs down by scrounging (a sofa from Keizer’s garage, tables at the curb on trash night). If Amini were to change anything, it would be the size of the raised bed, which is less portable than she planned: “The full moves,” she says, “but it’s really heavy!”