[Thalia]

Has anyone here done this, or is anyone thinking about doing it?

Our front lawn is nothing but grass, with a few older decorative shrubs under our windows. I would love to make it a productive veggie/fruit garden instead of a monoculture. Even better, I'd love to donate half of the yield to our church's food pantry, and get other people to do the same, so that our patrons can have some fresh food on a regular basis.

My dream would be to have raised beds, with any flat green space planted with different kinds beneficial ground cover, like chamomile or creeping thyme. But we just moved into our new house, and realistically I need to give it time.

What plants would you grow if you were going to do this?

 

[firstkid4me]

I love this idea, it's way better than the thousands of dollars some people spend trying to get grass to grow.

 

[lightheart]

I have it in my couple year plan to take the graveled parking area that is part of the front yard, pulling the gravel off and planting an perennial herb garden, with some veggies and flowers mixed in there.

 

[WeasleyMum]

I think it's a great idea. In my yard, though, the front is fairly shady and the back is bright and sunny, so it's actually more practical to have the veg in the back. I am replacing a dying tree with some fruit tree, though (probably a peach) and putting in some blueberries within the next few years.

 

[mamafish9]

We are!! We have lots of sun both front and back, so the back is getting some pretty shade trees (tomorrow, we picked them today, woo hoo!), and leaving grass for the kids to play. The front yard has a big ornamental cherry in the middle, and the rest is turning into a garden (amongst the cherry tree roots, which are a bit complicating...)

Anyhow, we put in an apple tree, raspberries and blueberries, an herb patch, and rhubarb so far. We don't have much of a plan, we plant what we find at the farmer's market each weekend (we have an awesome market here, lots of the local organic farmers bring starts to sell). I'm hoping to get strawberries and a flower garden in still this year too.

We have a small bed in the back yard we have put our veggies in for this year (it's fenced, and that way DS doesn't run into the street). And we have a big composter going. This fall I will put newspaper and leaves down over about half the front yard, and by next spring we should be ready to plant!

And we bought a reel lawn mower, which will be big incentive to limit our grass

.

 

[Flor]

We did it in our back yard. We took about the grass, dh built 3 larger raised beds (right now holding zuc, potatoes, peppers, brussel sp., eggplant, peas, beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, epazote, carrots, strawberries, and beets) and many smaller ones for herbs and a sandbox for ds. I also wanted all the other plants to be edible/useful so our "landscaping" is lemon, lime, apple trees, big rosemary bushes, lavendar, nustertiums, chamomile, spinach, sage chives and thyme. I have carrots sprouting from lots of hidden places, year-around green onions and beets, and we put gravel in between the beds. We use it so much more. The kids run around the beds and play dinosaurs in the herbs. I think that unless you play soccer, you don't really need that lawn. What a waste of land! I hated mowing, weeding and watering that thing!

 

[Quaniliaz]

I'm working on replacing my front lawn. We live in a new house (3 yrs old) and when they built it, they scraped off all top soil, and then put in sod, which obviously didn't have a chance. So my front lawn is pretty much completely dead, in spite of my efforts.

I've decided to put in raised beds. Using some sort of ground cover in between is brilliant - I'm not sure what would work well here - I'm in zone 3, if anyone has any ideas!

I'll probably plant an herb bed in the front. My house faces the East, so while I do get about 6 hours of sun there, it is all in the morning. Do you think that veggies would do okay??

Playing dinosaurs sounds like fun, Flor!!!

I also got some asparagus crowns that I can plant, but I think they need more sun, too??

 

[honeybunch2k8]

I love the idea. I want to do that in a few years.

I'd like to hear from someone in NV (specifically las vegas area) who has done this.

 

[loraxc]

I would seriously love to do this, but I have too much yard and not enough money or time. However, our "lawn" is about 90% weeds, many of which are edible. Does that count?

 

[dollysods]

We rent an apartment within a house, but our landlords let us tear up part of the front lawn for a garden and we have been adding to it over the past few years. Our garden is right along the sidewalk near the post-office in a community where most people walk. I think that a front yard garden has to be kept a lot neater than one elsewhere to appease the neighbors, but we have had no problems with complaints and enjoy the community. The first year our tomatoes got a bit unruly (okay, enormous) and we were more agressive about picking back the suckers last year. Last year we had 2 of butternut squash stolen and at one point all of the ripe cherry tomatoes... other than that we have had no problems with theft or vandalism.

We grow a nice mix of perennials and annuals, flowers (primarily edibles or ones known for companion use) and try to have more of the flowers and herbs towards the very front.

This year, we are going to also do a little wall of corn, sunflowers, and amaranth for a bit more privacy.

 

[dollysods]

Also, btw, our garden the last few years, basically 3 4x 12 raised beds plus some containers produced way more than we could eat fresh even though we were under the shade of an oak tree for all but maybe 5 hours of morning sun. The garden will do better if you have more sun, but we just intentionally selected the most shade-tolerant varieties of everything we could find. The oak tree got a disease and after several years of trying every remedy, our landlords finally took it down and replace it with a younger smaller tree that will not shade our garden... we are excited to see what changes this year in terms of production.

This year's plan we will have marigolds, nasturtium, amaranth, bachelors buttons, cosmos, zinnias, 2 types of sunflowers, popcorn and regular corn, 3 types of heirloom tomatoes, baby watermelon, yellow watermelon, 3 types of heirloom cucs, purple and green bush beans, edamame, sugar snap peas, scarlet runner bean, bell peppers, summer and winter squash, 3 types of lettuce, cabbage, red and orange carrots, lots of garlic, potatoes, basil, dill, creeping thyme, chives, green onions, and chamomile.

My husband also grows about 6 varieties of hot peppers.

 

[lmonter]

Thought about it. But can't. Road easement, water main, underground utilities and cables, etc. Not to mention the 8ft snow burms we get in the winter from all the plowing.

The backyard, yes, absolutely. I have tons of stuff out back. Strawberries, fruit trees, grape vine, asparagus, garlic, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, plus all the other regular suspects like beans, peas, tomatoes, basil, lettuce, onions, potatoes, blah blah blah.

 

[lovermont]

We've done it.
We rent a duplex in a neighborhood and the landlord was okay with it. There are definitely times when I'm a little embarrassed because our front yard is dirt (like this time of year) but it's fun when everything starts coming in.
Last year was our first year and we had pole beans, strawberries, soybeans, nasturtiums, beets, peas, lettuce... I might be forgetting some things. This year we're doing half corn and half wild flowers. I have been begging for wild flowers so this year we're finally doing them. Our front yard gets minimal sun (facing East and there's a big tree on one side and our house on the other) so it's hard to come up with vegetables that will do well in the shade.

 

[mamafish9]

I was reading old threads in this forum, and one totally smart mama plants right in her lawn - digs a hole and sticks in a squash, or whatever. I can't find the thread again, but I think she did it for temporary overflow purposes. I, however, am going to steal this fabulous idea for this year, because I don't have the time or muscles to dig up my whole front yard by hand all at once. So I'm digging 12" holes every four feet or so, adding some compost and stuff, and putting in about 3 squash seeds (I'll thin to one when they come up). I figure at the very least I'll get lots of zucchini, and maybe some dead grass too! The rhubarb is already in - can I say how funny it looks to have a front lawn with a rhubarb plant in the middle

.

Anyhow, thought I'd share in case anyone else wants an easy way to gardenify their front lawn with less effort!

 

[Thalia]

This is all so inspiring, mamas, thank you! And how cool that dollysods's garden is actually featured in Edible Estates: I'll have to go see if I can find it.

I think this year will be all about dreaming and figuring out what is already growing in our garden (since we just moved in). I am very excited to see ferns growning at the back of our yard where we will probably be getting a lot of shade this summer.

 

[honeybunch2k8]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dollysods This year's plan we will have marigolds, nasturtium, amaranth, bachelors buttons, cosmos, zinnias, 2 types of sunflowers, popcorn and regular corn, 3 types of heirloom tomatoes, baby watermelon, yellow watermelon, 3 types of heirloom cucs, purple and green bush beans, edamame, sugar snap peas, scarlet runner bean, bell peppers, summer and winter squash, 3 types of lettuce, cabbage, red and orange carrots, lots of garlic, potatoes, basil, dill, creeping thyme, chives, green onions, and chamomile. My husband also grows about 6 varieties of hot peppers.

Wow. That sounds wonderful!!!

Is anyone doing edible lawn and living in an area with water restrictions??? I'm wondering b/c I may move to Vegas, but I still want to have a good sized garden.

 

[lightheart]

Well I did it, a 7.5 by 11.5 feet patch of gravel/parking spot that was in front of the house is now in it's 1st stage of becoming a green edible productive space!!!!

I got the edges laid out and am starting to scrape and wheelbarrow the gravel out! Still a bunch of work to do and we'll see if it actually gets planted this year. I'm going to need to gather a bunch of compostables and make dirt to fill it, under the 2-4 inches of gravel is a nice layer of solid red clay... it'll give some nice minerals to the area but not something to grow directly in.

 

[celestialdreamer]

We did this!

: We took out a few huge trees a few years ago and that gave us a nice sunny front yard with SW exposure. Our backyard is totally shaded so we decided that it was the perfect opportunity for a front yard garden. Last year we had 5 raised beds and were amazed with how much we got from it. This year we have 11 beds (2 of them are 4x12) and we are attempting to see if we can grow our own instead of our CSA membership. I can't wait to see how it goes this year!

:

 

[phoenix78]

I love the idea, but unfortunately I live on a busy street at the residential end of an industrual park. WAY too much air pollution from trucks that idle at red light on my corner. I do have raised organic veg beds on back lawn. Again, local pollution stopped me from digging in soil (old steel mills in industrial area - guess that's why we're cpnsidered a rustbelt city.. I am considering turning over little patch of weedy front lawn into a native flower garden. Right now though I am planning on adding 2 new veggie beds and a "children's garden" is underway. Slow going as I have a newborn. Pollution levels will def be a consideration for next house!

 

[canadiyank]

I can't right now b/c we rent, but we're moving to our own place next year and I plan to have NO GRASS in the front. Ornamentals mixed with edibles...oh, I love just thinking about it! We have a bit lot right now and plenty of garden space, but we have so. much. grass. and I wish 90% of it were gone.

Love the ideas here, thanks!