by Stefanie Leto
Consider the lawn. If well-maintained, it requires a lot of water, weeding, and mowing. It’s also usually a monoculture. You can free yourself from the lawn, and enjoy fresh produce from the same area.
My current house presented me with three lawn areas. More fun, more work, more opportunity. I also found out about a program run through the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) that provides rebates in the form of credits on your water bill for transitioning lawns to low-water uses, and edibles on a per-request basis. I would have converted the lawn to garden at any rate, but money always sweetens the deal!
If you have a lawn you’re contemplating renovating, first find out what you’re facing. You’ll need, at a minimum, an area that receives at least four hours of sunlight a day but preferably six hours. As noted in a previous Alameda Backyard Growers newsletter article, Bermuda Grass is a formidable opponent. I consider it my garden archenemy. The only approach I have ever found that works, across four different states of residence, is dig, sift/shake, repeat. I use a shovel, make cuts across the lawn, lift the turf squares, and then shake all the dirt off of them that I can.
I don’t want to lose any of the lovely sandy loam that covers most of the island, but I also do not want to import even a single “joint” of a rhizome to start the Bermuda Grass invasion again! Additionally, this is NOT a weed to add to a home compost bin. The likelihood of the compost process being hot enough to neutralize the grass is very low – too low to risk.
For our front yard, I marshaled the family to get out and dig and shake. We made a small mountain of removed grass and roots. Because of the size of our green bin, it took at least a month for that mountain to go away.
I had planned to build a garden directly on the ground, rather than in raised beds because of the material cost, but a generous birthday gift made beds a possibility. Each bed is four feet wide, so I can reach from either side and access all of it. A mix of free compost from the Maker Farm, composted horse manure from a local equestrian, homemade compost, and extant dirt filled them up.I buried rubber soak hoses in a pattern that would reach all of the bed, and created a timer-run gang system to manage multiple planting areas. Free straw as mulch completes the system.
This kind of outlay is not critical to a lawn to garden conversion! The only elements that matter are weed/grass removal, some amendment like compost (Alameda soil is “hungry,” or very low in organic matter usually), and some water-wise method for keeping your edibles happy. Mulch conserves water and keeps weed seeds from germinating around vegetables. I like my system because I’m used to it – but vegetables want to grow! Make whatever choices fit your budget and interest.
One less savory consideration has to be noted. Dogs will mark anything along a sidewalk edge – perhaps keeping your edibles back, across a mulched area – and installing signs asking dog people to be considerate or planting a “hedge” of something spiky like rosemary or lavender would provide enough “cover.” People will walk through gardens if they lie between them and a goal – make it easier for people to NOT step in your garden. Because I love them, a hedge of blackberries fronts my yard.
The other two areas I’m converting more slowly are a side yard with a large holly tree, and half of my back yard. The back gets more sun than the front, shaded by a large street tree, but we have dogs. Fencing off a garden area was the next order of business. My backyard raspberry and tomato areas are behind a temporary plastic net fence, not in raised beds, and so far are doing fine.
In my experience, edibles in front yards are intriguing to passers-by. Neighbors of mine ask what we’re growing, and I’d like to have a “free to take” bin once the harvest starts rolling in. I hope readers wanting to take the plunge to convert lawns to edibles realize that with a relatively small amount of effort, it’s eminently achievable.