Front yard vegetable garden

Last summer we watered just enough to keep our big corner lot minimally green and weed-free. It took a lot of water, and we felt guilty about it. We need to re-landscape with a lot less grass, but there is only so much time and money. All winter long, I wondered. Could we grow vegetables in the front yard without setting off the neighbors' hillbilly alarm? Turn a big patch of water-hogging lawn into a drip-irrigated vegetable patch?

There is a whole front yard garden movement, it turns out. "Food not lawns," etc. I found pictures online of neat and ornamental front yard vegetable gardens that gave me courage. We bought some natural willow fencing, for a tidy border and to keep out the neighborhood dogs and wildlife. We decided to try a modified version of a lasagna garden, where you layer newspaper right on top of the sod and then put soil and organic amendments on top. The newspaper blocks light and kills the grass, but slowly decomposes and makes rich, worm-friendly soil underneath. No digging or tilling.

We marked out a 20' X 13' area, and put wet newspapers right on top of the grass. The size was determined by how much fencing we could afford.


20 bags of aged manure went on top of the newspapers.

R was a big help, but she eventually wandered off to draw on the driveway with her chalk from the Easter Bunny. She says this is a picture of "me as the Queen of the World."