Lawn Gone - Part 1: Creating a Food Garden in a NE Seattle Front Yard

[GrowSomethingGreen]

This is awesome, I'm gonna try this in part of my backyard in Arizona to compost our clay soil

[inremembranceofruth]

Where is my permaculture/edible food forest man (I am 52)?! So disheartened by nothing but lawn and conventional landscaping afficionados:(

[lateafternoon88]

This is great to see, how far even Seattle has come. We were doing this thirteen years ago on N 61st, and our neighbors thought we were just crazy Californians! Now look what the Seatlites are doing! More food, less turf, yeah! Thanks for producing this video.

[tribalwind]

beautiful :)

[crewlla]

dont you get snow? I live in canada and I did the same thing with the front yard and back yard but I had to put up raised beds because we get so much snow that when it melts there would be mud all over our lawn and front step. did you have any problems with snow or the rain washing out the plants?

[bigtimerip1]

@crewlla We do get an occasional snowfall of consequence but i did not experience any wash out of earth or plants, even throughout our heavy rainfalls. I continue to layer organic material onto the beds with soil mixed in and none of it runs off (despite living on a hill). I did notice that larger pieces of wood chips seem to float away near the sidewalks but that was pretty much it. My pathways just absorb rain or snow.

[ItsyBitsyBabyBudy]

This video is so cool, It really helped me alot with turning my back yard into a garden.

[jihadacadien]

Great idea, hope you have a lot of fun and food doing this!

[ceresion]

@jihadacadien check out Lawn Gone 3 and you can see the results. This garden has been a blessing in more than one way.

[OregonArborist]

Good idea on the sod composting.

Sheet mulching with cardboard can inrease water and energy use too. But not at the site Google a page called:

The DARK SIDE of LASAGNA GARDENING

It explains the variables. There are two environmental sides of the matter to consider for no-till using cardboard or paper.

[ceresion]

@OregonArborist I actually watered very little due to the high mulching factor. Lots of dying leaves and grass clippings keep the soil moist.

[tribalwind]

@OregonArborist

whoah. you've actually spammed your own crazy blog to every mention of sheet mulching on the internet. what is this anti-garden/sheet mulch Disinformation campaign you're on dude? did citizens united and carl rove put ya up to this

[Hamish121212]

Why did you remove the grass? The idea of sheet mulch is to build on top of weeds and grass and avoid digging altogether.

[ceresion]

@Hamish121212 It was an experiment to see whether the sod would decompose enough to plant into in the first season or just be a weed problem. The sod died fully enough to plant into plus I continue to add mulch. We did sheet mulch on the sod in the front portion of the yard.

[HomesteadProvocateur]

See, I've considered sheet mulch here in Colorado, but it is soo freaking dry, that I imagine if it were not weighed down with some heavy mulch, it would in fact fly away! I would probably have to put compost over it to keep it in place. It is so dry here, I left some grapes out on the counter and now I have raisins!!! LOL. This looks more than awesome, would love to get involved in such a group effort.

[pgm98387]

I have seen people put plastic kiddie pools as container gardens.

A restaraunt in Portland was growing their salad and herb greens on the roof in these plastic pools.

[pstajk]

Guthaus66 - If you wanted to differentiate between a healthy and an unhealthy landscape, would it not have been easier to just use a soil testing kit?

What is more beneficial in most cases?

To leave the grass/sod alone or to dig it up?

Haven't most lawns already been destroyed by the normal lawn care services, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides?

Does anyone know which half of this particular lawn will fair better in the spring?

I ask because I want to do the same to my lawn.

[blamemama]

I'm excited to see what happens next! I subscribed.

[Dave51262]

I don't understand. I thought permaculturists promoted no-dig gardening. Why is that man digging deep and turning over the soil? This does more harm than good.

[Guthaus66]

You have to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy landscapes when determining the appropriate response. In a healthy soil which is full of biotic life, has ample organic matter to feed that life, turning the soil will impair that beneficial condition. A former lawn is inherently unhealthy. It has been pounded by foot traffic for years, just in mowing. All the organic matters is removed generally, and little lives in the soil. Loosing the soil can begin the repair by opening new gaps.

[EbolaV1rus]

Great idea! But what about the wind blowing the leaves off/around?

[leobro]

The owner was worried about that when the winds came up, but surprisingly the leaves stayed put - probably because they were wet from rain. As they decompose, they get mushy and tend to stick.

[StinkyCatsMeow]

Great project!