How to turn a lawn into a food factory

More green lawns are turning brown this summer, and it's not due to lack of water. Front-yard cultivation — marked by freshly turned soil sprouting veggie starts — is replacing the lounge-ready lawn as more homeowners seek to get productivity from the yard, and ensure food safety.

With today's high food and gas prices and the "food miles" debate — not to mention food-safety issues after this week's multistate salmonella outbreak linked to raw tomatoes — converting lawns to food gardens is hitting home.

"Why spend energy maintaining grass when we can use the same square footage to produce food?" asks Danielle LaVilla of Seattle's Crown Hill neighborhood, who says her family is transforming their yard into a garden as a way to "change our lifestyle to be more sustainable."

For some, it may be a hedge against inflation.

"With the economics as they are, our garden may just morph into a victory garden," says Kim Bearse of the Broadview neighborhood, referring to the government-encouraged program during the food-rationing days of World War II.

For others, growing their own veggies ensures higher food safety. This week, stores and restaurants pulled raw red plum, red Roma and red round tomatoes after nearly 200 people reported salmonella poisoning. Cherry and grape tomatoes and those with the vine still attached are safe.

Tips for turning your lawn into a food source

If you're considering farming your lawn, there are ways to ensure success and keep down the cost and stress.

First, ponder the effort. Cathryn Basanich of Kenmore took out a 6-by-10-foot patch of lawn "with my back" before learning about sheet mulching. She dug out the sod, shaking off the dirt from each clump and making a pile. Difficult, time-consuming and back-straining, it nonetheless gets you a patch of bare ground which you know won't be invaded by grass roots from below. She chose the front yard because of sun — food gardens need as much as possible — but also to be close to her 4-year-old daughter's play space.

Smother the grass. "People are surprised to learn that they don't need to kill the grass to start," says Amy Ockerlander, educator at the utility-funded Garden Hotline. "They can get started immediately if they want to bring in soil."

To sheet mulch, first apply layers of newspaper or cardboard on top of the lawn. Cover that with at least 4 inches of soil, or "up to 12 inches if you want to plant right away," she says. The hotline recommends Cedar Grove Vegetable Mix, which is certified organic.

The method effectively smothers the grass, depriving it of sunlight and water, and it will eventually decompose. The benefit is, it has not removed the top layer of your soil, Ockerlander said.

"That's where the biological activity occurs."

Bryant neighborhood resident Gina Massoni likes sheet mulching because you "build up rather than dig down." She covered part of her lawn with raised beds of soil delivered by a local nursery and framed with salvaged wood. Then she covered the remaining lawn with cardboard and free wood chips from a local arborist, which made a good walking path.

Being in the front yard, she says, has been a revealing experience. "People would stop by and talk" while she worked, even her mail carrier. "It's been a very social thing."

An added bonus is to put the garden right in front as you come and go from the house.

"It gets more attention," Massoni says. "You can pull weeds when they're smaller, and you notice when things need watering and picking."

Some gardeners take raised beds even higher, like Julia Field of Ballard, who's working with a group of friends and roommates to start a food garden in stainless-steel animal-feed troughs. They bought seven of the containers and are filling them with soil and plants.

"I wanted to raise the crops out of the range of romping and peeing dogs," she says.

Planting-strip possibilities. For a small yard or one that's already full of plants, where do you put your edibles? Some are using the "planting strip," that stretch of land between the sidewalk and the street. Technically owned by the city but maintained by homeowners, it's currently the turf of a food-gardening debate.

Rick Sheridan, communications manager for the Seattle Department of Transportation, says the city tends to discourage food gardening there. He says rainwater often collects there, and can contain contaminants from sidewalks, driveways and streets. Also, the plants are susceptible to contaminants from vehicles.

"Even if it's organic, the amount of washing required to remove traffic pollution on spinach, lettuce or strawberries would be self-defeating," says Green Lake-area gardener Jim Sykes.

However, some planting strips represent a wealth of potential acreage.

"I've got a corner lot in Ballard with an abnormally wide parking strip," says Erin Jenkins, whose goal is to have "everything at the sidewalk level [be] edible in some way.

"I've met all my neighbors by working out there and explaining it to them. Half are inspired, half think I'm nuts. It's fun!"

If you do plan to dig up the planting strip, the city requires a "street-use permit," said Sheridan, adding that if no significant changes are needed, it will be a no-fee permit. There are rules about structures and height of plantings allowed on strips.

Wherever the new garden goes, Ockerlander advises "small steps" to learn as you grow. "A standard P-Patch plot is a good model, so 10-by-10 feet would be a good start."

Bill Thorness is a freelance garden writer in Seattle. Contact him at bill@thorness.com.