Lose the lawn!  Grow food and make it beautiful...Here's how:

All over America homeowners are thinking twice about their lawn that demans time, labor, money and a host of chemicals.  But what do we do with large lawn areas to make them into productive gardens?  We go back to the French home garden known as the potager (pronounced po-taa-ghay).

Often they are laid out in four quadrants divided by walkways.  This allows access in all weather to the greens and herbs and all those plants we love to use for year around garden flavor.

Below is an example of how a lawn was removed and replaced by a more ornamental quad garden.  But the urban homestead wants more than just flowers - we want something  productive with as many edible or useful plants as possible.

Some years ago I designed a quad garden in the French potager style to replace a lawn in this small bungalow yard.  I used tumbled concrete pavers from the home improvement store - both the square types and the edging models that have plastic brackets that help anchor them.  These held the pea gravel walk ways in place.  But don't feel you have to use them because you can do the very same thing with salvaged beams, railroad ties, old bricks, concrete block or anything else on hand.

To me this is an easy do it yourself project to get started with a great food garden that's attractive enough to go in the front yard where lawn used to be  And you can even adapt the old automatic lawn sprinkler system to become a micro-spray that comes on every day whether you're home or not.  This keeps everything looking beautiful if you get too busy to water.

At the center of the quads I insisted we use cast iron hose guides.  These are essential to protecting the plants that will live in these corners from being flattened by a hose should you plan to water by hand. But you can also feature a fountain, a gazing ball like above or any other attractive artistic element to make it beautiful.

With a food garden like this, who needs lawn anyway!