Is it possible to convert your lawn into a garden that can feed your family?
Yes. But, the faster you need to do it, the harder it is to do.
Unfortunately, the soil below most lawns is in terrible condition. It barely supports life. That means in terms of feeding people, it is as bad as a North Korean dictator.
It’s not that we don’t spend money on it.
We spend a lot of money — up to $40 billion a year on lawn care in the US — to keep it this way.
That’s a heck of a lot of money to spend on an inch of sod with a substance abuse problem — eithout a steady stream of chemicals and care, it would die.
So, what can you do?
My strong recommendation is to plan and implement a foodscape that produces food naturally, with a minimal amount of work/cost. I’ve got a report coming up that will detail how to do that soon.
In the meantime, here’s a low cost investment that that can get you started.
Turn it into a lawn that fertilizes itself and rehabilitates the soil.
To do that, do one simple thing: plant clover. Clover (white clover is a good start) is a nitrogen fixer, it takes nitrogen out of the air and puts it back into the soil, fertilizing it. It can also detoxify soil.
In many yards, like mine, white clover grows on its own.
In my case, I just let it “infest” my yard. I then help it along by mowing the yard closely (a close mowing favors clover over grass) and mowing around the clover that is going to seed.
If clover isn’t present already, you can seed it yourself or get some help seeding it. Options include a complete clover solution like this (the brown on the right in the picture, is the neighbor’s scrub grass yard):
or something closer to a standard lawn like this:
No matter what you decide, you are:
- building up the quality of the soil so you have the option of planting a garden there in the future.
- saving money and effort in ongoing maintenance of the lawn.
- providing a healthier and better looking lawn for your family.
White clover or clover mixes are both easy to find and inexpensive. So, there isn’t any obstacle to doing it.
Remember, the earlier you get going, the faster the transformation begins.
Get Resilient,
JOHN ROBB
