Step 1: Rediscover Your Soil

You have a few options for turfing your turf:

1. Cut it off and compost it, then feed it back into your soil.

PRO: it exposes the soil right away, so you can get growing sooner.
CON: back-breaking work, only partly alleviated if you rent a sod cutter.

2. Mow your lawn very close to the soil, then mulch (suffocate) the grass with a light-proof material, such as layers of newspaper (10 sheets thick). It helps if you wet the newspaper before laying it down, to jumpstart the decomposition process and keep it from blowing around. Top the newspaper with 6-12 inches of compost, straw, leaves, grass clippings, manure and/or topsoil. Everything naturally decomposes into the soil.

PRO: much easier to do and the decomposed plant material feeds your soil, making it more fertile in the long run.
CON: takes awhile (allow at least two months) to breakdown the sod, depending on moisture, temperature, your worm population, and whether you’re planting seeds or transplants. It helps the mulch breakdown if you run the sprinkler on it once in awhile.

3. Chew it up and mix it into your soil with a rototiller or by hand.

PRO: it’s more efficient and takes up less space than removing and composting the grass, and your soil directly benefits from the nutrients as the grass decomposes.
CON: depending on your rototiller, climate and season, it’ll take at least three rototilling sessions over six to eight weeks to break down the sod.

4. Flip the blocks of sod upside-down.

PRO: for a small area, this is the most efficient and effective method.
CON: this method may confuse the soil microbiology — allow a month or so for everything to acclimatize.

Keep in mind that larger plants, such as shrubs and trees, have deeper roots then grass and so will likely need more topsoil than what is usually found beneath lawns. Even if you’re just planting a vegetable garden, the soil under your lawn has likely been compacted by foot traffic and will need additional soil, compost, and TLC to give it the fertility and conditions necessary to grow food. You can also use a garden fork to gently lift and aerate the soil.

“The lawns in the United States consume around 270 billion gallons of water a week—enough to water 81 million acres of organic vegetables, all summer long.”
- Heather Coburn Flores, Food Not Lawns

Step 2: Strategy, Design and Structure

Most vegetables (e.g. carrots, garlic, potatoes) grow best when you raise them above the ground level somewhat — and it’s easier for you to work with them that way, too. Some gardeners build wooden frames (e.g. 2ft by 6 ft by 1 ft high) and build up the soil inside so that the bed is a foot above the ground level. You can also rake soil from either side to create a row, then pat down the peak to flatten it. Squash, potatoes and cucumbers grow well in mini-hills, but this isn’t a very efficient use of space. Try to leave paths between your raised beds or rows, to make it easier to move around your garden.

For some interesting garden strategies and methods, Google:
- lasagna gardening
- square foot gardening
- SPIN gardening (small plot intensive)
- biointensive gardening
- no till / no dig gardening

Must-haves for the complete garden:
- rain barrel to collect water and avoid the cost/waste/limitations of municipal water sources
- compost area for leaves, kitchen scraps (not meat), plant clippings, and sod
- worm bin to produce super-powered worm castings to feed your garden

“The lawn is one of America’s leading ‘crops,’ amounting to at least twice the acreage planted in cotton. It is estimated that there are roughly 25 to 40 million acres of turf in the United States. Put all that grass together in your mind and you have an area, at a minimum, about the size of the state of Kentucky, though perhaps as large as Florida.”
- Ted Steinberg, American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn

Step 3: What’s for Dinner?

Low-maintenance crops:

salad greens: simply sprinkle the seeds, rake them into the soil, pat everything down, and water to trigger germination. Cut the leaves as needed to make salads, leaving the plant to continue growing. Different varieties of greens prefer different temperatures, so you can keep yourself in salad from early spring through fall by planting a few different kinds.

strawberries: buy bare-root transplants from your local nursery or ask a gardener friend for some “runners.” June-bearing strawberries will fruit prolifically in June/July the year after planting and thereafter, while ever-bearing strawberries produce over the summer months within the first year. Once planted, strawberries will produce for many years, sending out “runners” which will root and grow into new plants.

garlic: garlic cloves are planted in the fall, pointy-end up, about 6 inches apart, 2 inches deep, then covered with grass clippings and/or leaves and left to grow until harvest the following spring/summer. Very little water is required, even in hot, dry summers.

Popular crops:

sweet corn: firstly, be sure to purchase certified organic seed to avoid any contamination from genetically-modified corn. Corn is a high-maintenance crop, requiring fertile, nitrogen-rich soil and ample, frequent watering.

tomatoes: bush (determinate) varieties can grow in tomato cages or with short stakes; vine (indeterminate) varieties need a trellis or taller stakes and like to be pruned. Frequent watering and fertile soil are necessary. The UGM team highly recommends trying flavorful heritage varieties.

Kid-friendly crops:

pumpkins: these needy squash will benefit from frequent watering and excessive attention. Plant your seeds in a large hill of compost (with cow, chicken or horse manure, if you can find it), plant 6-10 seeds a few inches down, and water generously. Pumpkins need warmer temperatures, so plant only after all danger of frost has passed. Thin the seedlings down to 2 plants before they get too big.

sunflowers: choose a large variety, like Russian Mammoth or California Greystripe.

In Canada & the USA:

1. Click here to download the seed-starting spreadsheet (courtesy of Maggie Wang).
2. Enter the “Frost Free Date” for your region in the spreadsheet. (To find your last frost date for the US, click here; to find your date for Canada, click here.)
3. The spreadsheet will quickly calculate all sowing and planting dates and place them in the appropriate fields.
4. Print your chart and get ready to plant. Easy peasy!

In the UK:

1. Click here and select your region from the drop-down menu, then click “SET MY FROST DATES.”
2. Then click here (or select “Veg, Fruit & Herb Calendars” from the webpage’s left-side menu) and choose whether you want a calendar for vegetables, fruits or herbs.
3. Ta da! Print your calendar and pull on your Wellies.

Step 4: Ongoing TLC

Weed seeds can remain in soil for many years. Mulch is one of the best organic ways to prevent weeds, which will compete with your plants for space, sunlight and nutrients. Typical mulches include grass clippings, leaves, newspaper with soil or compost on top, cedar chips (expensive!), straw, hay (often full of weed seeds), and compost. Simply lay down 5 inches or so of material around your seedlings, covering as much of the soil surface as you can. This will suffocate weed seeds and stifle their growth, while providing a perfect environment for your worm helpers.

“Lawns use ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland. These pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides run off into our groundwater and evaporate into our air, causing widespread pollution and global warming, and greatly increasing our risk of cancer, heart disease, and birth defects. In addition, the pollution emitted from a power mower in just one hour is equal to the amount from a car being driven 350 miles.”
- Heather Coburn Flores, Food Not Lawns

Conclusion

Be patient with your new garden. It takes at least a few years for a new garden to perform properly. Healthy soil is key to your garden’s success and the nutrient value in your food crops: love your soil, and it’ll reward you.