How-To: Front Yard Garden

Avid gardner and Instructables user AngryRedhead writes:

Personally, I’m not one for lawns. I am not vehemently opposed to them or anything, but lawns need to serve a functional purpose in my landscape. My dogs aren’t about to be set loose in the front yard, and I’m not about to start a croquet match in it. If I had kids, I doubt I would send them out front to play next to a road where people have become a bit too convinced that they are in fact excellent drivers and that children don’t randomly run out in front of their cars.

I like plants, lots of them, and gardening is a high-priority hobby in my life. I went nursery hopping in North Carolina for my honeymoon! I would hate to lose valuable gardening real estate to a nonfunctional lawn especially when that lawn is on the southern side of the house in a region plagued by heat and drought. Who wants to be watering and mowing in summers typified by 100F, humid weather? That sounds like a little slice of hell to me.

So the lawn got the boot in the front yard and will be relocated to the back where it’s cooler and will serve a more functional purpose. This Instructable details planning considerations for someone wanting to tackle a project like this and how my SO and I went about doing it.