How to Convert Your Front Lawn Into a Vegetable Garden

Sketch your front lawn the winter prior to making any changes. Place your house and any existing landscaping in the drawing in the appropriate places. Design your vegetable garden for easy maintenance so that it will not become overgrown during the busy gardening season.

Convert your front lawn one section at a time, according to the plan you've drawn. Minimize the mess and complete one bed or area at a time before moving to the next. Lay neat paths using gravel, attractive stones or high quality mulch. Utilize built-up beds to keep appearances tidy.

Build built-up beds by joining lumber using screws or nails into rectangles no more than 4 feet wide and 8 feet long. Lay the rectangles on the ground where you desire a vegetable bed. Kill grass by layering newspapers over each area and wetting them so they stay in place. Till the newspapers into the new bed using a rototiller once the grass is completely dead. Fill the beds with extra dirt and compost if needed.

Select vegetables that have a neat appearance and trellis those that tend to sprawl. Create borders using herbs. Use vegetables like you would use landscape plants to create a visually appealing garden, mixing tall and short or bushy and trellised to create interesting textures. Seek vegetables with unique coloration or foliage, such as variegated tomatoes or purple snap beans.