Nicole Johnsey Burke walks through five steps to turn a lawn into a kitchen garden: plan by checking sunlight and sketching it out, prepare the site, build raised beds from cedar or steel, fill them with one-third compost, one-third topsoil, and one-third coarse sand, then plant herbs on borders and vegetables in the center.
Chapters
If you want to turn your boring grass into a gorgeous kitchen garden, here are the 5 steps you can't skip. Step number 1: Make a plan first. Look at the sun, your water source, accessibility to your kitchen, and then design your space on paper. Step number 2: Prep your space. Border it, clear it, level it, and then cover it. Step number 3: Build your structures. Raised beds should be made out of cedar, steel, or stone, and trellises for your vining plants should be either panels, obelisks, Or arches. Step number 4, set up your soil and water. For the soil, do my soil mix: 1/3 compost, 1/3 topsoil, 1/3 coarse sand. And then for your irrigation, run a line into your beds and then set up drip irrigation on the top of your soil. Step number 5, put in your plants. Herbs and flowers should border, then large fruiting plants can go down the middle of the bed. Root crops can be planted alongside the fruiting plants, and then finally put your leafy greens in all the blank spaces. I made a resource that'll help you get started going from grass to garden in your own and you can get it right below this video.