Westside Lawn Makeover: From Grass to Edible Oasis

This summer, Chris and Marie Brown, a Madison Westside couple with three young children, decided that they were tired of mowing their expansive front lawn. They wanted to rip out most of the grass and replace it with gardens, but they weren’t sure where to start. They called Madison Farmworks, a local business that designs, installs and maintains vegetable gardens, for a consultation on turning their lawn into an edible landscape.

Madison FarmWorks created the overall design for the front of their property, which includes fruit trees, raised garden beds, a cutting flower garden, a strawberry patch, stone paths and a play area for their children. After discussing the master design with the Browns, the staff at Madison FarmWorks had an idea that went one step further than pure design. They returned to the couple with a proposal – Farmworks would coordinate and lead a weekend work party to implement the design if the Browns could recruit family, friends and neighbors to do the work.

“After working on the design with them we realized that what they wanted to do was a big job for a busy couple with three kids. We thought it would be fun to help them bring the design into reality quickly by hosting a big work party,“ explains Megan Cain, Program Manager for Farmworks.

The Browns enthusiastically agreed to this idea and began alerting their friends and neighbors to the installation day with an electronic invitation that dubs the work party the ‘Brownyard Blitz’ and promises good food and Chris’ homebrew as payment.

“We had just read the book Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn and were inspired by the concept of radically altering our front lawn into a more usable, beautiful and edible landscape. And we liked the idea of a work party to bring together our community of friends and neighbors”, explains homeowner Chris Brown.

This week has been busy with the final preparations before the big work party this weekend – ordering garden soil for the raised beds, deciding on the type of stone to use for the paths, and, of course, renting a sod stripper to get rid of the unwanted front lawn.

Brownyard Blitz, October 3 & 4, 9am-5pm.

For more information about Madison Farmworks and Community GroundWorks visit their website at www.troygardens.org