I knew it would happen one of these days.  He kept coming into the house exclaiming, “That’s it.  I’m getting rid of the grass.  I’m getting rid of it altogether!”  I thought he was just joking or expressing his disdain for cutting it.  But it finally did happen.
Last year the side “yard” became an herb garden.  Then the vegetable garden took over half of the other side yard.  I use the term “yard” symbolically since the small strips of land surrounding our house on the hill add up to about the size of a large living room.  This spring, our last strip of grass is going to be fertile ground for heirloom potatoes.
It is funny, our aesthetic relationship to grass lawns.  I do find it very pleasing to look out at a beautiful lawn.  But when you think about it, unless you have kids running around and playing sports in your yard, it only serves a visual purpose.  How often do you see adults using their lawns?  The only time I see someone in their yard is to mow the grass.  Then they sit on their flagstone patio and barbecue, socialize, and look at their beautifully manicured lawn.  
For myself, I’ve noticed that when I am gardening, I do go out into my garden every day to see my plants.  I watch them sprout, grow, bloom, go to seed, and die back.  I live the cycles with them; watering them, transplanting them, talking to them, harvesting them, and thanking them.  It’s like having a yard full of friends that depend on me as I depend on them.  So much more vibrant than a vast, empty lawn.  
A few years back, when my husband first started vocalizing his plans for ridding his life of grass, I freely admit I cringed.  I really thought I would miss those little strips of green carpet.  But last year, when I found myself inundated with 50 tomatoes, 20 peppers, and 5 eggplants a week during the dog days of summer, I wasn’t missing a parched “green carpet”.  I was too busy cooking tomato sauce, roasting eggplants and making a mean ratatouille!  I can’t wait to see what bounties he and our small, but abundant garden brings to our table this year.  
If you’d like some ideas or help converting part (or all!) of your yard or adding vegetables into your landscaping, give my husband, Michael, a call.  After 15 years of landscaping and garden center work, he is turning his passion-hobby into the focus of his work!