One homeowner was excited to share their progress after turning a lawn into a "food bowl."
"I said I'd share our backyard, so here you go. Before and after," said the original poster.
In the "before" images, the space is filled with an unproductive lawn, complete with yellow spots.
"Here in Perth, Western Australia, in the deep, hot summer, the best you can hope for is a crispy, brown lawn," said the OP. "Our backyard would, without fail, go brown two weeks into the heat of summer." They lamented the amount of water, fertilizer, and time it took to maintain any trace of green.
"After a time my wife and I both thought it was time to move away from lawn and onto something more productive. Perth soil is notoriously poor so our ideas focused on raised garden beds," the OP continued.
Their "after" photo shows the lawn replaced with five large raised garden boxes and tidy mulch paths. The garden is clearly flourishing, with green everywhere.
"The former lawn pop-up sprinklers were repurposed to provide water to the beds on stations,"
the OP added. "Since this picture we've added another three raised beds. Food production is year-round with seasonal crops planned and prepared for. Produce is eaten, canned, jarred, jammed and preserved."
The original poster was more than satisfied with the change. "Physically, it's great fun in the garden. Mentally, it's our happy space. Visually it's so much better than lawn," they said.
That makes sense, because gardening has been shown to be good for physical and mental health. It's also good for the environment, supporting pollinators that help the garden thrive.
Growing your own food can produce an average of $600 worth of food each year, assuming you invest $70 into it to start. There's the added benefit of avoiding mass-shipped produce at stores, lessening the environmental impact.
Commenters loved the transformation. "Beautiful! I really like the idea of using the sprinklers that were already there," said one user.
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