By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Lawns have their place, but the front yard is rarely one of them.  No one plays or lounges on these patches of turf, they provide no habitat for birds or nectar for butterflies, you can't harvest edibles or floral bouquet material from them, and they're not even very ornamental.  In short, they're a waste of water.

That's why I was delighted to come across the conversion from lawn to edibles shown below on Shirley Bovshow's garden blog, EdenMakers.  The garden is in Los Angeles, the homeowner is Susan Yackley, and the renovation was one of the episodes on the Garden Police, a television show which airs on the Discovery Channel and which Bovshow co-hosts along with Michael Glassman.

Here's the before:

Just a patchy lawn and a few nondescript shrubs.

And, here's the after:

The turf is gone, and a mini knot garden has taken its place.  The neat triangular beds are filled with thyme and other well-behaved herbs and outlined with ordinary pavers.  (I love the way the pattern continues out into the parkway.)  The gravel in the parkway and new seating area add contrasting texture and enhance the geometry.  Besides using less water, the renovation makes the most of the home's Tudor architecture, gives the homeowner the opportunity to harvest fresh herbs, and provides her with a space to sit in her garden and chat with her neighbors.

They're young now, but two espaliered apple trees will eventually provide a screen and boundary on one side of the property.  Not to mention apples.

Follow this link for more details on the garden.