On a warm and cloudy Saturday morning, nine volunteers gathered in a front yard on a leafy residential street in Ogden. By the time lunch rolled around, Mark Lee’s yard would no longer be your typical suburban grass. It’d be an edible garden.
Wearing a red trucker cap and khaki zip-off hiking pants, Lee dug up weeds around the edge of an existing stone garden bed. He had a few weeks to prepare for his lawn transformation, so he collected wood from the old deck of a friend’s neighbor. And with help from buddies with trailers, he hauled in piles of free rough-cut mulch from the city green waste site.
“I've always been interested in sustainable gardening and stuff like that,” Lee said.
And while this wasn’t his first time playing in the dirt, he appreciated having nine extra sets of hands.
That’s where Foodscaping Utah came in. They help Ogden-area residents transform their lawns into fruit and vegetable gardens. In return, participants agree to donate some of their crop to local food banks or neighbors, volunteer at a future event or support the organization financially.
Lee got on board after he saw a sign for the nonprofit while walking his dog and applied to participate this spring. His 50th birthday motivated him to give back.
“I want to grow the stuff that grows quick and easy and it's plentiful,” he said. “And I don't care if somebody walks by and is like, ‘Oh, I need a tomato.’ I mean, if they need it, then more power to them.”
For Lee’s yard, a grant from Foodscaping Utah paid for soil, compost and metal to make trellises. The funds came from their classes and YouTube channel, along with donations. Getting started can be overwhelming, so their mission is to set people up for success.
John Trimble and his wife, Holly, started Foodscaping Utah in 2017, and it became a nonprofit in 2019. He thanked the volunteers in Lee’s yard for coming.
“Let's grow some food!” he said.
Foodscaping Utah schedules garden overhauls for Saturday mornings in May, when the weather is nice, produce can be planted and families haven’t yet taken off for vacations. They focus on front yards so passersby can see that Utah is ripe for growing.
Fruits and vegetables use less water than typical sprinklers raining on grass, but Trimble said foodscaping is also about getting the most out of the land.
“Those of us who are fortunate enough to have space, if we can use water efficiently and then also provide the most nutritious, delicious food in the process, that's the ideal way to go.”
Trevor von Niederhausern, one of the volunteers raking soil on a raised bed in Lee’s yard, discovered Foodscaping Utah while searching for grass-free alternatives for his new home in Layton.
“It's kind of a huge learning curve that I've worried about,” he said.
He had little gardening experience, but by volunteering, he learned how to layer soil and compost and how to set up different types of planters.
He also appreciated the tips he’s picked up from more experienced gardeners, like Elaine Schnabel, who replaced most of her lawn with perennial, pollinator-friendly gardens long before finding out about Foodscaping Utah.
“The first time I showed up, everyone had nice conversations, and we were just sort of hanging out, like right now, just ripping tape off boxes,” she said. “It's not complicated, but it's just nice to spend time with other people on the weekends.”
Those empty cardboard boxes, once tape-free, became the base layer of Lee’s new garden. Volunteers laid them flat across the lawn to prevent weeds from growing and keep the ground’s moisture in.
Kneeling on the untouched side of the yard, Kyra Sutherland cut brown tubing for the drip irrigation system. After taking a foodscaping course and apprenticing with the Trimbles in 2023, she was back to volunteer.
“I grew up with a dad who is very into self-sustainability and self-reliance, so I love that aspect that you can grow your own food,” she said.
Plus, growing food at home gives her control over fertilizers and pesticides. Harvesting her produce, like raspberries, also saves money at the grocery store. She uses the garden as a teaching opportunity for her children and likes helping others cultivate their green thumbs.
“I just helped my mom put in a garden in her backyard, and she's giddy with all the lettuce that she's getting,” she said. “And that fills me with joy.”
By the time pizza arrived at 11:45 a.m., the front half of the lawn was covered in dark brown mulch. Six raised beds were full of soil and compost. Brown tubing sat in each one, ready to be hooked up to the hose.
Lee’s next step was choosing what to plant and where.
“I think it's gonna be awesome,” he said. “I'm excited. I want to have a garden party and grow some squashes and some melons and stuff like that.”
He was especially looking forward to planting Israeli cantaloupe seeds he got from a friend.
As part of the deal with Foodscaping Utah, he planned to donate some of the food he would grow to a food bank, community fridge or his neighbors. Beyond that, he hoped to inspire others.
“It'd be cool to actually just meet somebody that, like me, when they walk by, they see the sign, and they're like, ‘Hey, how'd you do that?’”
It’s not just about growing food, he said, but about making the community stronger.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
