Edibleyard,
I am so happy to find someone who is interested in edible landscaping! Did you get rid of all of your grass, and if so, did you get flak from your neighbors at all about it?
I did not get rid of all the grass. As soon as I can get some pics taken, I'll post some. We have a 1/2 acre on a suburban lot with no deed restrictions other than the standard county/town restrictions. Our neighbors think we're pretty weird, anyway, because we don't spray poison and mow our grass every 5 minutes. They think they live in a deed-restricted neighborhood, put plastic flowers in their landscape and complain that a lawn that wasn't mowed 5 minutes ago is dragging down their property values. The dude across the street has some palms, and he wrapped the base of one of them with a plastic garbage bag, not really sure why. It is in a rock base with curbing and giant ceramic dolphins jumping out of the rocks. These are NOT the people I want to be stuck with if TSHTF, but you do what you can...
Okay, so enough rambling about my neighbors. When we moved here 3 years ago, we put a bunch of mulch around some palm trees and made sort of a native plant bed. With food plots, I have just made small areas all around and built the soil up in those areas. I would like to have more fruit trees, but I've not had much success keeping them alive. So we actually have quite a lot of grass, but anytime the tree trimmers are in the area, I ask them to dump the mulch here, and then I create another grass free zone. I like to have some grass, for the kids, and for the possible chickens that may be here in time. Also there is a septic tank and leach lines, and that will be left as is.
Mainly, I just like to have food growing where people can see that food is growing (although sometimes I might prefer that people don't know this). I've always been fascinated to see food growing in suburban landscapes, so it's more of a "Look, food can grow right in your yard," kind of thing, and to inspire other people, and to thumb my nose at standard landscaping styles. But also, my front yard food is in the best location for the food to grow; it's near the water source and gets shade from the hottest afternoon sun.
