Urban homesteading requires a certain type of landscaping that is not popular in urban and suburban neighborhoods that reveres the smooth, green homogeny of well cared for turf grass. Regardless of whether you want to start a potager garden, or convert to xeriscape, many of you will still have to deal with your turf grass. And there's no way around it, the grass must die.
There are many species of grass used for turf lawns, but for all the work and water needed to keep it looking its best, it can be very difficult to contain or kill. Grass can invade flower beds, climb over or under barriers, and even the slightest bit of root will sprout back if given the proper water and sunlight.
Oh sure, you could spend an intimate weekend with a rented turf cutter and do the back breaking work of physically stripping your lawn of grass, but why waste all the organic material? And you could dowse your whole lawn with Round-Up and kill it chemically, but that'll poison much more than just your lawn including whatever else you want to plant over it.
There's only one thing for it, you have to smother that sucker.
The best and easiest way to smother an entire lawn is to cover it with several layers of damp newspaper, and top it off with a layer of corrugated cardboard. Be sure to trim your lawn as short as your mower will allow.
Viola, your lawn is now ready to pile with compost and mulch and plant whatever your little heart desires. It will take months for the paper/cardboard to decompose and during that time your smooth green carpet will be denied vital sunlight to live and within a month it'll be completely and utterly dead. You might get a few stragglers around the edges which can be picked off by hand, but the vast hoard will have been vanquished. No tilling required. I have even heard of people applying hardscapes (pavers and slate and such) over the top of a lawn smothered in this fashion but I don't know how well that works or whether the decomposing paper causes shifting.
In addition to being much easier than turf cutting, this method also leaves the dead grass intact as vital organic matter for earthworms to enjoy. And roots from new plantings will be able to work through the decomposing cardboard and go as deeply as they need. This will also (hopefully) choke out any weeds you have in your yard which can be pretty handy.
Covenants and ordinances permitting, this is how you kill your lawn (on purpose).