Lawns are useful as a free area where you can do all kinds of activities like sports, social gatherings, religious ceremonies, an area to build large things, and also just hang out and look at all your plants.
I mean, yeah, but it's also a pretty central part of this yard plan, so the yard is kind of functioning as a pathway here. If you imagine a bunch of lil paths going in various directions instead of plain grass it doesn't seem unreasonable.
Yeah I think if you got rid of the lawn and just had narrow paths with everything densely planted with “useful plants” then it would feel less like a homestead and more like a jungle.
It’s fine but you can’t really play sports or have a picnic or a barbecue or set up a slip n slide or many other fun activities that lawns are good for!
Also a dense jungle of food-bearing plants like tomatoes is highly susceptible to disease. Tomatoes need a lot of airflow to keep their leaves dry so they don’t develop powdery mildew.
Maybe if you’re using 18th century farming technology. In the modern day we have things like drip irrigation and tractors. Even a 1940s tractor is more than enough for a 1 acre plot.