Lawns

Lawns, as they are commonly understood in the United States today, are expanses of closely mown perennial grass. They are often found around suburban houses, sports fields, parks, and public sites. In order to maintain their uniform evergreen appearance, lawns generally require regular intensive management, including fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation. Until mid-century, lawns in the north primarily included Kentucky bluegrass, and lawns in the south primarily included bermudagrass. Since the 1970s and 80s breeders have hybridized and cloned grasses to produce varieties suited for hightraffic areas, shade, and disease-resistance, and differing conditions of soil and climate. Current varieties include types of bahia, bentgrass, zoysia, fescues, and perennial ryegrass.

The modern American lawn has its roots in late 18th century Europe. There the Romantic Movement led some aristocrats to convert their formal geometric gardens to a naturalistic style including swaths of lawn. Mimicking flowery meadows grazed low by sheep and cows, these Romantic lawns required servant labor to keep them shorn. In the early 19th century a few wealthy Americans [Page 1030]began imitating this style. By the 1880s, the middle classes followed suit by creating smaller lawns on their new suburban house-lots. Magazines promoted the lawn as an aesthetic and social ideal that allowed leisure activities such as croquet, lawn tennis, lawn bowling, and archery. The growing sports of golf and baseball also played a role in the evolution of lawns. By 1912, in response to pressure from the United States Golf Association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began research into turfgrass breeding. The growing desire for lawns also encouraged private research in grass seed, mowers, sprinklers, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides. First patented in England in 1830, the lawnmower became widely available to wealthier households in the United States during the 1870s.