History of Lawns?

I believe (and I'm no expert, so quoting me is worthless) that the current practice that we associate with "lawns" is a relatively recent invention. According to the all-knowing-occassionally-incorrect wikipedia, lawns began as semi-natural grazing areas. The act of grazing kept the lawn closely mowed. Although they were popular, they weren't used for gardening.

My intuition proves correct however - wikipedia states that it wasn't until the 1600s that lawns were used as a gardening element for the yard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn

David Quammen has an essay that, as i recall, covers a bit of the history of lawns. It's in his book "The Boilerplate Rhino" and is titled 'Rethinking the Lawn: Turf Warfare in the American Suburbs'.

I remember reading (maybe the Quammen referenced above) that the word "lawn" originally meant something like "used pasture"--i.e. grassy areas that had been grazed down to turf (by sheep, I think, I associate this story with Scotland). Richer people with more livestock had as a consequence more "lawn," and this came to be viewed as a status symbol.
I'd guess golf has a similar origin story.

I'm sure I've read a review of such a book.

There was a Modern Marvels bit on the history channel on Yard Tech. It talked about the history of lawns and lawn equipment.

A quick search of my university library gives two books about the history of lawns although the title of the 2nd does not mention lawns. Reading further it has one essay on lawns:

1) The lawn : a history of an American obsession / Virginia Scott Jenkins. Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Press, c1994. Jenkins, Virgina Scott.

2) Reading Stephen Sondheim : a collection of critical essays / edited and with an introduction by Sandor Goodhart. New York ; London : Garland Pub., 2000.

Looks like there is space for a world history of lawns.

It's not the gas for the mowers that's the major problem - it's the water, fertilizers and herbicides needed to keep that lawn in shape. I can't remember the numbers, but the volumes of water and herbicides applied to lawns are staggering.

I believe a significant motivation for the development of formal lawns was to show off the fact that you could afford the small army of gardeners originally needed to maintain them.

I second the issue of water. Like many people, my family and I bought a house that had large tracts of Kentucky bluegrass lawn around it. Trying to recreate Kentucky's climate in Colorado isn't cheap. My oldest daughter was incredulous when I explained that the grass uses far more water than all the human members of the family combined, but it does -- the summer water bill used to be 3 to 4 times the winter (i.e., no outdoor watering) bill.

About 3/4 of our lawn is now gone -- and it's likely a little more will go soon. Getting rid of the grass was a no-brainer once we were able to find a good landscaper: It took an hour or more to mow, never looked good no matter how much watering and weeding and fertilizing we did, and was a constant source of warm-weather irritation. The side yard now has several trees in it that are native to the area, with additional water-wise plants to follow soon, and much of the back yard is now a garden.

I theorized that lawns (19th and 20the century grass styles) were a way to indicate a person's wealth. One could grow a useless crop on one's land and pay for the it's maintainence. Similar to the desire for the wealthy to be non-tanned during the 19th and first half of the 20th century. It indicated one did not have to work in the fields or as a laborer.

Re #7: I've got to ask what Stephen Sondheim has to do with lawns. I suppose the Isle Grand Jatte had some lawn-like areas, but I don't recall Sondheim making a big deal about it. Something in Assassins? Or Passion?

So my husband and I have decided this year to give up and give the lawn over to the prettier low growing weeds. Clover is quite pretty and fragrant. Violets grow in our yard pretty strongly as well. And there is this other weed with small purple flowers that is spreading quite nicely. We'll try to keep the dandylions and the prickly tall things in check, but the rest of them will have full immunity for this season. Of course it helps that we live in a college town on a block known more for its tree hugging liberal ways, as opposed to the more lawn conscious suburbs.

On a bookshelf elsewhere I have "Redesigning the American Lawn," by F. Herbert Bormann, Diana Balmori and Gordon Geballe. It's a look at better ways to manage lawns.

One point they make is that different types of grass are already adapted to different regions, and there's no reason that bluegrass should be on every lawn. Regional grass mixtures will be more resistant to the local soil, pests and climate, and with care, may grow more slowly, requiring less mowing. Also that the obsession with obliterating clover is a modern phenomenon. Thomas Jefferson praised the clover-spotted lawns around Monticello, for instance. Clover, as a legume, also helps fertilize the lawn.

Hope that helps.

A recent book is American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn by Ted Steinberg, though I haven't read it. I've been looking at The Organic Lawn Care Manual by Paul Tukey for ideas on how to keep my own lawn self-maintaining without herbicides, pesticides & artificial fertilizers, and with minimum watering and effort.

I don't fertilize, spray, or water my bluegrass-covered yard at all (and my neighbors would say I barely mow it. :) This low-maintenance approach does kind of benefit from actually living in Kentucky, however.

I really don't care for lawns anyway. If I had to put any more work into than I do I'd just let it die. More "exotic" places like Florida and Colorado *should* encourage the use of native plants - it's not just easier and more environmentally friendy, it just looks better.

Scott (#10),

From the catalog description,

Paul M. Puccio and Scott F. Stoddart -- Pt. 2. Plays. Ch. 7. Enchantment on the Manicured Lawns: The Shakespearean "Green World" in A Little Night Music.

It is apparently a lit crit review of something Sondheim wrote that I am not familiar with. Probably has little to do with the subject at hand. I just copied and pasted what came up with the subject search of 'history lawn'.

I had a post on this on my old blog. Unfortunately the comments are all lost, but you have most of the links you need already in your own comments.

Lawns used to be open space amidst a forest ( = glade), or random untilled land--not so much about the deliberate civilized aspect, rather accidental-pastoral.

I've no idea how old the concept is, since pushing the word itself doesn't help: enclosures are not the same as a manicured sward.

This is, therefore, a non-comment.

And then there is Ted Steinberg's American Green published in 2005. Great history of the American Lawn. He did a lot of his research at the Michigan State University Libraries' Turfgrass Information Center.

Here in Florida, they passed a law stating that the gated-community gestapos that incorporate after October 2001 cannot mandate a lawn. This was done in deference to the increasing practice of Florida Friendly Yards and Xeriscaping.

I try to balance our mixed greens lawns (for the kids) with drought tolerant plants along the border.