Why do Americans spend so much time and money on their lawns?
Every week in the hot summer I go to the garage and pull out the old red Honda mower and get to walking back and forth cutting the grass. I always feel a sense of accomplishment once I finish and it looks great, but why do I spend these hours in the hot summer heat when I could be doing something else. Because everyone else always does. It’s a staple of suburbia, perfect green grass, no dead patches, all cut to the same height, perfectly straight lines.
The market for lawn care supplies is booming, and it always has been, at least for the past hundred years or so. According to the Chicago Tribune, the average American spends over 70 hours on lawn and garden care every year. This number is very high, considering many people do not have lawns, and some do not spend time mowing even if they do. There is so much that goes into a healthy lawn. Lawns require gasoline, electricity, fertilizer, meticulous work to look their best, and even with all that, it can go wrong. It can have weeds, it can have dead patches, grubs, not enough sun, too much sun, and so many more problems. If all of these factors can affect the outcome of a lawn, then why do we even bother with them, what’s the big deal?
Obviously, people love to have a good-looking lawn, everyone wants the nicest yard on the block, but one of my questions is how did it all start? What made people decide that it was how we were going to use the land between our houses and the street for grass? The answers I have come across all towards sheep grazing and the turf being short because of livestock grazing all day, but as not everyone has livestock, it does not really stick. According to Planet Natural, the lawn comes from wealthy landowners in England during the 1600s. They needed more and more human labor to keep the grass nicely cropped. Because of the cost of labor, only the rich could afford to keep their grass pristine, so the rich had large sprawling green areas around their houses. Also, it was kind of a flex, it was the rich showing how much money they had because they could use the land for things other than crops, just grass, which bears no crop. As people moved to America, they brought seeds with them, whether it was deliberately or just on the soles of their shoes. People planted their own lawns and maintained them and eventually, even more, the grass was planted due to the growing popularity of lawn bowling and golf in Europe. The desire to play these games made people need places to play them.
Golf had a huge influence on lawns as we know them. It gave people a viable reason to grow something that had no benefit besides looking good. Lawns were already an established phenomenon, but with the creation of the first golf course in the US in 1888, and the instant popularity of the game, more courses were built. It became a business and building the nicest golf course was the goal, so they kept one-upping each other and the grass was cared for meticulously. People tried to make their lawns look like sprawling green carpets, such as the one seen in the picture to the right. The bar was raised in a big way. As this was happening and the 1900s rolled around, suburbs and cities became more defined, people wanted an escape from the concrete jungles they called home. This lead to parks being created in cities as green spaces to play games and relax. Turf became commonplace almost everywhere. The suburbs were and still are covered by it.
20% of New Jersey is covered by grass. 10% of Connecticut is lawn, this may have many positives for the environment, but it also has its drawbacks. First of all, fertilizer can have horrible effects on wildlife and the environment according to North Dakota State University research. When fertilizer gets into water systems it can destroy the ecosystem. It promotes the growth of microorganisms which leads to there not being enough oxygen for fish and other aquatic life to survive. The fish and other wildlife suffocate and die. Fish are also very sensitive to ammonia, a common part of fertilizer and manure. In a concentration of even.02 parts per million(ppm), for reference carbon dioxide, peaked at 419 ppm in the past year. Given that humans had no problem with breathing 419 ppm Carbon dioxide, the .02 ppm of ammonia should be quite the shock of how little it takes to harm fish.
Along with fertilizer being an environmental concern, the vast majority of lawncare equipment being used every day is gas-powered, not much gas is used in each, but it adds up. Every day throughout suburbia there are landscapers working, or even just homeowners keeping their lawns looking neat. According to the University of Vermont, Yale estimates that the United States, “uses more than 600 million gallons of gas to mow and trim lawns each year.” That is about two gallons per person or five per household. 600 million gallons is no small number and is a cause for environmental concern as well as fertilizer
The homeowning American spends over 500 dollars a year on lawn care. That’s over 100 dollars more than previous years. Even with all of the problems that come with lawn maintenance, the lawn care market is booming.
Even with these negatives, Americans spend their time and hard-earned money to try to emulate the perfect golf course that is probably a few minutes from their suburban neighborhood. In my experience, I have found that about fifty percent of the time I enjoy, or at least do not mind mowing the lawn, but that other half is dreadful midsummer heat beating down on me for the two hours that I am pacing back and forth across my yard.
I think the answer lays within the idea of people being obsessed with their image. As I discussed before, manicured lawns go back to Europe long ago, and the wealthy would be the ones with the big open lawns. I think that stigma has stuck with the idea of the golf course putting green-style yards seen across the suburbs of America. No one wants to be the guy with the patchy, weed-filled, brown lawn. They don’t like how it looks, and they think that other people will look at them differently. The image is worth the work, and personally, there is almost no feeling as gratifying as turning off the mower and admiring the silvery green stripes running up and down the yard.
I do not think I will stop mowing my lawn, but it does add another perspective to my thoughts of what a lawn is. No longer is it a nice lush green space, but it is hundreds of dollars of work, harmful fertilizer, and hours of dedication.