Americans love their lawns. They are gathering places for family, friends, and neighbors; a private arena for sports and relaxation. Grass feels good to the touch, cut grass freshens the smell of the air, and the whole brings an image of peace of mind. In passing through suburban neighborhoods, anywhere in the country, where one landscaped lawn follows another, we can vividly see the pride Americans take in their lawns.

       But there is trouble in paradise! The American lawn has become the subject of criticism, the most serious of which is its implication as another factor in the deterioration of the local, regional, and global environment. To understand this turn of events, it is useful to examine some of the historical reasons why the lawn has reached its position of esteem in the American psyche, how the commercialization of the lawn has led to conflict with environmental goals, and what might be done to permit us to enjoy the many virtues of the lawn while reducing its impact on nature.

       History of the lawn

       The lawn, as we know it, is not an old tradition: It was conceived by eighteenth-century English landscape gardeners. As English cities became increasingly polluted and disease-ridden, gardeners took advantage of the mild, moist climate of England and transformed the estates of the elite into great rolling landscapes of rocks, trees, and water all bound together by the moisture-loving lawn. All marks of human activity were erased to produce peaceful pictures of nature.

       This vision of the English landscape was brought to America and incorporated into the estates of wealthy Americans like Thomas Jefferson who designed Monticello and the University of Virginia around the lawn, and George Washington, whose Mount Vernon estate featured a great tree-lined sward of grass sweeping down to the Potomac River. Lawns were not uncommon in late eighteenth-century America, but with few exceptions they were kept to a minimum. Grass was cut by hand scythes or grazing animals.