[NatureNS] Lawn flowers/weeds

From: "joan waldron" <waldrojo@ns.sympatico.ca>
To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
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Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:06:53 -0300
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I've been trying to locate a book published about five years ago about the
lawns in our lives. It’s a British book and I remember the review I read, I
think was in the Times and covered the sociological and historical look at
lawns.  It’s a sore point with me. I am the president of a Halifax condo and
the owners think the grass should look like a golf green( the chemical
kind). I keep meaning to ask Terry Paquettes brother who is librarian at the
ag college, whether he has heard of it.
Its awful that we human beings are held to ransom by grass
Joan Waldron

-----Original Message-----
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca]
On Behalf Of Wild Flora
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 4:21 PM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: RE: [NatureNS] Lawn flowers/weeds

Thanks, Jane, for making the point that the notion that every man is
entitled to his own plot of land came out of the English Arts and Crafts
movement. What I find even more interesting, however, is to look at how
differently that idea was executed in England as opposed to what happened to
it in the North American suburbs.

I have a special connection to this topic because my grandparents lived in a
tiny house outside of London, built pre-WWII in what would then have been
the British equivalent of suburbs. Their little plot probably exemplified
the Arts & Crafts ideal: There was almost nothing in front of the house
except a fence and a wisteria vine that covered the front of the house.
Their yard, which was very small by North American standards, was all behind
the house. It consisted of large, very tidy flower beds that could be viewed
only from private family rooms at the back of the house, behind which was an
intensively managed vegetable and fruit garden that allowed my grandparents
to produce much of their own food.

The difference between this vision of what a middle-class landscape is
supposed to be and that of Americans in the 20th century is dramatic: In the
English version, landscaping supports an ideal of self-sufficiency and
private enjoyment of one's labour, in keeping with the ideals of the Arts &
Crafts movement; the nearly blank façade presented to the world is designed
to reinforce the notion that the home is a highly private, family-oriented
space.

In contrast, the American suburban lawn is a highly public statement of the
owner's ability to afford a resource-intensive landscape that serves little
or no practical purpose, in keeping with the ideal of "conspicuous
consumption" that was first identified by Thorstein Veblen in 1899. Also, in
its defining (1950s) form, the American lawn is never fenced and was often
paired with a gigantic "picture" window on the front of the house. The
result is that, instead of screening the family from public view, this
landscape actually puts the family on display for anyone to see.

WF

-----Original Message-----
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca]
On Behalf Of David&Jane Schlosberg
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 2:40 PM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: RE: [NatureNS] Lawn flowers/weeds

And don't forget, the whole suburban cottage idea came out of the Arts and
Crafts movement of the early 20th century, begun in England.  This concept,
as I understand it, had to do with the rise of the middle class as a result
of the industrial revolution.  People felt that "a man's home is his
castle."  Everyone should have this little heavenly haven to come home to
after work.  Probably, the wealthy, educated men who conceived of and
promoted this idea had gardeners.
Cheers.
Jane

-----Original Message-----
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca
[mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca]On Behalf Of Wild Flora
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2007 8:03 AM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: RE: [NatureNS] Lawn flowers/weeds



Joan asked, "I wonder when large lawns became a status symbol?

I have a fascinating book on that topic: "The Lawn: A History of an American
Obsession" by Virginia Scott Jenkins, published by the Smithsonian
Institution Press in 1994. Jenkins says that the lawn as we know it now is a
product of the American suburbs of the 1950s. However, the idea of lawn got
its start at the end of the 18th century, when a few upper class Americans
tried to imitate the landscaping style of English and French country
estates. (As it happens, this landscaping style is spectacularly unsuitable
to growing conditions in most of North America, but apparently the
attraction of lawn-as-status-symbol was already far stronger than the
counter-argument of lawn-as-pain-in-the-neck.)

Within 100 years, the popularity of lawn had trickled down to the American
upper middle class. However, by this time the style already looked almost
nothing like the aristocratic European landscapes that originally inspired
it. European visitors to North America in the 19th century regarded the
American front lawn as "strange," according to Jenkins.

In the 20th century, the lawn was adopted by the middle middle class, which
took it along as the suburbs were developed, making lawn the conventional
style of landscaping for conventional suburban housing throughout North
America. The popularity of lawns was encouraged by the growing popularity of
golf, which helped to funnel money into development of tools, chemicals, and
special seed mixes required to maintain lawns (especially in environments to
which they're not suited). A third influence was increasing affluence and
the 40-hour work week--because of these, the North American middle class now
had the time and money necessary to maintain those lawns. Today lawn care is
a multi-billion dollar industry that benefits from the widespread, yet
questionable, notion that a well-maintained lawn is a status symbol.

Wild Flora




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