September 4, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, The History Guy tells the story of how lawn care came to be.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who's simply known as the
History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands
of people of all ages over on YouTube. The History
Guy has also heard here in our American Stories the
idea of a lawn, Well, it's very old, but it
(00:31):
took a key technology to make lawns very common. Here's
the History Guy with the story of lawn care.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
The word lawn is derived from the Middle English word land,
meaning a glad or opening in the woods. Land then
began to mean also a common area in a village
where farmers could graze livestock, place that may have looked
something like a modern lawn, giving the natural mowing and fertilizing.
The idea of the shared lawd however, shows the difference
in the understanding of a lawn at the top, as
(01:00):
the space's near houses where reserved for growing vegetables, fruits,
and herbs. The original concept of a dwelling surrounded by
grass likely came from medieval castles, which would have the
area around them clear to forest and or provide a
clear field of vision for defenders. The area thus cleared
would then naturally fill in with grasses. There is documentary
evidence of the use of deliberately cultivated turf grasses, as
(01:22):
it only as the twelfth century in England for bowling greens.
The oldest known bowling green for target style bowling to
survive to modern times was built in twelve ninety nine
in Southampton and is still used by the Southampton Bowling Club.
The use of lawns was most likely originally popularized as
a location for sports such as tennis and croquete courts
and golf putting greens. Perhaps it was the association with
(01:45):
castles homes of the wealthier. Perhaps it as simply as
a landscaping element, but the idea of a lush, carefully
cut green grass lawn gained popularity in the latter half
of the seventeenth century as part of the Magnificent Gardens
of rich estates. The legendary landscape artist Andre Lenoort used
expanses of green grass called tappy verda in the Magnificent
(02:06):
Gardens that he helped to design at places like the
Chateau deish Antilly, London's Greenwich Park, and of course the.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Magnificent Gardens at Prosade. But at the time. The only
way to keep your tapis verity cut short and.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Smooth was with a sight, cutting grass evenly with a
Scythe was labor intensive, for the cutting and sweeping required
great skill and thus was very expensive, although even the
wealthy made use of natural lawn bowing by grazing animals,
but the practicality of loans for common houses. The visceral
desire for which some scientists claim may have been derived
from ancient origins in Africa, where expanses of low lying
(02:38):
turf grass allowed humans to be able to spot both
prey and predators, can be credited to one Edwin Beard
Butting born in seventeen ninety six. Butding was a freelance
engineer from Stroud, Gloucestershire, working among the British textile industry.
He invented several things, including making improvements on a carting
machine machine that disentangles and processes fibers that can then
(02:59):
be woven. Among the inventions for which he has given
credit is the adjustable spanner. But His most influential patent
was patent number six zero eight one, granted August thirty first,
eighteen thirty and described as a new combination and application
of machinery for the purpose of cropping and shearing the
vegetable surface of lawns, grass plats and pleasure grounds. Putting
(03:20):
gotten his idea from a cross cutting device used in
textile making that uses a cutting cylinder to trim the
uneven nap from woolen cloth and give it a smooth finish.
His device, which are reportedly tested at night to protect
the idea from being stolen, used a nineteen inch frame made.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Of wrought iron.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
The more was pushed from behind the rear roller drove
gears to transfer the drive to the knives and the
cutting cylinder, and there was an additional roller paced in
between the cutting cylinder and the land roller, which was
adjusted to alter the height of the cut. The grass
clippings were thrown forward into a tray like box. The
patent description added contrary, gentlemen may find in using my
machine themselves and amusing useful and healthy exercise. Two of
(04:00):
the first machines went to Regis Park Zoological Gardens in London.
In the Oxford Colleges, Mister Curtis the formatut Regent's Park
set of the machine. It does as much work as
six or eight men with size and brooms, performing the
whole so perfectly as not to leave a mark of
any kind. Budding went into partnership with the local engineer
and manufactured his device, selling around a thousand of his
machines in the eighteen thirties. The design would develop over time. Initially,
(04:24):
a handle was added to allow the motion of the
machine to be assisted by someone pulling from the front.
It took nearly a decade before there was a patent
for a horse or pony pulled version, and versions that
used chains rather than gears, making the device lighter, came
out in the eighteen fifties. By the end of the
nineteenth century there were the first steam and petrol driven versions.
American agronomist doctor James Beard, who was so much an
(04:47):
expert on grass that he was referred to among crop
scientists as the Pope of turf Grass, noted that the
development of home lawns, ironically a connection to the wild,
has been intrinsically linked to prosperity in development. As he explained, basically,
turf grasses were developed by modern civilizations in order to
enhance the quality of life of humans. The more technically
advanced civilization, the more widely turf grasses are used. The
(05:11):
legendary American landscaper Frederick law Olmsted, who designed New York's
Central Park, designed suburbs where each house had a lawn
in the eighteen fifties. Strangely, it was the industrially manufactured
lawn mower that was essential to the lawns that were
the very symbol of the desire to escape the industrialized city.
The lawn became indelibly a part of American culture because
of developer William Jared Levitt's Levitt Towns.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
His seven large.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Housing developments, made after World War II and designed for
returning veterans in their families, became the model for suburban
and at the time almost purely Caucasian living.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
The houses, built assembly lined.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Style so that they could be produced quickly and inexpensively,
were very popular. The houses came with instructions to maintain
perfect wheat free lawns. The lawn was essential, he argued,
to the charm and beauty of the individual home. Levitt's
designed so defined American living that Time magazine named him
one of the one hundred most influential people of the
twentieth century. Grass lawns are so central to American Life
(06:09):
that a twenty seventeen article in Scientific American described them
as a physical manifestation the American dream of home ownership.
According to Esthimus, based on NASA satellite imagery, today there
are somewhere around forty million acres of lawns in the
continentally United States, making turf grass the single largest irrigated
crop in the country. American lawns take up three times
(06:32):
as much space as irrigating corn. Fully, twenty percent of
the land area of the states of Massachusetts and New
Jersey are covered in turf grass. According to a twenty
fifteen survey, American adults collectively spend more than two point
three billion minutes and roughly twenty nine point one billion
dollars on long care and gardening annually. The average American
(06:54):
homeowner will spend one hundred and fifty hours a year.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
On their lawn.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Five percent of the homeowner's surveyed agreed that my lawn
and garden are a reflection of my personality. There is
a downside. A study of emergency room incidents determined that
the US averages eighty four thou nine hundred and forty
four injuries from lawn mowers annually, and the American Academy
of Orthopedic Surgeons determine that lawnmower accidents are the number
one cause of amputations among children.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
In the United.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
States, there is some pushback and there is a movement
among some homeowners to reduce or eliminate lawns, both out
of environmental concerns and pure dislike.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
For the chore.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
A CBS News poll in twenty eleven found that for
one in five Americans, mowing the lawn was there at
least like chore, ranked lower than raking leaves or shoveling snow.
And the sentiments of this new anti lawn movement might
have been best expressed in a twenty fifteen opinion piece
published in the Chicago Tribune entitled commentary, Lawns are a
(07:53):
soul crushing time suck, and most of us.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Would be better off without them.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Still, lawns are overwhelmingly popular are among homeowners in the
United States, and not just the United States. In Australia,
which is facing civil droughts in recent years, lawns are
so popular people simply shifted to new drought resistant strains,
and there are alternatives available, both realistic, fake grasp for
your lawn and remote control robotic lawnmowers are transforming.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
The very idea of lawn maintenance.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And while lawns may have a distinguished history, their future
might be even more interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And what great storytelling the history of the lawn. And
we thank the History Guy for all that he does
for us. And if you want more stories of forgotten history,
more stories like this, please subscribe to his YouTube channel,
The History Guy. History deserves to be remembered. And I
can tell you this, I don't think doing the lawn
(08:50):
is a soul crushing time suck. And I took no
greater happiness than driving around in my riding lawnmower and
doing my lawn once a week. And my goodness, I'm
with a lot of Americans two point three billion minutes
and twenty nine billion dollars on lawn care, one hundred
and fifty hours a year, because for so many of
(09:12):
us it gives us joy, a little order out of disorder.
That's what we're doing the story of lawns and lawn
care here on our American Stories
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who's simply known as the
History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands
of people of all ages over on YouTube. The History
Guy has also heard here in our American Stories the
idea of a lawn, Well, it's very old, but it
(00:31):
took a key technology to make lawns very common. Here's
the History Guy with the story of lawn care.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
The word lawn is derived from the Middle English word land,
meaning a glad or opening in the woods. Land then
began to mean also a common area in a village
where farmers could graze livestock, place that may have looked
something like a modern lawn, giving the natural mowing and fertilizing.
The idea of the shared lawd however, shows the difference
in the understanding of a lawn at the top, as
(01:00):
the space's near houses where reserved for growing vegetables, fruits,
and herbs. The original concept of a dwelling surrounded by
grass likely came from medieval castles, which would have the
area around them clear to forest and or provide a
clear field of vision for defenders. The area thus cleared
would then naturally fill in with grasses. There is documentary
evidence of the use of deliberately cultivated turf grasses, as
(01:22):
it only as the twelfth century in England for bowling greens.
The oldest known bowling green for target style bowling to
survive to modern times was built in twelve ninety nine
in Southampton and is still used by the Southampton Bowling Club.
The use of lawns was most likely originally popularized as
a location for sports such as tennis and croquete courts
and golf putting greens. Perhaps it was the association with
(01:45):
castles homes of the wealthier. Perhaps it as simply as
a landscaping element, but the idea of a lush, carefully
cut green grass lawn gained popularity in the latter half
of the seventeenth century as part of the Magnificent Gardens
of rich estates. The legendary landscape artist Andre Lenoort used
expanses of green grass called tappy verda in the Magnificent
(02:06):
Gardens that he helped to design at places like the
Chateau deish Antilly, London's Greenwich Park, and of course the.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Magnificent Gardens at Prosade. But at the time. The only
way to keep your tapis verity cut short and.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Smooth was with a sight, cutting grass evenly with a
Scythe was labor intensive, for the cutting and sweeping required
great skill and thus was very expensive, although even the
wealthy made use of natural lawn bowing by grazing animals,
but the practicality of loans for common houses. The visceral
desire for which some scientists claim may have been derived
from ancient origins in Africa, where expanses of low lying
(02:38):
turf grass allowed humans to be able to spot both
prey and predators, can be credited to one Edwin Beard
Butting born in seventeen ninety six. Butding was a freelance
engineer from Stroud, Gloucestershire, working among the British textile industry.
He invented several things, including making improvements on a carting
machine machine that disentangles and processes fibers that can then
(02:59):
be woven. Among the inventions for which he has given
credit is the adjustable spanner. But His most influential patent
was patent number six zero eight one, granted August thirty first,
eighteen thirty and described as a new combination and application
of machinery for the purpose of cropping and shearing the
vegetable surface of lawns, grass plats and pleasure grounds. Putting
(03:20):
gotten his idea from a cross cutting device used in
textile making that uses a cutting cylinder to trim the
uneven nap from woolen cloth and give it a smooth finish.
His device, which are reportedly tested at night to protect
the idea from being stolen, used a nineteen inch frame made.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Of wrought iron.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
The more was pushed from behind the rear roller drove
gears to transfer the drive to the knives and the
cutting cylinder, and there was an additional roller paced in
between the cutting cylinder and the land roller, which was
adjusted to alter the height of the cut. The grass
clippings were thrown forward into a tray like box. The
patent description added contrary, gentlemen may find in using my
machine themselves and amusing useful and healthy exercise. Two of
(04:00):
the first machines went to Regis Park Zoological Gardens in London.
In the Oxford Colleges, Mister Curtis the formatut Regent's Park
set of the machine. It does as much work as
six or eight men with size and brooms, performing the
whole so perfectly as not to leave a mark of
any kind. Budding went into partnership with the local engineer
and manufactured his device, selling around a thousand of his
machines in the eighteen thirties. The design would develop over time. Initially,
(04:24):
a handle was added to allow the motion of the
machine to be assisted by someone pulling from the front.
It took nearly a decade before there was a patent
for a horse or pony pulled version, and versions that
used chains rather than gears, making the device lighter, came
out in the eighteen fifties. By the end of the
nineteenth century there were the first steam and petrol driven versions.
American agronomist doctor James Beard, who was so much an
(04:47):
expert on grass that he was referred to among crop
scientists as the Pope of turf Grass, noted that the
development of home lawns, ironically a connection to the wild,
has been intrinsically linked to prosperity in development. As he explained, basically,
turf grasses were developed by modern civilizations in order to
enhance the quality of life of humans. The more technically
advanced civilization, the more widely turf grasses are used. The
(05:11):
legendary American landscaper Frederick law Olmsted, who designed New York's
Central Park, designed suburbs where each house had a lawn
in the eighteen fifties. Strangely, it was the industrially manufactured
lawn mower that was essential to the lawns that were
the very symbol of the desire to escape the industrialized city.
The lawn became indelibly a part of American culture because
of developer William Jared Levitt's Levitt Towns.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
His seven large.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Housing developments, made after World War II and designed for
returning veterans in their families, became the model for suburban
and at the time almost purely Caucasian living.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
The houses, built assembly lined.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Style so that they could be produced quickly and inexpensively,
were very popular. The houses came with instructions to maintain
perfect wheat free lawns. The lawn was essential, he argued,
to the charm and beauty of the individual home. Levitt's
designed so defined American living that Time magazine named him
one of the one hundred most influential people of the
twentieth century. Grass lawns are so central to American Life
(06:09):
that a twenty seventeen article in Scientific American described them
as a physical manifestation the American dream of home ownership.
According to Esthimus, based on NASA satellite imagery, today there
are somewhere around forty million acres of lawns in the
continentally United States, making turf grass the single largest irrigated
crop in the country. American lawns take up three times
(06:32):
as much space as irrigating corn. Fully, twenty percent of
the land area of the states of Massachusetts and New
Jersey are covered in turf grass. According to a twenty
fifteen survey, American adults collectively spend more than two point
three billion minutes and roughly twenty nine point one billion
dollars on long care and gardening annually. The average American
(06:54):
homeowner will spend one hundred and fifty hours a year.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
On their lawn.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Five percent of the homeowner's surveyed agreed that my lawn
and garden are a reflection of my personality. There is
a downside. A study of emergency room incidents determined that
the US averages eighty four thou nine hundred and forty
four injuries from lawn mowers annually, and the American Academy
of Orthopedic Surgeons determine that lawnmower accidents are the number
one cause of amputations among children.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
In the United.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
States, there is some pushback and there is a movement
among some homeowners to reduce or eliminate lawns, both out
of environmental concerns and pure dislike.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
For the chore.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
A CBS News poll in twenty eleven found that for
one in five Americans, mowing the lawn was there at
least like chore, ranked lower than raking leaves or shoveling snow.
And the sentiments of this new anti lawn movement might
have been best expressed in a twenty fifteen opinion piece
published in the Chicago Tribune entitled commentary, Lawns are a
(07:53):
soul crushing time suck, and most of us.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Would be better off without them.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Still, lawns are overwhelmingly popular are among homeowners in the
United States, and not just the United States. In Australia,
which is facing civil droughts in recent years, lawns are
so popular people simply shifted to new drought resistant strains,
and there are alternatives available, both realistic, fake grasp for
your lawn and remote control robotic lawnmowers are transforming.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
The very idea of lawn maintenance.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And while lawns may have a distinguished history, their future
might be even more interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And what great storytelling the history of the lawn. And
we thank the History Guy for all that he does
for us. And if you want more stories of forgotten history,
more stories like this, please subscribe to his YouTube channel,
The History Guy. History deserves to be remembered. And I
can tell you this, I don't think doing the lawn
(08:50):
is a soul crushing time suck. And I took no
greater happiness than driving around in my riding lawnmower and
doing my lawn once a week. And my goodness, I'm
with a lot of Americans two point three billion minutes
and twenty nine billion dollars on lawn care, one hundred
and fifty hours a year, because for so many of
(09:12):
us it gives us joy, a little order out of disorder.
That's what we're doing the story of lawns and lawn
care here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.