Creating front yard gardens part 2: why this obsession with LAWN?
This image I created for a wedding invitation perfectly illustrates where the « green lawn dream » originates!
Where does the obsession for a green front lawn originate? The origins of the ‘lawn’ are in aristocratic European estates of the 17th and 18th centuries. At this time, garden designers began creating a trend for sweeping verdant vistas leading to magnificent castles and estates. Meticulously maintained lawns were planted across acres of land in gentle rolling undulations. Small swaths of trees were planted in naturalistic mounds, to frame a viewpoint or create interesting follies to explore while strolling. Creating such a controlled, faux-naturalistic landscape was terribly in fashion at a time when nature maintained what I imagine to be a more significant role in everyday life. As labourers and resources were plentiful and inexpensive at the time, these perfect landscapes were maintained by a veritable army of gardeners, using an inconsequential amount of resources. Eventually, the lawn was cemented in the psyche as a symbol of wealth, prestige, and the only fitting cloak to offset a truly grand home.
Through European colonization, the ideals of the verdant carpet spread across the ocean to the colonies, maintaining its distinction as a symbol of wealth and prestige. Aiming to copy the estates of England, magnificent homes were created in the North American colonies with vast spreads of green lawn, drawing the eye to the house at its pinnacle, and deep pockets were required to clear, create, and maintain this luxury and status symbol. With the industrial revolution and the creation of cities, people were required to live with more people in closer quarters than ever before, which emphasized, even more, the luxury of a lawn: a hugely spacious area created purely for beauty, not food growing or livestock. With the eventual creation of suburbs, the ideal of the estate home and garden with its unending lawn leading to a grand domicile was seen as the ideal to recreate. With time, this lead to the idealization of the suburban home and front yard we see so frequently: a perfect green square, a symbol of luxury, framing the home
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Interested in eschewing the lawn and Starting your own front yard garden? Read on!