Lawn Culture: Unpacking an Unconscious Stressor of Suburban America--Andressa Anderson, Ciera Farmer, Riley Rhodes
In our podcast, “Lawn Culture: Unpacking an Unconscious Stressor of Suburban America”, we discuss the history of lawn culture, how we got to where we are today, the effects this has had on suburban America, and where we go from here.
The lawn as we know it emerged following World War II with the development of suburban areas like Levittown. Furthermore, a new industry was created following the wartime period, with new military technology providing chemical fertilizers and pesticides necessary for the maintenance of monoculture, manicured lawns. This was the start of a booming economy for lawn care materials, with an estimated $60 billion spent on the turfgrass industry today.
Lawn culture is a phenomenon occurring quietly, unbeknownst to much of who it subjects. Suburban America feels it’s absolutely necessary to maintain a lush green lawn without much care for why this obligation exists. These pressures create an unnecessary source of anxiety for homeowners, who must deal with the laborious burden of watering, mowing, weeding, and treating their lawns, or the financial burden of paying for someone to do this for them. Furthermore, a lot of the decisions homeowners must make in regards to their lawn create further anxiety. For example, it is largely educated, environmentally-conscious people who put chemicals on their lawns, the kinds of people who are fully aware of the environmental impacts this causes, but make the decision to do so regardless. These risk-decisions are individuated, separating people from their communities, the economies, and the culture that forces these decisions on them. The pressure people feel from their communities, families, and concerns about property values pressure them unknowingly, driving their behavior and contributing to this unconscious culture.
Aside from the stresses put on people who tend to their lawns, there is undue harm towards the environment as well. Chemical runoff, leaching into groundwater, excess water use, mining for materials to create these chemicals, etc all place a taxing burden on the environment. Furthermore, when looking towards the use of chemicals on the lawn, there are obvious effects on the family as well. Increased rates of asthma and rates of cancer in pets are just two consequences that have been associated with rising chemical treatments on lawns.
While many well-advertised alternatives exist to the lawn as we know it, including zeroscaping, xeriscaping, or other methods of pest and weed management, these options are hardly used among suburban residents. With home deed provisions and HOA regulations requiring explicit permission before making changes to one’s lawn, these “alternatives'' are often not at all an option for people. In fact, people have even been sued by their HOAs for replacing turfgrass with xeriscaping.
In conclusion, through our podcast we attempt to uncover the history of lawn culture and how it has permeated into modern society by looking at a neighborhood in Leander, just north of Austin. We interviewed various residents of the neighborhood in an effort to understand their relationships with their lawn, and with the HOA that regulates their lawns.
Bibliography
Dubner, Stephen. (May 2017). “How Stupid is Our Obsession with Lawns?” Freakonomics, produced by Chsiropher Werth.
Dylan, Baddour. (April 2015). “Texas Man Jailed for Not Mowing his Yard.” Chron.
Outdoors. (2020, March 11).
Protecting Children from Pesticides: Information for Parents.
Planet Natural Research Center. “Lawn History.”
Robbins, Paul. (June 2012). “Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are.” Temple University Press.
The Kino Library. (November 2018). “Living the American Dream, 1950s Suburban Life.”
Tissot, B. Memories.
Zeldovich, Lina. (May 2018). “Fixing the Grassroots of the American Lawn.” JSTOR Daily.
The lawn as we know it emerged following World War II with the development of suburban areas like Levittown. Furthermore, a new industry was created following the wartime period, with new military technology providing chemical fertilizers and pesticides necessary for the maintenance of monoculture, manicured lawns. This was the start of a booming economy for lawn care materials, with an estimated $60 billion spent on the turfgrass industry today.
Lawn culture is a phenomenon occurring quietly, unbeknownst to much of who it subjects. Suburban America feels it’s absolutely necessary to maintain a lush green lawn without much care for why this obligation exists. These pressures create an unnecessary source of anxiety for homeowners, who must deal with the laborious burden of watering, mowing, weeding, and treating their lawns, or the financial burden of paying for someone to do this for them. Furthermore, a lot of the decisions homeowners must make in regards to their lawn create further anxiety. For example, it is largely educated, environmentally-conscious people who put chemicals on their lawns, the kinds of people who are fully aware of the environmental impacts this causes, but make the decision to do so regardless. These risk-decisions are individuated, separating people from their communities, the economies, and the culture that forces these decisions on them. The pressure people feel from their communities, families, and concerns about property values pressure them unknowingly, driving their behavior and contributing to this unconscious culture.
Aside from the stresses put on people who tend to their lawns, there is undue harm towards the environment as well. Chemical runoff, leaching into groundwater, excess water use, mining for materials to create these chemicals, etc all place a taxing burden on the environment. Furthermore, when looking towards the use of chemicals on the lawn, there are obvious effects on the family as well. Increased rates of asthma and rates of cancer in pets are just two consequences that have been associated with rising chemical treatments on lawns.
While many well-advertised alternatives exist to the lawn as we know it, including zeroscaping, xeriscaping, or other methods of pest and weed management, these options are hardly used among suburban residents. With home deed provisions and HOA regulations requiring explicit permission before making changes to one’s lawn, these “alternatives'' are often not at all an option for people. In fact, people have even been sued by their HOAs for replacing turfgrass with xeriscaping.
In conclusion, through our podcast we attempt to uncover the history of lawn culture and how it has permeated into modern society by looking at a neighborhood in Leander, just north of Austin. We interviewed various residents of the neighborhood in an effort to understand their relationships with their lawn, and with the HOA that regulates their lawns.
Bibliography
Dubner, Stephen. (May 2017). “How Stupid is Our Obsession with Lawns?” Freakonomics, produced by Chsiropher Werth.
Dylan, Baddour. (April 2015). “Texas Man Jailed for Not Mowing his Yard.” Chron.
Outdoors. (2020, March 11).
Protecting Children from Pesticides: Information for Parents.
Planet Natural Research Center. “Lawn History.”
Robbins, Paul. (June 2012). “Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are.” Temple University Press.
The Kino Library. (November 2018). “Living the American Dream, 1950s Suburban Life.”
Tissot, B. Memories.
Zeldovich, Lina. (May 2018). “Fixing the Grassroots of the American Lawn.” JSTOR Daily.
