Get Off My Lawn

Nowhere in the world are lawns as revered as they are in the United States. The picture-perfect patch of grass is so deeply rooted in the American psyche it feels more like a default setting than a choice. Americans spend countless hours every year seeding, watering, mowing, and fertilizing patches of grass that don't make much sense, economically or ecologically. But why? In this episode, we dig into the history of our lawnly love to learn where the concept came from...and how we grew so obsessed.

Transcript

Guests:

• Cindy Brown, manager of collections, education, and access at Smithsonian Gardens
• Joyce Connolly, museum specialist at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens
• Abeer Saha, curator of agriculture and engineering at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
• Sylvia Schmeichel, lead horticulturist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History
• Jeff Schneider, deputy director of Smithsonian Gardens

Smithsonian Links:

• Find out more about Smithsonian Gardens, including the Enid A. Haupt Garden. You can take virtual tours, view current exhibitions, or even help solve an historic garden mystery!
• Learn more about Smithsonian Gardens’ pollinator lawn and get tips for planning your own pollinator-friendly space.
• Check out the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives online exhibition Cultivating America’s Gardens, which includes a section dedicated to the history of the American lawn.
• The Archives of American Gardens, managed by Smithsonian Gardens, hosts an astounding collection of approximately 65,000 images and records that document historic and contemporary gardens throughout the United States.
• The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History’s Trade Literature Collection offers a treasure trove of historic seed and nursery catalogs that you can peruse online. The bold graphics and bright colors of these catalogs helped "sell" the idea of the American lawn to aspiring readers.
• Though his career only lasted 16 years, Andrew Jackson Downing made significant and lasting contributions to American landscape design. Learn more about his work from the National Gallery of Art — and discover why an urn in his honor is located in the Smithsonian’s Enid A. Haupt Garden.