Thursday, 31 August 2017

A wonderful backyard landscaping idea

A excellent backyard landscaping concept is yet one that everybody can make use of. Right now there are lots of distinct backyard landscaping tips and any lot of which are generally pretty good yet for you to get the one which is suitable for you together with that is just what your yard requirements may try taking any little reading. This article will help you to be able to definitely get the perfect backyard landscaping concept for your home.

A excellent backyard landscaping concept is to use evergreens. Your use of those fabulous trees is likely to end up being able to do o a lot for just regarding any yard. These People will add any stately naturel towards the really feel involving your home whilst trying in order to keep it welcoming as well as warm. Several individuals similar to to use deciduous trees in the yard and in addition this is definitely recommended but it will end up being the evergreens that may supply the yard the structure and also the stability that will it wants for any excellent backyard landscaping thought and also design.

You need to look for any backyard landscaping thought just like the one higher than that may benefit all involving you 12 months round. Deciduous trees won't always be gorgeous in most seasons, the majority of perhaps, but not all. Evergreens about the other hand will often be great and they appear as gorgeous inside the winter while they do in the summer and in addition this is the reason they've created pertaining to this type of great backyard landscaping idea. Your step to any great landscaping style is for you to find a backyard landscaping idea such as this that will maintain your yard intriguing no make a difference what duration of the season it is.



Another good backyard landscaping thought will be to utilize hardscape. This particular will always be the use associated with things such as rocks, fences and also walls. These types of can make your own yard appear quite interesting throughout just about all with the seasons. A Person could have climbing plants on it in the summer as well as spring along with rather trees around it in which will appear fantastic within the winter. While searching to obtain a excellent backyard landscaping idea a person have to try for you to find other options besides just plants. There is actually certainly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscaping a lot more for you to landscaping than just plants as well as trees.



Walls along with fences may frame your home beautifully and using them is actually this kind of fantastic backyard landscaping concept simply because they are usually going to just accent just about all of one's various other great backyard landscaping ideas. These People will frame your yard as an image frame frames a gorgeous painting. look at this kind of backyard landscaping thought as well in your search for your one.

Friday, 11 August 2017

Stay clear involving Accidents And Keep Clean Landscape with Tree Support Companies

You may not really be conscious of this reality even so tree maintenance could a lot more aids you to conserve numerous dollars. These kinds of undesirable trees could damage your own wall surfaces as well as sewage techniques with passing time. In the particular event that anyone obtain to get rid involving undesirable trees too as further decide for fort really worth tree trimming, next you are complimentary coming from investing cash on many other allocations.



Merely like providing security and safety too as preventing crashes, these tree caring as well as maintenance company will Sprinkler System definitely keep tidiness, in a portion of customers. Overgrown as well as undesirable trees will surely produce a new mess, also as this will surely additionally aid in interfering with all the look of one's stunning yard or even excess landscape. Create specific in order to contact fort really worth tree pruning firms, and also repair a day and also moment with them.

Not merely protecting against wall surface fractures, however appropriate tree treatment method too as companies will surely steer clear of any kind of further crashes through using area. If you've a classic http://www.martynlawns.com/ tree inside your landscape, there are opportunities which a classic branch could drop on you anytime.

Some undesirable solid tree trunks might hinder your own job, and also an individual require expert Tree service, throughout suc h emergency circumstances constantly. From existing, getting rid of undesirable trees is not truly a tough activity, when you have agents in order to immediate a person using the complete treatment. A Variety Of some other in comparison to getting rid of unnecessary trees, you can additionally prepare for you to remove dead trees without coping with any kind of trouble.

It's important with regard to one to understand the factors regarding working together with fort really worth tree service. Since these Sprinkler System Frisco trunks are generally tough as well as old, consequently; you call for suitable devices and within addition resources for getting rid involving trees. they are generally educated well, as well as utilize appropriate equipments for getting rid associated with tree trunks securely.



https://you tu.be/cia4iGgKoOY

Friday, 30 June 2017

KFC In China: Marketing Success

Viral videos are certainly one of the easiest ways which you can get your products out there. There are various steps and useful processes involved in SEO which include on page search, off page search or link building, link exchange and lots of others. Most people shy away from this method only because they don't see themselves as writers.

Advertising: To position your marketing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epkk9WPX0rk messages, product messages or advertisement inside the emails sent by other people. Even teenagers will make their particular video. To find the missing content, try these steps:.



Tip 4: a fascinating video. Such companies take care of the proven fact that the company's website is promoted properly and enjoys the most notable position in all the popular engines like google like Google, yahoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epkk9WPX0rk and MSN. That is the reason why more and much more businesses, whether https://www.thebalance.com/marketing-4073995 it is small start-ups or big enterprises, are adopting social media as a prime source of marketing. That is the reason more plus more businesses, whether it is small start-ups or big enterprises, are adopting social media as a prime source of marketing. Take care and good luck.



Understand th e Environment . The decision to use Internet marketing as part of the company's overall online marketing strategy is strictly up to the company of course, but as a rule, Internet marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of nearly every company's marketing mix. There are videos that receive a lot of traffic on a normal basis. This does not only apply to internet marketing, it pertains to ANY dream.

Video marketing is one of one of the most useful forms of viral and online marketing. Your eCommerce venture is will no longer merely a pretty storefront to sell your wares nevertheless the consequence of strategic design and development that hooks the modern consumer who feels eligible to a rich experience. Act now and discover how average folks are achieving extraordinary results online by cashing in about the DIGITAL gold rush!.

Saturday, 24 June 2017

Nissan teases an image of 2018 Leaf's self-driving technology

Nissan teases an image of 2018 Leaf's self-driving technology - Autoblog





This page is Sprinkler System Installation Fort Worth for Sprinkler System Fort Worth personal, non-commercial use. You may order presentation ready copies to distribute to your colleagues, customers, or http://cloverlawn.org/ clients, by visiting http://www.autobloglicensing.com

http://www.autoblog.com/2017/06/23/nissan-teases-image-2018-leafs-self-driving-propilot-driver-assist/

Saturday, 17 June 2017

Landscape winner - 2016 Sony World Photography Awards - Pictures

The world's largest photography competition, the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards announced its Grand Prize winners.



Iranian photographer Asghar Khamseh, who works for the Mehr News Agency, won the "Iris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox7DicTda0I d'Or Photographer of the Year and the $25,000 prize for a powerful series of portraits of acid attack victims, "Fire of Hatred."

Here are the winners and finalists, chosen from a record-breaking 230,103 entries, in 14 documentary and fine art professional categories -- each judged on a body of work. They winners were https://www.houselogic.com/by-room/yard-patio/ selected from a shortlist, announced in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox7DicTda0I February 2016. Winners and shortlisted work will be on exhibit at Somerset House, London from April 22-May 8, 2016.

Landscape winner - "Land of Nothingness"



Maroesjka Lavigne, Belgium

A country named after a desert. One of the least densely populated places on earth, Namibia's landscape draws you in, through a vast brown plain of scorched earth, and steers you over the white surface of a salt pan to finally arrive in the gold tones of the sand dunes.

http:// www.cbsnews.com/pictures/2016-sony-world-photography-awards-winners/

Friday, 16 June 2017

Facebook IPO Turns Graffiti Artist David Choe Into Multi-Millionaire



Ramin Talaie/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The decision seven years ago by a Korean-American muralist and graffiti artist to turn down thousands of dollars in cash for his work painting murals on the walls of Facebook's first office in Palo Alto, Calif., has made him a very, very, rich man.

The artist, 35-year-old David Choe, gambled and instead took an equal value of shares of Facebook's stock.

The social network, in one of the world's most widely anticipated IPOs, or initial public offerings of stock, filed papers Wednesday to raise at least $5 billion.

As a result, Choe's shares could be worth upward of $200 million when Facebook stock trades publicly later this year, the New York Times reported.

The story of Facebook was yet to be told back in 2005 when Choe was invited by the social network's then-president, Sean Parker, to decorate the new corporate hea dquarters with his signature murals.



Choe, who now lives in Los Angeles, said he thought at the time that the idea of Facebook, famously founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg in his Harvard University dorm room, was "ridiculous and pointless," according to the Times.

Still, he accepted the job, and the stock.

Today, Facebook has more than 800 million active userswho, Zuckerberg said, have made more than 100 billion connections with each other. In 2011, the site had profits of $1 billion on sales of $3.7 billion.

The Times calculated Choe's estimated stock fallout based on the word of a former Facebook employee who said "advisers" to the company at that time, such as Choe, would have received about 0.1 to 0.25 percent of the company. That stake would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, based on a market value of $100 billion.

While Facebook became a success, so did Choe, who has declined interview requests since the filing.



His work is sold for thousands of dollars, featured in gallery shows and exhibited in major museums.

In 2010, he released a self-titled book of his work, described as "funny, frantic and daredevil" in nature, and capturing, "the frenetic raw energy and gorgeous, intense work of gallery and street artist David Choe."

Choe also created http://www.localpaintingpros.com /improvements/stage1 his own Facebook page that, today, has more than 6,000 subscribers, and a wall full of congratulations from his Facebook friends.

ABC News' Susanna Kim and Ned Potter contributed reporting.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/02/facebook-ipo-turns-graffiti-artist-david-choe-into-multi-millionaire/

Thursday, 15 June 2017

'Water cops' seek sprinkler scofflaws in drought-parched California| Reuters



By Sharon Bernstein

| SACRAMENTO Calif.

SACRAMENTO Calif. It was still dark on Kokomo Drive in Sacramento's Natomas district as Paul Brown edged his city-issued Honda Civic past a row of beige stucco houses with tiny front lawns, looking for water wasters.

He heard the scofflaws before he saw their lush green lawns amid the otherwise parched turf. The buzz of a sprinkler system gave them away on a day that the city, desperate to save water amid California's ongoing drought, had forbidden watering.

"If I can get a good picture - if the re's a lot of water - I'll cite them," he said.

California is in the third year of a devastating http://www.sears.com/lawn-garden-watering-hoses-sprinklers/b-1024020 drought that has led farmers to fallow nearly half a million acres of cropland, threatened fish hatcheries and shrunk drinking water supplies for some communities.

To get people to conserve, many municipalities and regional water agencies have hired "water cops" like Brown to enforce state conservation rules.

Cities have even asked people to turn their neighbors in, and some have created smartphone apps to make the process easier.

Brown, 46, a father of four who was hired by the city as a meter reader, said he picked this area because he has fielded numerous complaints from neighbors about water wasters.

Camera and citation book in hand, he parked the car a few houses down and got out, w alking swiftly to the house where the sprinklers were on. A flash illuminated the building's facade, then all was dark again.

Brown headed back to the car and wrote up the citation. A check of his laptop showed that the residents had not been cited before, so instead of a fine of up to $500, they would get a warning. On a second offense, they would have to attend a meeting on how to save water. Third time, a fine.

The city of Sacramento has about a half-dozen employees enforcing conservation rules. Like Brown, they go out on Friday mornings before dawn, patrolling neighborhoods. When they're not patrolling, they field phone calls from residents turning in their neighbors, hopping in their cars to check out serious reports on the spot.

Water use in the city dropped 25 percent in August over the same month in 2013, the most recent month for which information is available, state data showed.

Statewide, residents and businesses cut water use by 11.5 percent i n August over the comparable 2013 period, enough to fill nearly 40,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.

Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board, credits new rules and tougher enforcement with much of the change.

"Regulations make better results than voluntary exhortations," she said. "People want to know that everybody else is doing it."

In August, the water resources board implemented statewide rules that prohibit watering gardens enough to cause visible runoff, hosing down driveways or asphalt, and operating non-recirculating fountains.

Regulators also allowed municipalities to set mandatory cutbacks and levy fines against those who do not comply.

In Los Angeles, the city has received 4,400 reports of water wasters this year, resulting in 2,200 warning citations, said Michelle Vargas, a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

L.A. has kept one water cop on the beat full-time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRbW3ayDWVQ since the state's last big drought in 2009, but it added three more this summer after the new statewide regulations went into effect.



The Southern California city of Long Beach is offering residents a water-waster app for their smartphones, making snitching quick and easy by allowing users to report neighbors and businesses for hosing down sidewalks, watering during the heat of the day or having a break or leak in their water lines.

Sometimes, Brown says, reports from vindictive neighbors lead him to visit a property only to find that no violation has taken place.

"I tell them I'm not going to cite you just because they call on you," said Brown, who carefully documents every case with photographs and a brief report. "There has to be evidence."

(Editing by Douglas Royalty)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-california-drought-idUSKCN0I80CX20141019

Bio-electricity, Qi, and the Human Body

by Don E. Brown II, MSIS

Certified Instructor; Chi Energy Heals

Qi is the electric energy associated with living organisms. Electricity, defined by Merriam-Webster, is as follows: a fundamental form of energy observable in positive and negative forms that occurs naturally (as in lightning) or is produced (as in a generator) and that is expressed in terms of the movement and interaction of electrons.

Generally speaking, when thinking of electricity, we think of it as something external to our human bodies: the naturally occurring lightning and human created technology being two said instances. There is, however, a form of electricity that is prevalent in every living creature: bioelectricity.

Bioelectricity is the electric phenomena related to living organisms It is bioelectricity that enables a shark to map the ocean floor. It is bio-electromagnetic phenomena that enable migratory birds to travel great distances at the same time each year with the accuracy we have only been able to reproduce with maps and GPS. It is bioelectricity that enables the electric eel to generate large fields of current outside their bodies.

The difference of electricity vs. bioelectricity is in degree, not in kind. Whereas a lightning bolt can exceed temperatures of 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit (30,000 degrees Celsius), that same current runs through the human body, just on a smaller scale. In fact, the human body runs largely off of [bio] electricity and has organs dedicated to sensing electromagnetic impulses, both inside and outside the human body. The pineal and pituitary glands are both directly tied to the human body's ability to sense and actively experience electromagnetic phenomenon.

The pineal gland is the evolutionary descendant of our ancestors' ability to perceive light. It also "regulates the circadian rhythms of the body, biological rhythms that are attuned to the day-night cycle," (Celtoslavica, "Electricity and Human Consciousnes s); these "rhythms" can be and have been disrupted by electromagnetic fields, both naturally occurring as well as man-made. The pituitary gland "controls and influences all other hormonal organs which report back to the pituitary gland" (Celtoslavica, "Electricity and Human Consciousness); in fact, the pituitary gland is largely responsible for the overall functioning and efficiency of the human nervous system.



The nervous system in human beings is based entirely off of the ability to transmit electric pulses. Every cell within the human body pumps ions (e.g. that which makes up the quantum field), in and out of the cell for energy purposes; this is called the Sodium-Potassium pump, and can be found in all animal life. Said energy, in the biological animal, is called "adenosine triphosphate" (ATP); biologists and biochemist alike have noted that ATP can be neutral, or carry a charg e (plus or minus), and is, infact, a charged particle which the cells use for energy. ATP is the final product of the digestive cycle and further exemplifies the human being's connection (and ability) to experience and manipulate the electromagnetic fields that permeate the Universe.

"Bio-magnetism: An Awesome Force in Our Lives", an article published by Reader's Digest (January 1983), highlights some of the [still] cutting edge concepts the scientific community is, and has been, practicing: "When a patient with a broken leg that is not healing properly comes to Dr. Basset (Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, NY), he is likely to go home with two heavy pads connected by wires to a box that Electrician Service College Station can plug into an electrical wall socket. The patient puts one pad on each side of his broken bone and turns on the device. Coils of wire in the pad induce a pulsing electromagnet ic field into his flesh and bone -- a field of qi energy that somehow commands the bone to heal itself."

As postulated by the scientists interviewed in the article, it makes sense that human beings have the innate ability to sense electromagnetic phenomena: "We live on a sun-lit planet, and most living things have acquired some means to use the light. We live in a world filled with sounds, and most living things have developed a means to sense vibrations. Since our planet is also a giant magnet, it should not surprise us to discover that we and many other living things have a sensitivity to Earth's magnetic-force field."

As we look from large-scale physics, e.g., the lightning bolt and the sodium-potassium pump, to smaller scale electromagnetic phenomenon, we find ourselves in the realm of quantum mechanics. Light is an electromagnetic phenomenon. Light is both a wave and a particle. In terms of quantum mechanics, electricity and light are the same. The oscillations of the impulses create the divergent effects. Microwaves, radio waves, even the non-lethal weapons of the US Army (such as the Active Denial https://collegegrad.com/careers/electricians System) are based out of electromagnetic fields.



Qi, too, is an electromagnetic phenomenon. Qi is energy; light energy; bio-electromagnetic energy; electricity. The degree of strength in an electromagnetic impulse is the difference between the heart pumping vs. a heart attack. When building qi, it is important to und erstand, important to know, that the electricity you are both introducing to your body as well as augmenting within your body, can be controlled/manipulated by your mind.

The design of the human body features many organs attuned to electromagnetic phenomena: the eyes register individual photon packets; the tympanic membrane vibrates the mechanical wave of sound; the brain creates an electromagnetic field that is both separate and different from that which the heart generates. All this is to say that not only do human beings interact with electricity, we are fully capable of cultivating and controlling the bioelectricity we generate via our own bodies.

Understanding that qi is our natural form of electricity, and that this energy comprises the very building blocks of spacetime, it is easy for us to see with the eyes of the enlightened - the interconnectedness we have with the Universe, and our abilities to move past the mundane.

Author's Bio:

Director of Research & Development

Certified Chi Energy Instructor

Sifu Don Brown II, MSIS

Don Brown began his training with Sifu Jones in 1997. His background is an amalgam of intellectual curiosity, stemming from his introduction to the concept of chi in traditional martial arts [tai chi and kenjutsu] and similarities between the two. Don's scientific curiosity, background in Engineering (Masters of Science in Information Sciences) and [admitted] skeptical nature make him a perfect research assistant for the Sifus.

Don's interviews focus on quantum physics and how the latest scientific data correlate to chi, and more specifically, for the School of Chi Energy. The information conveyed therein is backed with hours upon hours of research, and is explained in layman terms; Don takes great strides in not "dumbing it down", but more importantly, step by step, educating you on the nuances of each topic, so that a complete and thorough understanding of the information can be shared by the practitioners, and incorporated into our daily lives.

www.chienergyheals.com

http://www.selfgrowth.com/print/6456281

Monday, 12 June 2017

Lawn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Lawn (disambiguation).

"Lawns" redirects here. For other uses, see Lawns (disambiguation).



The Lawn at the University of Virginia, facing south.



The lawn of a small summerhouse.



A croquet lawn at a club in Edinburgh, Scotland



San Francisco Botanical Garden lawn

A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses or (rarely) other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. Common characteristics of a lawn are that it is composed only of grass species, it is subject to weed and pest control, it is subject to practices aimed at maintaining its green color (e.g., watering), and it is regularly mowed to ensure an acceptable length,[1] although these characteristics are not binding as a definition. Lawns ar e used around houses, apartments, commercial buildings and offices. Many city parks also have large lawn areas. In recreational contexts, the specialised names turf, pitch, field or green may be used, depending on the sport and the continent.

The term "lawn", referring to a managed grass space, dates to no earlier than the 16th century. Tied to suburban expansion and the creation of the household aesthetic, the lawn is an important aspect of the interaction between the natural environment and the constructed urban and suburban space.[2] In many suburban areas, there are bylaws in place requiring houses to have lawns and requiring the proper maintenance of these lawns. In some jurisdictions where there are water shortages, local government authorities are encouraging alternatives to lawns to reduce water use.

Contents

1 Etymology

2 History

2.1 Origins

2.2 The English lawn

2.3 Middle class pursuit

2.4 United States

2.5 Ame rican lawn culture

2.6 Australia

3 Uses

4 Types of lawn plants

4.1 Grasses

4.1.1 Cool season grasses

4.1.2 Warm season grasses

4.2 Grass alternatives

4.3 Ground cover alternatives

5 Lawn care and maintenance

5.1 Planting and seeding

5.2 Fertilizers and chemicals

5.3 Mowing and other maintenance practices

6 Social impacts

7 Environmental concerns

7.1 Water conservation

7.2 Chemicals

7.3 Decreasing environmental impact

8 See also

8.1 Lawns

8.2 Gardening

8.3 Others

9 References

10 Further reading

11 External links

Etymology

Lawn is a cognate of llan which is derived from the Common Brittonic word landa (Old French: launde) that originally means heath, barren land, or clearing.[3][4]

History

Origins



Gardens of the Chteau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, designed by Andr Le Ntre at Versailles.

Lawns may have originated as grassed enclosures within early medieval settlements used for communal grazing of livestock, as distinct from fields reserved for agriculture. The word "laune" is first attested in 1540,[5] and is likely related to the Celtic Brythonic word lan/llan/laun, which has the meaning of enclosure, often in relation to a place of worship.

Lawns became popular with the aristocracy in northern Europe from the Middle Ages onward. The early lawns were not always distinguishable from pasture fields. It is speculated that the association between the word "pasture" and biblical mentions made lawns a cultural affinity for some. The damp climate of maritime Western Europe in the north made lawns possible to grow and manage. They were not a part of gardens in other regions and cultures of the world until contemporary influence.[6]

Before the invention of mowing machines in 1830, lawns were managed very differently. They were an element of wealthy estates and manor houses, and in some places were maintained by the labor-intensive methods of scything and shearing. In most situations, they were also pasture land maintained through grazing by sheep or other livestock. Areas of grass grazed regularly by rabbits, horses or sheep over a long period often form a very low, tight sward similar to a modern lawn. This was the original meaning of the word "lawn", and the term can still be found in place names. Some forest areas where extensive grazing is practiced still have these seminatural lawns. For example, in the New Forest, England, such grazed areas are common, and are known as lawns, for example Balmer Lawn. Lawns similar to those of today first appeared in France and England in the 1700s when Andr Le Ntre designed the gardens of Versailles that included a small area of grass called the tapis vert, or "green carpet".

The English lawn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzdF7T-Gf6A 2x" data-file-width="501" data-file-height="341"/>

Capability Brown's landscape design at Badminton House.

It was not until the 17th and 18th century that the garden and the lawn became a place created first as walkways and social areas. They were made up of meadow plants, such as camomile, a particular favorite. In the early 17th century, the Jacobean epoch of gardening began; during this period, the closely cut "English" lawn was born. By the end of this period, the English lawn was a symbol of status of the aristocracy and gentry; it showed that the owner could afford to keep land that was not being used for a building, or for food production.

In the early 18th century, landscape gardening for the aristocracy entered a golden age, under the direction of William Kent and Lancelot "Capability" Brown. They refined the English landscape garden style with the design of natural, or "romantic", estate settings for wealthy Englishmen.[7] Brown, remembered as "England's greatest gardener", designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure. His influence was so great that the contributions to the English garden made by his predecessors Charles Bridgeman and William Kent are often overlooked.[8]

His work still endures at Croome Court (where he also designed the house), Blenheim Palace, Warwick Castle, Harewood House, Bowood House, Milton Abbey (and nearby Milton Abbas village), in traces at Kew Gardens and many other locations.[9] His style of smooth undulating lawns which ran seamlessly to the house and meadow, clumps, belts and scattering of trees and his serpentine lakes formed by invisibly damming small rivers, were a new style within the English landscape, a "gardenless" form of landscape gardening, which swept away almost all the remnants of previous formally patterned styles. His landscapes were fundamentally different from what they replaced, the well-known formal gardens of England which were criticised by Alexander Pope and others from the 1710s.[10]



1803 painting of the main elements of the English landscape garden.

The open "English style" of parkland first spread across Britain and Ireland, and then across Europe, such as the garden la franaise being replaced by the French landscape garden. By this time , the word "lawn" in England had semantically shifted to describe a piece of a garden covered with grass and closely mown.[11] Wealthy families in America during the late 18th century also began mimicking English landscaping styles. In 1780, the Shaker community began the first industrial production of high-quality grass seed in North America, and a number of seed companies and nurseries were founded in Philadelphia. The increased availability of these grasses meant they were in plentiful supply for parks and residential areas, not just livestock.[11]

Thomas Jefferson has long been given credit for being the first person to attempt an English-style lawn at his estate, Monticello, in 1806, but many others had tried to emulate English landscaping before he did. Over time, an increasing number towns in New England began to emphasize grass spaces. Many scholars link this development to the romantic and transcendentalist movements of the 19th century. These green commons were also heavily associated with the success of the Revolutionary War and often became the homes of patriotic war memorials after the Civil War ended in 1865.[11]

Middle class pursuit



The lawn at Kirkby Fleetham Hall, Yorkshire, circa 1889.

Before the mechanical lawnmower, the upkeep of lawns was possible only fo r the extremely wealthy estates and manor houses of the aristocracy. Labor-intensive methods of scything and shearing the grass were required to maintain the lawn in its correct state, and most of the land in England was required for more functional, agricultural purposes.

This all changed with the invention of the lawnmower by Edwin Beard Budding in 1830. Budding had the idea for a lawnmower after seeing a machine in a local cloth mill which used a cutting cylinder (or bladed reel) mounted on a bench to trim the irregular nap from the surface of woollen cloth and give a smooth finish.[12] Budding realised that a similar device could be used to cut grass if the mechanism was mounted in a wheeled frame to make the blades rotate close to the lawn's surface. His mower design was to be used primarily to cut the lawn on sports grounds and extensive gardens, as a superior alternative to the scythe, and he was granted a British patent on 31 August 1830.[13]

In an agreement between John Ferrabee and Edwin Budding, Ferrabee paid the costs of development and acquired rights to manufacture, sell and license other manufacturers in the production of lawn mowers. Budding went into partnership with a local engineer, John Ferrabee, and together they made mowers in a factory at Thrupp near Stroud.[14] They allowed other companies to build copies of their mower under license, the most successful of these, was Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies of Ipswich which began mower production as early as 1832.[15]



The first petrol-powered lawnmower, 1902.



However, his model had two crucial drawbacks. It was immensely heavy (it was made of cast iron) and difficult to manoeuvre in the garden, and did not cut the grass very well. The blade would often spin above the grass uselessly.[15] It took ten more years and further innovations, including the advent of the Bessemer process for the production of the much lighter alloy steel and advances in motorization such as the drive chain, for the lawnmower to become a practical proposition. Middle-class families across the country, in imitation of aristocratic landscape gardens, began to grow finely trimmed lawns in their back gardens.

In the 1850s, Thomas Green of Leeds introduced a revolutionary mower design called the Silens Messor (meaning silent cutter), which used a chain to transmit power from the rear roller to the cutting cylinder. The machine was much lighter and quieter than the gear driven machines that preceded them, and won first prize at the first lawn mower trial at the London Horticultural Gardens.[15] Thus began a great expansion in the lawn mower production in the 1860s. James Sumner of Lancashire patented the first steam-powered lawn mower in 1893.[16] Around 1900, Ransomes' Automaton, available in chain- or gear-driven models, dominated the British market. In 1902, Ransomes produced the first commercially available mower powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine. JP Engineering of Leicester, founded after World War I, invented the first riding mowers.



From the 18 60s, the cultivation of lawns, especially for sports, became a middle-class obsession in England. Pictured, a lawnmower advertisement from Ransomes.

This went hand-in-hand with a booming consumer market for lawns from the 1860s onward. With the increasing popularity of sports in the mid-Victorian period, the lawn mower was used to craft modern-style sporting ovals, playing fields, pitches and grass courts for the nascent sports of football, lawn bowls, lawn tennis and others.[17] The rise of Suburbanisation in the interwar period was heavily influenced by the garden city movement of Ebenezer Howard and the creation of the first garden suburbs at the turn of the 20th century.[18] The garden suburb, developed through the efforts of social reformer Henrietta Barnett and her husband, exemplified the incorporation of the well manicured lawn into suburban life.[19] Suburbs dramatically increased in size. Harrow Weald went from just 1,500 to over 10,000 while Pinner jumped from 3,00 to over 20,000. During the 1930s, over 4 million new suburban houses were built and the 'suburban revolution' had made England the most heavily suburbanized country in the world by a considerable margin.[20]

Lawns began to proliferate in America from the 1870s onwards. As more plants were introduced from Europe, lawns became smaller as they were filled with flower beds, perennials, sculptures, and water features.[21] Eventually the wealthy began to move away from the cities into new suburban communities. In 1856, an architectural book was published to accompany the development of the new suburbia that placed importance on the availability of a grassy space for children to play on and a space to grow fruits and vegetables that further imbued the lawn with cultural importance.[11] Lawns began making more appearances in development plans, magazine articles, and catalogs.[22] The lawn became less associated with being a status symbol, instead giving way to a landscape aesthetic. Improvements in the lawn mower and water supply enabled the spread of lawn culture from the Northeast to the South where the grass grew more poorly.[11] This in combination with setback rules which required all homes to have a 30-foot gap between the structure and the sidewalk meant that the lawn had found a specific place in suburbia.[21]

United States

Lawn seating





A Memorial Day concert on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building

Prior to European colonization, the grasses on the East Coast of North America were mostly broom straw, wild rye, and marsh grass. As Europeans moved into the region, it was noted by colonists in New England, more than others, that the grasses of the New World were inferior to those of England and that their livestock seemed to receive less nutrition from it. In fact, once livestock brought overseas from Europe spread throughout the colonies, much of the native grasses of New England disappeared, and an inventory list from the 17th century noted supplies of clover and grass seed from England. New colonists were even urged by their country and companies to bring grass seed with them to North America. By the late 17th century, a new market in imported grass seed had begun in New England.[11]

Much of the new grasses brought by Europeans spread quickly and effectively, often ahead of the colonists. One such species, Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), became the most important pasture grass for the southern colonies.

Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa pratensis) is a grass native to Europe or the Middle East. It was likely carried to Midwestern United States in the early 1600s by French missionaries and spread via the waterways to the region around Kentucky. However, it may also have spread across the Appalachian mountains after an introduction on the east coast. Kentucky Bluegrass is now one of the top three pasture grasses in the United States and the most desirable species of grass for lawns.

Farmers at first continued to harvest meadows and marshes composed of indigenous grasses until they became overgrazed. These areas quickly fell to erosion and were overrun with less favorable plant life. Soon, farmers began to purposefully plant new species of grass in these areas, hoping to improve the quality and quantity of hay to provide for their livestock as native species had a lower nutritive value. While M iddle Eastern and Europeans species of grass did extremely well on the East Coast of North America, it was a number of grasses from the Mediterranean that dominated the Western seaboard. As cultivated grasses became valued for their nutritional benefits to livestock, farmers relied less and less on natural meadows in the more colonized areas of the country. Eventually even the grasses of the Great Plains were overrun with European species that were more durable to the grazing patterns of imported livestock.[11] A pivotal factor in the spread of the lawn in America was the passage of legislation in 1938 of the 40-hour work week. Until then, Americans had typically worked half days on Saturdays, leaving little time to focus on their lawns. With this legislation and the housing boom following the Second World War, managed grass spaces became more commonplace.[21] The creation in the early 20th century of country clubs and golf courses completed the rise of lawn culture.[11]

Amer ican lawn culture

Lawn monoculture was a reflection of more than an interest in offsetting depreciation, it propagated the homogeneity of the suburb itself. Although lawns had been a recognizable feature in English residences since the 19th century, a revolution in industrialization and monoculture of the lawn since the Second World War fundamentally changed the ecology of the lawn. Intensive suburbanization both concentrated and expanded the spread of lawn maintenance which meant increased inputs in not only petrochemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides, but also natural resources like water.[2][11][21]

Front lawns became standardized in the 1930s when, over time, specific aspects such as grass type and maintenance methods became popular. The lawn-care industry boomed, but the Great Depression of the 1930s and in the period prior to World War II made it difficult to maintain the cultural standards that had become heavily associated with the lawn due to grass seed shorta ges in Europe, America's main supplier. Still, seed distributors such as Scotts Miracle-Gro Company in the United States encouraged families to continue to maintain their lawns, promoting it as a stress-relieving hobby. During the war itself, homeowners were asked to maintain the appearances of the home front, likely as a show of strength, morale, and solidarity. After World War II, the lawn aesthetic once again became a standard feature of North America, bouncing back from its minor decline in the decades before with a vengeance, particularly as a result of the housing and population boom post-war.[11]

The G.I. Bill in the United States let American ex-servicemen buy homes without providing a down payment, while the Federal Housing Administration offered lender inducements that aided the reduction of down payments for the average American from 30% to as little as 10%. These developments made owning your own home cheaper than renting, further enabling the spread of suburbia a nd its lawns.[21]

Levittown, New York was the beginning of the industrial suburb in the 20th Century, and by proxy the industrial lawn. Between 1947 and 1951, Abraham Levitt and his sons built more than seventeen thousand homes, each with its own lawn. Abraham Levitt wrote "No single feature of a suburban residential community contributes as much to the charm and beauty of the individual home and the locality as well-kept lawns". Landscaping was one of the most important factors in Levittown's success - and no feature was more prominent than the lawn. The Levitts understood that landscaping could add to the appeal of their developments and claimed that, "increase in values are most often found in neighborhoods where lawns show as green carpets" and that, over the years, "lawns trees and shrubs become more valuable both esthetically and monetarily".[23] During 1948, the first spring that Levittown had enjoyed, Levitt and Sons fertilized and reseeded all of the lawns free of ch arge.[21]

The economic recession that began in 2008 has resulted in many communities worldwide to dig up their lawns and plant fruit and vegetable gardens. This has the potential to greatly change cultural values attached to the lawn, as they are increasingly viewed as environmentally and economically unviable in the modern context.[24]

Australia

The appearance of the lawn in Australia followed closely after its establishment in North America and parts of Europe. Lawn was established on the so-called "nature strip" by the 1920s and was common throughout the developing suburbs of Australia. This term is uniquely Australian, alluding, perhaps, to man's desire to control nature. By the 1950s, the Australian-designed Victa lawn mower was being used by the many people who had turned pastures into lawn and was also being exported to dozens of countries.[25] Prior to the 1970s, all brush and native species were stripped from a development site and replaced with lawns t hat utilized imported plant species. Since the 1970s there has been an interest in using indigenous species for lawns, especially considering their lower water requirements.[26] Lawns are also established in garden areas as well as used for the surface of sporting fields.

Over time, with consideration to the frequency of droughts in Australia, the movement towards "naturalism", or the use of indigenous plant species in yards, was beneficial. These grasses were more drought resistant than their European counterparts, and many who wished to keep their lawns switched to these alternatives or allowed their green carpets to revert to the indigenous scrub in an effort to reduce the strain on water supplies.[24] However, lawns remain a popular surface and their practical and aesthetically pleasing appearance reduces the use of water-impervious surfaces such as concrete. The growing use of rainwater storage tanks has improved the ability to maintain them.

Following recent drou ghts, Australia has seen a change to predominately warm-season turfgrasses, particularly in the southern states like New South Wales and Victoria which are predominately temperate climates within urban regions. The more drought tolerant grasses have been chosen by councils and homeowners for the choice of using less water compared to cool-season turfgrasses like fescue and ryegrass. Mild dormancy seems to be of little concern when high-profile areas can be oversown for short periods or nowadays, turf colourants (fake green) are extremely popular.

Within Australia it is reported that there are nearly 400 turf farms.[27] Knowing which farm is currently selling what turf variety is difficult. However, in 2016 an independent web site called TurfFinder was developed to assist homeowners and professional turf managers in choosing the appropriate turfgrass that meets their needs. The web site lists generic and technical information on over 100 warm- and cool-season turfgrasses and p rovides the location of reputable turf producers from across Australia that sell these turf varieties.

Uses



A newly seeded, fertilized and mowed lawn

Lawns are a common feature of private gardens, public landscapes and parks in many parts of the world. They are created for aesthetic pleasure, as well as for sports or other outdoor recreational use. Lawns are useful as a playing surface both because they mitigate erosion and dust generated by intensive foot traffic and because they provide a cushion for playe rs in sports such as rugby, football, soccer, cricket, baseball, golf, tennis, hockey and lawn bocce.

Lawns and the resulting lawn clipping waste can be used as an ingredient in making compost and is also viewed as fodder, used in the production of lawn clipping silage which is fed to livestock[28][29] as a sustainable feed source.

Types of lawn plants

Lawns need not be, and have not always been, made up of grasses alone. Other plants for lawn-like usable garden areas are sedges, low herbs and wildflowers, and ground covers that can be walked upon.



The area on the right has not been mown since the previous autumn.

Thousands of varieties of grasses and grasslike plants are used for lawns, each adapted to specific conditions of precipitation and irrigation, seasonal temperatures, and sun/shade tolerances. Plant hybridizers and botanists are constantly creating and finding improved varieties of the basic species and new ones, often more economical and environmentally sustainable by needing less water, fertilizer, pest and disease treatments, and maintenance. The three basic categories are cool season grasses, warm season grasses, and grass alternatives.

Grasses

Many different species of grass are currently used, depending on the intended use and the climate. Coarse grasses are used where active sports are played, and finer grasses are used for ornamental lawns for their visual effects. Some grasses are adapted to oceanic climates with cooler summers, and others to tropical and continental climates with hotter summers . Often, a mix of grass or low plant types is used to form a stronger lawn when one type does better in the warmer seasons and the other in the colder ones. This mixing is taken further by a form of grass breeding which produces what are known as cultivars. A cultivar is a cross-breed of two different varieties of grass and aims to combine certain traits taken from each individual breed. This creates a new strain which can be very specialised, suited to a particular environment, such as low water, low light or low nutrient.

Diagram of a typical lawn grass plant.

Diagram of a typical lawn grass plant.

Cool season grasses

Cool season grasses start growth at 5C (41F), and grow at their fastest rate when temperatures are between 10C (50F) and 25C (77F), in climates that have relatively mild/cool summers, with two periods of rapid growth in the spring and autumn.[30] They retain their color well in extreme cold and typically grow very dense, carpetlike lawns with relatively little thatch.

Conventional selections:

Bluegrass (Poa spp.)

Bentgrass (Agrostis spp.)

Ryegrasses (Lolium spp.)

Fescues (Festuca spp., hybrids, and cultivars)

Native plant regional selections (for taller lawns):

Red fescues (Festuca rubra)

Feather reed grass (Calamogrostis spp.)

Tufted hair grass (Deschampsia spp.)

Cluster fescue (Festuca paradoxa spp.)

Warm season grasses

Warm season grasses only start growth at temperatures above 10C (50F), and grow faste st when temperatures are between 25C (77F) and 35C (95F), with one long growth period over the spring and summer (Huxley 1992). They often go dormant in cooler months, turning shades of tan or brown. Many warm season grasses are quite drought tolerant, and can handle very high summer temperatures, although temperatures below -15C (5F) can kill most southern ecotype warm season grasses. The northern varieties, such as buffalograss and blue grama, are hardy to 45C (113F).

Zoysiagrass (Zoysia spp.)

Bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.)

St. Augustine grass

Bahiagrass (Paspalum)

Centipedegrass (Eremachloa)

Carpetgrass (Axonopus)

Buffalograss (drought tolerant)

Grama grass

Grass alternatives

Carex species and cultivars are well represented in the horticulture industry as 'sedge' alternatives for 'grass' in mowed lawns and garden meadows. Both low-growing and spreading ornamental cultivars and native species are used in for sustai nable landscaping as low-maintenance and drought-tolerant grass replacements for lawns and garden meadows. wildland habitat restoration projects and natural landscaping and gardens use them also for 'user-friendly' areas. The J. Paul Getty Museum has used Carex pansa (meadow sedge) and Carex praegracilis (dune sedge) expansively in the Sculpture Gardens in Los Angeles.[31]

Some lower sedges used are:

Carex caryophyllea (cultivar 'The Beatles')

C. divulsa (Berkeley sedge)[31]

C. glauca (blue sedge) (syn. C. flacca)

C. pansa (meadow sedge)[31]

C. praegracilis (dune sedge)[31]

C. subfusca (mountain sedge)[31]

C. tumulicola (foothill sedge) (cultivar 'Santa Cruz Mnts. selection')[31]

C. uncifolia (ruby sedge)

Ground cover alternatives



One of ground cover plants, common bearberry

Some lawns are replaced with low ground covers, such as creeping thyme, camomile, Lippia, purple flowering Mazus, grey Dymondia, creeping sedums, and creeping jenny.[32] An example of this is the floral lawn in Avondale Park. Other alternatives to lawns include meadows, drought-tolerant xeriscape gardens, natural landscapes, native plant habitat gardens, paved Spanish courtyard and patio gardens, butterfly gardens, rain gardens, tapestry lawn and kitchen gardens. Trees and shrubs in close proximity to lawns provide habitat for birds in traditional, cottage and wildlife gardens.

Lawn care and maintenance

Seasonal lawn e stablishment and care varies depending on the climate zone and type of lawn grown.

Planting and seeding



Broadcast spreaders can be attached to tractors or ATVs to spread seed or fertilizer



Aeration is one method used to maintain a lawn



Early autumn, spring, and early summer are the primary seasons to seed, lay sod (turf), plant 'liners', or 'sprig' new lawns, when the soil is warmer and air cooler. Seeding is the least expensive, but may take longer for the lawn to be established. Aerating just before planting/seeding may promote deeper root growth and thicker turf.

Sodding (American English), or turfing (British English), provides an almost instant lawn, and can be undertaken in most t emperate climates in any season, but is more expensive and more vulnerable to drought until established. Hydroseeding is a quick, less expensive method of planting large, sloped or hillside landscapes. Some grasses and sedges are available and planted from 'liner' and 4-inch (100mm) containers, from 'flats', 'plugs' or 'sprigs', and are planted apart to grow together.

Lawncare.gif

Lawn growth, 20-hour time lapse

Fertilizers and chemicals

Various organic and inorganic or synthetic fertilizers are available, with instant or time-release applications. Pesticides, which includes biological and chemical herbicides, insecticides and fungicides are available. Consideration for their effects on the lawn and garden ecosystem and via runoff and dispersion on the surrounding environment, can constrain their use. Fo r example, the Canadian province of Quebec and over 130 municipalities prohibit the use of synthetic lawn pesticides. In order for the lawn to grow and flourish, the soil must be prepared properly. If this step is overlooked as many do, the lawn will burn out as soon as it runs out of nutrients. [33][33] The Ontario provincial government promised on 24-2 September 2007 to also implement a province-wide ban on the cosmetic use of lawn pesticides, for protecting the public. Medical and environmental groups support such a ban.[34] On 22-2 April 2008, the Provincial Government of Ontario announced that it will pass legislation that will prohibit, province-wide, the cosmetic use and sale of lawn and garden pesticides.[35] The Ontario legislation would also echo Massachusetts law requiring pesticide manufacturers to reduce the toxins they use in production.[36]

Sustainable gardening uses organic horticulture methods, such as organic fertilizers, biological pest control, beneficial insects, and companion planting, among other methods, to sustain an attractive lawn in a safe garden. An example of an organic herbicide is corn gluten meal, which releases an 'organic dipeptide' into the soil to inhibit root formation of germinating weed seeds. An example of an organic alternative to insecticide use is applying beneficial nematodes to combat soil-dwelling grubs, such as the larvae of chafer beetles. The Integrated Pest Management approach is a coordinated low impact approach.[37]

Mowing and other maintenance practices



A typical lawn-mowing bot maintaining even and low grass.



Dethatching removes dead grass and decomposing materials that build up in a lawn



Lawn sweepers clean up debris from dethatching in addition to leaves, twigs, pine needles, etc.

Maintaining a rough lawn requires only occasional cutting with a suitable machine, or grazing by animals. Maintaining a smooth and closely cut lawn, be it for aesthetic or practical reasons or because social pressure from neighbors and local municipal ordinances requires it,[38] necessitates more organized and regular treatments. Usually once a week is adequate for maintaining a lawn in most climates. However, in the hot and rainy seasons of regions contained in hardiness zones greater than 8, lawns may need to be maintained up to two times a week.

Social impacts

The prevalence of the lawns in films such as Pleasantville and Edward Scissorhands alludes to the importance of the lawn as a social mechanism that gives great importance to visual representation of the American suburb as well as its practised culture. It is implied that a neighbor, whose lawn is not in pristine condition, is morally corrupt, emphasizing the role a well-kept lawn plays in neighborly and community relationships. In both of these films, green space surrounding a house in the suburbs becomes an indicator of moral integrity as well as of social and gender norms as lawn care has long been associated with men. These lawns also reinforce class and societal norms by subtly excluding minorities who may not have been able to afford a house in the suburbs with a lawn that was the symbolic representation of safety and stability.[39] The lawn as a reflection of someone's character and the neighborhood at large is not restricted to films, the same theme is evident in The Great Gatsby, a book written by American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. Character Nick Carraway rents the house next to Gatsby's and fails to maintain his lawn according to West Egg standards. The rift between the two lawns troubles Gatsby to the point that he dispatches his gard ener to mow Nick's grass and thereby create uniformity.[40]

Most lawn care equipment over the decades has been advertised to men, and companies have long associated good lawn care with good citizenship in their marketing campaigns. As well, the appearance of a healthy lawn was meant to imply the health of the man taking care of it; controlled weeds and strict boundaries became a practical application of the desire to control nature, as well as an expression of control over their personal lives once working full-time became central to suburban success. Women were encultured over time to view the lawn as part of the household, as an essential furnishing, and to encourage their husbands to maintain a lawn for the family and community reputation.[11]

During World War II, women became the focus of lawn-care companies in the absence of their husbands and sons. The lawn was promoted as a necessary means by which women could help support their male family members and American patriotism as a whole. The image of the lawn changed from focusing on technology and manhood to emphasizing aesthetic pleasure and the health benefits derived from its maintenance; it was assumed that women would not respond positively to images of efficiency and power. The language of these marketing campaigns still intended to imbue the female population with notions of family, motherhood, and the duties of a wife; it has been argued that this was done so that it would be easier for men returning from war to resume the roles their wives had taken over in their absence. This was especially apparent in the 1950s and 1960s, when lawn-care rhetoric emphasized the lawn as a husband's responsibility and as a pleasurable hobby when he retired.[11]

The lawn aesthetic in Europe and Australia seems to exhibit the same cultural tendencies as a representation of order, power over nature, patriotism, and suburban family life while still adhering to other gender constructs present throug hout the world's suburbs. However, there are differences in the particulars of lawn maintenance and appearance, such as the length of the grass, species (and therefore its color), and mowing.[26][41]

Environmental concerns

Greater amounts of chemical fertilizer and pesticides are used per acre of lawn than on an equivalent acre of cultivated farmland,[42] and the continued use of these products has been associated with environmental pollution, disturbance in the lawn ecosystem, and increased health risks to the local human population.[43]

Other concerns, criticisms, and ordinances regarding lawns come from the environmental consequences:

Lawns can reduce biodiversity, especially when the lawn covers a large area. Lawns - particularly in the United States - may be composed of introduced species not native to an area, which can produce a habitat that supports a reduced number of species.[44]

Lawn maintenance may use inorganic fertilizers, synthetic p esticides, herbicides, and fungicides, which can harm the environment. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has estimated nearly 70,000,000 pounds (32,000,000kg) of active pesticide ingredients are used on suburban lawns each year in the United States.[45] It has also been estimated that more herbicides are applied per acre of lawn than are used by most farmers to grow crops.[21]For example, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Kuwait, and Belize have placed restrictions on the use of the herbicide 2,4-D.

It has been estimated that nearly 17 million gallons of gasoline are spilled each summer while re-fueling garden and lawn-care equipment in the United States; approximately 50% more than that spilled during the Exxon Valdez incident.[21]

The use of pesticides and fertilizers, requiring fossil fuels for manufacturing, distribution, and application, have been shown to contribute to global warming, whereas sustainable organic techniques have been shown to help reduce gl obal warming.[46]



A lawn sprinkler

Water conservation

Maintaining a green lawn sometimes requires large amounts of water. This is not normally a problem in the temperate British Isles, where the concept of the lawn originated, as natural rainfall is usually sufficient to maintain a lawn's health, although in times of drought hosepipe bans may be implemented by the water suppliers.[47] The exportation of the lawn ideal to more arid regions of the world, however, such as the U.S. Southwest and Australia, has crimped already scarce water resources in such areas, requiring larger, more environmentally invasive water supply systems. Grass typically goes dormant during cold, winter months, and turns brown during hot, dry summer months, thereby reducing its demand for water. Many property owners consider this "dead" appearance unacceptable, and therefore increase watering during the summer months. Grass can also recover quite well from a drought.

In the United States, 50 to 70% of residential water is used for landscaping, most of it to water lawns.[45] A 2005 NASA study "conservatively" estimated there was 128,000 square kilometres (49,000sqmi; 32,000,000 acres) of irrigated lawn in the US, three times the area of irrigated corn.[48]

"

That means about 200 gallons of fresh, usually drinking-quality water per person per day would be required to keep up our nation's lawn surface area.

"

It is possible that lawn maintenance could come at the expense of precious resources, especially when faced with extreme weat her conditions. This situation is described in Water in Australia by David Ingle Smith, who observed in 1995 data that under extreme conditions during summer drought periods, up to 90% of the water used in Canberra, Australia was applied to lawns.[49]

Chemicals

An increased concern from the general public over pesticide and fertilizer use and their associated health risks, combined with the implementation of the legislation, such as the US Food Quality Protection Act, has resulted in the reduced presence of synthetic chemicals, namely pesticides, in urban landscapes such as lawns in the late 20th century.[50] Many of these concerns over the safety and environmental impact of some of the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides has led to their ban by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and many local governments.[43] The use of pesticides and other chemicals to care for lawns has also led to the death of nearly 7 million birds each year, a topic that was cent ral to Silent Spring by the conservationist Rachel Carson.[21]

Decreasing environmental impact

In the United States, lawn heights are generally maintained by gasoline-powered lawnmowers, which contribute to urban smog during the summer months. The EPA found, in some urban areas, up to 5% of smog was due to small gasoline engines made before 1997, such as are typically used on lawnmowers. Since 1997, the EPA has mandated emissions controls on newer engines in an effort to reduce smog.[51]

A 2010 study seemed to show lawn care inputs were balanced by the carbon sequestration benefits of lawns, and they may not be contributors to anthropogenic global warming.[52][53]

However, lawns with high maintenance (mowing, irrigation, and leaf blowing) and high fertilization rates have a net emission of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide that have large global warming potential.[54]

With the use of ecological techniques including organic lawn management, the impac t of lawns can be reduced. Such methods include the use of native grasses, sedges, and low herbs; higher mowing techniques; low volume irrigation, 'grasscycling' grass clippings in place; an integrated pest management program; exclusive organic fertilizer and compost use; and including a variety of trees, shrubs, perennials, and other plants surrounding the lawn. A positive benefit of a healthy lawn is it filters contaminants and prevents runoff and erosion of bare soil.

Replacing turf grass with low-maintenance groundcovers or employing a variety of low-maintenance perennials, trees and shrubs[44] can be a good alternative to traditional lawn spaces, especially in hard-to-grow or hard-to-mow areas, as it ?an reduce maintenance requirements, associated pollution and offers higher aesthetic and wildlife value.[55]

See also

Lawns

Grasses

Grasslands

Lawn topics

Lawn sweeper

Lawn aerator

Organic lawn management

Garden ing

Gardening

Organic gardening

Organic horticulture

Sustainable gardening

Sustainable landscaping

List of organic gardening and farming topics with links

Others

bacterial lawn

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^ "High Weed/Grass Complaint Process". City of Akron, Ohio.

^ Dickinson, Greg (2006). "The Pleasantville Effect: Nostalgia and the Visual Framing of (White) Suburbia". Western Journal of Communication. 70 (3): 212-233. doi:10.1080/10570310600843504.

^ Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.

^ Sedgman, K (1997). "Cutting Grass: In Search of the Australian Male". Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. 18 (3): 143-147. doi:10.1002/j.1467-8438.1997.tb00284.x.

^ Coates, Peter (2004). "Emerging from the Wilderness: (or, From Redwoods to Bananas): Recent Environmental History in the United States and the Rest of the Americas". Environment and History. 10: 407-38. doi:10.3197/0967340042772676.

^ a b Alumai, Alfred. "Urban Lawn Management: Addressing the Entomological, Agronomic, Economic, and Social Drivers." PhD., Ohio State Univ ersity, 2008.

^ a b Rebecca Pineo. Susan Barton. Turf Grass Madness: Reasons to Reduce the Lawn in Your Landscape

^ a b "Cut Your Lawn - In Half!". National Wildlife Federation.

^ Sayre, Laura. "Organic farming combats global warming--big time". Rodale Institute.

^ "Hosepipe ban". Retrieved 21 January 2015.

^ Milesi, Cristina; S.W. Running; C.D. Elvidge; J.B. Dietz; B.T. Tuttle; R.R. Nemani (8 November 2005). "Mapping and modeling the biogeochemical cycling of turf grasses in the United States". Environmental Management. 3: 426-438. doi:10.1007/s00267-004-0316-2. Retrieved 5 November 2010.

^ David Ingle Smith (1998). Water in Australia: Resources and Management. Oxford University Press, Melbourne

^ Alumai, Alfred; Salminen, Seppo O.; Richmond, Douglas S; Cardina, John; Grewal, Parwinder S. (2009). "Comparative Evaluation of Aesthetic, Biological, and Economic Effectiveness of Different Lawn Management Programs". Urban Ecosyst. 12: 127 -144. doi:10.1007/s11252-008-0073-8.

^ "Answers to Commonly Asked Questions from Dealers and Distributors" (PDF). U.S. EPA. August 1998.

^ "Lawns may contribute to global warming" by Judy Lowe, Christian Science Monitor, 22 January 2010.

^ "Retrieved 17 May 2010". sciencedaily.com.

^ Townsend-Small, Amy; Czimczik, Claudia (March 2010). "Correction to "Carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions in urban turf"". Geophysical Research Letters. 37 (http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/gl1006/2010GL042735/2010GL042735.pdf). Bibcode:2010GeoRL..37.6707T. doi:10.1029/2010GL042735. Retrieved 15 March 2012.

^ Rebecca Pineo, Botanic Gardens Intern http://www.bhg.com/ Susan Barton, Extension Specialist. Groundcover Alternatives to Turf Grass

Further reading

Bormann, F. Herbert, et al. (1993) Redesigning the American Lawn.

Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Lawns: Ch. 3: pp.26-33. Macm illan. ISBN 0-333-47494-5.

Jenkins, V. S. (1994). The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession. Smithsonian Books. ISBN 1-56098-406-6.

Steinberg, T. (2006). American Green, The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn. W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-06084-5.

Wasowski, Sally and Andy (2004). Requiem for a Lawnmower.

External links

Media related to Lawns at Wikimedia Commons



Wikisource has the text of the 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article Lawns.

"Planting and care of Lawns" from the UNT Govt. Documents Dept.

Integrated Pest Management Program: website & search-engine

Lawn Care University at Michigan State University

"EPA Management of Polluted Runoff: Nonpoint Source Pollution" (includes mismanagement of lawns problems.)

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Lawn and garden ornaments

Lawn

Bird bath

Bathtub Madonna

Concrete Aboriginal

Concrete goose

Garden gnome

Lawn jockey

Plastic flamingo

Suncatcher

Whirligig

Yard globe

Garden gnome with wheelbarrow-20051026.jpg

Garden

Puteal

Suikinkutsu

Sundial

Wind chime

Wishing well

Authority control

NDL: 00570873



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