Why don't Americans plant trees and bushes of stuff that they can eat in their houses instead of having useless grass?
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So front yard? Yeah, not super surprised at that. I’ve heard plenty of stories about front yard cultivators running into problems with the city. I live in a more rural/urban mixed area so it’s a lot more forgiving. Plenty of people here have apples or other fruit trees in the front yard - not aggressively farming the yard, just as part of the plantings.
Ya front yard. We didn’t aggressively plant either. We had 4 or 5 fruit trees planted with beds around them
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In, or in the yard of?
If you mean in the yard of their houses, it goes back to the days of aristocracy. Having land you don't use for food was a form of conspicuous consumption, and you had sports grow up around stretches of short grass as a result, like golf and polo. The former is still synonymous with the well-off, even.
Then you have to skip ahead to the 1960's in America, where the "mid-century modern" philosophy of urban planning gains prominence. The idea was to get people out of the crowded, Victorian-style slums - which we might find quaint in hindsight, but at the time were very stigmatised. This extended to a certain disdain for cities and buildings in general, even - more nature was better. So, where do you put people? In tiny little rural estates modeled on the ones popular with aristocrats, separated by zoning laws from the other sections of the city.
The vision was that people would get home from their 9-5 jobs in the commercial-only zones in their very own car, and would hang out outside enjoying their government-mandated leisure time. The urban planners of the time probably pictured a giant croquet course going up and down a residential street, and the all-white 3.5 kid families that live there sitting outside on lawn chairs, playing friendly games against each other. These "white picket fence" suburbs had lawns, then, because you couldn't have semi-rural domestic bliss without them, according to architects who graduated Harvard in 1920.
In practice, of course, none of that happened. Like so many other tidy ideas it failed to predict how the general public would interact with it. I've been to plenty of places like that. You know the names of your neighbor, but not much else about them, and the people a few doors down are suspect of being pedophiles or violent drug dealers. That fence line is sacred, each house becomes an island, and you're frightfully dependent on driving to get anywhere you can do basic errands. And that's not even getting into the racial issues that came out of it.
Now, in the 21st century, people assume houses have always had lawns, and messing with that formula irritates the local NIMBYs. New ideas become rigid tradition, and it falls to the next generation to question them. Hopefully we will, but it will take a moment.
Thanks, you explained better than I would have. I was going to go on a tangent about Louis XIV showing the other aristocrats his new "lawn" concept.
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Ya front yard. We didn’t aggressively plant either. We had 4 or 5 fruit trees planted with beds around them
That really sucks.
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Ok, but why?
Because of 18th century French aristocracy, no shit.
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My HOA:
Looks like you are stuck with fruits, grains, herbs, and ornamentals in the front yard, then, lol.
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I mean some of us hate grass so much we started a huge reddit community about it that made it's way too lemmy.
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Why aren't people everywhere?
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This is why:
https://youtu.be/EwVovJgwbJQAI summary, for those who can't watch it right now, like myself:
The video discusses the history of lawns and their impact on American culture:
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Lawns originated in 17th century Europe as a symbol of wealth and status, eventually making their way to America [01:31].
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The invention of the push lawnmower and sprinklers in the 19th century made lawn maintenance more accessible [02:43].
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After World War II, suburban sprawl and consumerism led to lawns becoming a standard feature of the American dream [03:37].
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Homeowners' associations (HOAs) enforce strict rules about lawn care, contributing to the pressure to maintain a perfect lawn [05:23].
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The lawn care industry has become a massive business, with homeowners spending billions of dollars on products and services [07:14].
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Lawns have negative environmental impacts, including water waste and pesticide runoff [09:11].
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The video suggests alternatives to traditional lawns, such as growing food or native species, xeriscaping, using fake turf or clover, or simply letting the lawn grow naturally [10:13].
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Ok, but why?
The real answer is because in America rich people buy houses, and then create HOAs in the housing deeds and contracts to force all future owners to maintain the house in a way that will increase the neighborhood property value forever.
HOAs exclusively fight to make houses more and more "valuable" since housing is a financial investment here
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As someone who lives in an ex-industrial city (Birmingham Alabama), I’ve always been worried about air pollution and tainted soil (there are superfund sites nearby). I feel like every thing would have to be above ground and covered. That seems like a lot of work. Should I be worried?
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Thanks, you explained better than I would have. I was going to go on a tangent about Louis XIV showing the other aristocrats his new "lawn" concept.
Hey, thanks!
I have to point out, Versailles did have quite a bit of lawn and certainly helped, but the concept of decorative short grass predates it, and even existed in the some of the American civilisations using a totally different plant IIRC. The Wikipedia article notes several medieval examples.
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As someone who lives in an ex-industrial city (Birmingham Alabama), I’ve always been worried about air pollution and tainted soil (there are superfund sites nearby). I feel like every thing would have to be above ground and covered. That seems like a lot of work. Should I be worried?
Yeah you should. Look into soil testing with your local city, county, or University Extension office. You send in a little sample of dry soil and they email you the results. It's usually pretty cheap and will tell you if any soil is unsafe. My local library, for example, has sample boxes for free. Definitely a good idea for anyone in a place where lead paint could have been used, let alone other horrible stuff.
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It’s a stupid reason. Historically, if you were a peasant and had been granted access to land, you grew food or herbs. If however you were a lord, you got your food from your peasants. You had no need to grow your own food. So they could afford to grow lawns as a sign of wealth.
This has transferred across into the modern psyche. Lawns are a way of saying “i’m so rich, i don’t have to worry about sustenance. In fact i’ll throw money at it to maintain this slab of green rather than have it provide food, or shade.”
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We do? Some ppl dont, we have sugarcane, oranges, lemons, eggplants, peppers, and I forget the rest, my dad/grandpa are more into gardening. Its just not realistic to do a lot, cheaper and a lot faster to go the grocery storec more variety, hoemgrown stuff is ususlly more of an addon.
Yeah, I have a lemon tree and a small garden that gives me some herbs and some strawberries (that are pretty but don't taste great). My parents were into gardening so they always had a big garden. I remember one of the problems they had is that a single crop would ripen in a short period. Like they'd get 200 tomatoes over 2 weeks. Not ideal (unless you're into canning/jarring), but a good way to make friends with your neighbors.
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We do. Obviously not everyone can But I wager the number of Americans growing something edible on their space is decent. Usually it's easy stuff to grow, or someone's favorites.
Thinking about it and counting in my head I actually knows dozens of people that grow tomatoes personally. They grow easily in large quantities in relatively small space and all taste better than store bought.
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The 50s happened.
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The 50s happened.
And for whatever the fuck reason, they wanted houses like the ones found in pre-1789 France
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The real answer is because in America rich people buy houses, and then create HOAs in the housing deeds and contracts to force all future owners to maintain the house in a way that will increase the neighborhood property value forever.
HOAs exclusively fight to make houses more and more "valuable" since housing is a financial investment here
Thank you. So not having a proper garden increases the value?
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It’s a stupid reason. Historically, if you were a peasant and had been granted access to land, you grew food or herbs. If however you were a lord, you got your food from your peasants. You had no need to grow your own food. So they could afford to grow lawns as a sign of wealth.
This has transferred across into the modern psyche. Lawns are a way of saying “i’m so rich, i don’t have to worry about sustenance. In fact i’ll throw money at it to maintain this slab of green rather than have it provide food, or shade.”
This is the correct answer. So many US'isms are bourgeois / aristocratic imitation.
Cars / wasteful transportation, lawns, sprawled out cities, high amounts of meat consumption, vacation homes / timeshares / exotic vacations, having servants, etc. These are things that are only possible for countries with huge amounts of land and resources, and not sustainable or doable for most of the world.
