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We ripped out our front lawn 3 years ago, (we live in an arid western state). Replaced it with native plants. Best thing we ever did to our property.

When I was a kid, I grew up in a inter-city row house. The very small back yard was used exclusively for a vegetable garden and so, the only grass that we had to deal with is that which grew in the cracks of the sidewalk. Now that I'm older (73), I own a modest home in the suburbs where the lot is only 1/4 acre and so the lawn in both the front and back is very small. I'm often criticized by friends and neighbors for cutting my own grass at my age. I use a powered push mower that is NOT self propelled. I explain to my critics, that cutting and trimming my lawn is the only exercise that I get, much like going to a gym. Except, I don't pay for the privilege of exercising and don't have to pay someone to mow. It's a double win for me.

All my neighbors around me have perfect lines except me I like the little purple violets and this year I decided to find white yellow and mixed colored violets and sprinkle the seeds all over my lawn. I've often wondered when did we start considering pretty wildflowers as weeds and something to dump chemicals on. And we wonder why the bees are dying out.

When I was growing up, you could tell which houses were owned by serious farmers; very small lawn, and an absolutely tiny - but very well kept - flower bed. Farmers didn't have time to be tending non-cash foliage.

My son absolutely loves when someone calls him up and says they are sick of mowing or don’t have the time. He will be glad to come take care of it for you! It’s $$ in his pocket!!

Lawn and Order: Special Vegetations Unit

Chamomile was used for lawns, too, in England.

My grandmother had a sand lawn, swept with a homemade broom that I helped her harvest from broom straw fields and later bound up with bailing twine. Around her swept lawn was a privet hedge row that was about 48" high and trimmed into a square shape. Since the lawn was well shaded by oaks, she felt the need to rake and sweep her lawn almost daily. A number of years ago I wrote a grant that was funded to record the historic resources in my area. I chose a professor from the University of GA to be the professional of record, then had a great summer taking her around the area and recording the significant buildings and sites. The professor specialized in historic lawns, and as a very amateur gardener, I gladly learned much that summer. I combined the historic lawn knowledge with information I gained from a neighbor who was president of the GA Native Plant Society. I'm still not an expert on the subject of historic gardening; however, I have found it absolutely fascinating how people often took their "pass-around' flowers, shrubs and fruit trees with them as the settled the frontier. Oftentimes one can follow a migration path from north to south and farther and farther inland by the plants they left as they settled different areas. Two of the most touching finds I have made in looking at former homesites and trying to locate them on a property has been what remains as testimony of the history: 1. Often one will find the hearth and remains of a chimney. When I have found such sites I've often imagined the frontier family huddled around the hearth cooking, sleeping and sharing their own family histories. 2. The landscaping that remains often leads from the old wagon roads to the front steps of a home that vanished long ago. I often go looking for those old home places in late winter, 'before the snakes start crawling' as my grandparents said. In one homesite where I knew of the family who lived there on a high, undisturbed ridge, was their rows of jonquils lining each side of the walkway to the front step, then the depression where their root cellar had been and lastly the hearth and remains of a chimney. Sitting there for 100 years, abandoned and undisturbed, the legacy of a family remained recorded in the form of their hearth and the flowers lovingly planted so long ago.

My neighbor is lawn manic. He does patterns and it immaculate. I mow because I have too. Now that I have a bagger it does not look like a hayfield. He told me he laughs at me box cutting style. But to his credit he understands since he is retired. He has time to do the fancy work. To make peace I let his friends park on my lawn instead of his for his large gatherings. I usually get a free steak too!!!

Good morning from Ft Worth TX to everyone watching...I don't mind mowing, edging, and blowing my lawn/sidewalk. It gives me solitude and I get lost in my own thoughts while doing it.

As a child in the rural South in the '50's, I can recall a common children's chore being to pull the grass out of "the yard", a hard packed dirt area kept free of grass and weeds by little fingers.We moved to a home with a "lawn" about 1958. Then I cut grass.

My grandfather use to mow lawns with a manual push mower as a side job in the 30's. My father got a quarter for working with him for the day. I find mowing lawns relaxing and still use a walk behind one.

This updated rerun should have been preceded by a rerun of the History Guy's episode about lobsters, so that we could have "surf and turf" for lunch/dinner! 😁

I enjoy mowing my yard. I like to smoke a little smoke before the task and the hum of the mower combined with the music in my earbuds along with the walking is therapeutic for me.

I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in hating lawn care. I'm thinking a garden would be of better use than grass. At least a garden produces something edible.

Soooo many people hate doing lawn work. I find it therapeutic. I love spending time on my lawn and garden. And over the years, I've figured out for my area how to have the greenest lawn even though I give mine less water and it gets more kid/pet traffic than any of my neighbors. Perhaps it's a source of pride, but more than that, it's my sanctuary. It makes me happy to see a lush green lawn, and getting outside any day to work on it is better than sitting inside at a computer and working.

I am real old school, I love my lawn and I don't consider maintaining to be chore but more of hobby. Green grass, a few palms, some kiwis and papayas, its a little slice of sub tropical paradise.

Good morning THG. We made it to the middle of the week.

A history of Lawns The video I didn't know I wanted until now

best nickname in history ever, "Pope of Turf Grass" lol. can see him walking past front lawns blessing them and leaving a waffer on the fence and a quick spritz of weed killer and then moving on.

The original reason for lawns seems to be overlooked. It was recognized that if you cleared out the area around your dwelling it reduced the incursion of wild life. Rats, snakes, etc. But the problem is often the dirt would wash terribly in the rain. So growing something to hold the soil was a good idea. It had to be vegetation that could be kept cut short enough to not allow any cover for critters but still survive and keep growing. I have personally seen many situations where the lawn was not kept up and plants were allowed to grow next to the house. Inevitably critters moved in. Just recently I had to dig up and fill armadillo holes that went deep down next to the foundation. The holes were hidden behind some overgrown shrubs. I cut down the shrubs and the armadillos have not returned.

We didn't have a lawn at home. Dad always said "mow the yard" to his four boys. And he never bought a new lawn mower. He bought junky pieces and had us build our own mowers. No riding mowers, or even a self-propelled. Nothing but a pure and simple rotary push mower. One by one, we reached the age of 12 and were engaged in this family tradition. Then after the last of us attained the next age of passage and went to college, dad popped down to Sears and Roebuck and bought a riding mower.

A quick look at state maps in the US shows the popularity of naming cities and towns Bowling Green. A lush lawn is a joy to walk through barefooted. Most lawns have more than just grass. They have shrubs and flower beds for color and fragrance. I get most of my exercise from mowing the lawn and I do like the smell of fresh-cut grass. When I was a teen, mowing lawns gave kids some pocket money. One of my former coworkers bought a riding mower, he had a young teenage son. He said he only mowed the lawn once all year long, his son mowed it at least once a week without being asked to. It seemed that he was pretending to be a racecar driver.

Quick note : Horse drawn rollers, cutters, the horses were fitted with leather overshoes so as not to leave prints in the lawn.

I have a "mullet" lawn -- nice is the front, rather shaggy in the back. 🙂 That's because in my back yard of approximately 1/4 acre, I have 14 pine trees. When I bought the place I decided I wasn't going to even attempt to grow grass back there, so the back is pretty much nothing but pine needles with various weeds poking through. It IS mowed, occasionally, to keep the weeds in check.

Landscaper here, the most time consuming and costly part of your garden is your lawn. After that comes perennial flower beds, then brush, finally grasslands and forest.

Great episode! As a homeowner for 22 years I was curious about the origin of the modern obsession with lawns. With lawns comes the never ending battle against weeds, drought, and of course growth, along with the noise and air pollution of gas mowers and blowers. We need to evolve beyond this mess!

I"ll watch this when I get back...... I've got to mow the lawn. Please keep up the great work.

I went from pushing my toy mower (age 4) behind my dad mowing with his Lawn Boy push mower, to mowing over 5 acres of my own today, with a compact tractor. And since I retired from the healthcare field, I spend a fair amount of time working with a friend who is a landscaper, with lawn care as part of his services (but no mowing). I've learned more about grass than I ever thought existed, and it is a great second semi-career.

I’m of Ukrainian descent- my mom tells me stories of her growing up in Canada in the 1970s with her grandpa Panko (born about 1890 in Lviv) cutting the lawn by hand with a sickle, when he was in his 80s. Panko and his wife Anna (also born in Lviv-they immigrated together) lived in a duplex with each having one side to themselves, and both sides had a vegetable patch and a lawn, crossing their Old Country roots with the western style. Panko never once used a lawnmower. He also did not drive and instead rode his bicycle everywhere, almost every day until he passed at 94 years old. He sounds like an incredible person and I wish I could have met him, but the stories my mom has passed down about how hard they worked to provide a life for their daughter (my grandmother) make me proud of my heritage.

Water your lawn so the grass grows faster and then you can cut the lawn. Very curious thing to do .

When I was a kid there were no such thing as “lawn services.” Homeowners wouldn’t dream of paying someone to cut their grass, but if circumstances made that unavoidable, there were plenty of industrious teens in the neighborhood willing to earn a couple bucks. Now all you see and hear are these shiny new F350’s with huge trailers rumbling up the street, hauling their noisy 0 turn mowers, weed whackers and leaf blowers. All the dad’s used to just cut their lawns on the weekends, now we listen to the drone 7 days a week!

Enjoyed the talk having my breakfast outside on my adriondack chair while looking across the lawn. Seeing horses sheep and cattle in the near distance and the mountains in the distance. Hearing birds sing and the distant sound of road traffic. It’s not a bad idea at all.

Always enjoyed mowing the lawn. The weed whacking and edging were also enjoyable. Always liked the end result.

When I was a kid, we had a lawn mower that had no engine. The curved blades were gear driven. That was fun and nice & quiet.

I was my family's "lawn mower service" from when I was age 7, right up until I got my own home (age 27). Now I labor on my own lawn... it is a time suck to a degree, but for me I enjoy tending to the garden, so doing the lawn is but a step.

Covid did a lot for the American Home. Not only did folks, stuck at home and tired of looking at their crummy lawn, decide to do something about it; I've noticed that many, many homes are being remodelled, also. Nothing like having to work from home and having to look constantly at your sub-par surroundings, to get the gears moving. Good vid!

I previously lived in South Central Texas during the worst 5 year drought in 100 years. And yet, even with water being scarce and very expensive, many people insisted on have golf course type lawns. On the other hand, I let mine go dormant and turn a beautiful shade of tan. I told my critics, that when God was ready, he would make it green again. Who am I to argue with God.

I went to an open day at Southampton (old) Bowling Green a few years ago, such an amazing place when you think it all started in 1299, a real honour to roll a few bowls across the sacred lawn :)

Mowing a lawn is a relaxing escape from the pressures of life. If the lawn is big enough, you can have a lawn tractor to ride while mowing. Seat time can be fun if you time how fast you cut the yard. Good Luck, Rick

When my father was growing up in Louisiana in the 1930s and 40s, vegetation in the "yard" adjoining the house was considered unsanitary. He would be tasked with hoeing anything that took root on a weekly basis.

My Lawncare skills as a kid..... History that Needs to be Forgotten.

This feels like the Sunday Morning Show. Love it.

I love how you make something so mundane so interesting.

Just finished mowing my lawn with my new lawnmower, there is some pride and satisfaction in keeping a well maintained lawn.

And you just reminded me I need to mow.

A wonderful long running BBC program called “Gardener’s World” ran a multi part special about lawns, lawn care, and the development of the gadgets to maintain these patches of green. One version was actually pulled by camels, because their softer feet didn’t require the boots the horses or ponies did.

you read my mind this time! just the other week i was mowing the lawn and thought "surely those great lawned estates in history predate the lawnmower... is it even possible to evenly scythe vast stretches of land at ankle height? i wonder just when the first mechanical lawnmower came about?" i got those answers a lot faster and easier than i expected!

Lawn care also drives an entire industry of landscapers, as we have throughout Southern California. When I lived in Michigan, lawn care was only needed for about 6 months of the year adverse to year round in SoCal. I am usually in an office environment all day, so the time spent outdoors doing lawn work is something that I actually look forward to. There is a satisfaction that comes with a nicely maintained yard.

The late humorist, Erma Bombeck, titled her book on suburban living, *The Grass is Always Greener over the Septic Tank.*

I got Briggs & Stratton to take care of my lawn. Does a fantastic job and uses no gas and with zero effort on my part. Briggs is a Boer and Stratton is an Alpine....... goats, that is.

I love my lawn and caring for it is one of the simple pleasures that I enjoy.

I have a love/hate relationship with my lawn. I hate cutting it but love the way it looks and smells right after I do it.

Many cities forbid dandelions, they also have a height limit that keep home owners from having grasses or wild flowers that grow tall stems for pollination and seed heads.Many grass varieties or plants that would feed birds and encourage bees and other pollinators have to be cut before they go to seed. And pesticides poison the animals and our ground water. There is the need for fire control in dry conditions, but plant height isn't the best way to do it.

I may not be the World's Best Small Engine Mechanic but I am certainly a contender for the title. After spending all day working on tractors, zero turns, hand mowers, blowers, saws, trimmers & edgers - I love to go home at night to my newly acquired apartment where I do not have to care for the grounds :)

I started mowing yards with my older brother when I was six. We mowed about 10 yards in our neighborhood. $3 for the Front and $2 for the back. The yards were generally not that big but you had to charge extra for the corner lots. For some reason they were always bigger. A couple of years later my brother got a job at a fruit stand. I picked up all the houses he did plus I had some of my own. I bought my own bike that summer and had plenty of money when my parents went on vacation. Good times they were. Now I am still mowing the yard. I own 8 1/2 acres of land mostly Cedar and Mesquite. Some gets eaten by cows, some gets mowed and some I ignore.

Well that was a bonanza, especially for Lorne Green with green lawns. Alright, I'll go away now!

My brother and I were the official lawnmowers of our family pushing a mower and using a hand-operated trimmer. We did not see a power mower until high school and it belonged to a neighbor. There is a certain satisfaction in having a well-manicured lawn. That said, I think it is a big expense and a waste of time and water. People spend a sizeable amount of both to get the grass to grow only to cut it off and start again. Very interesting informatin, as usual. thank you.

I love mowing my yard, and keeping my grass beautiful!!

I hated mowing the yard when I was younger, and when I was younger I had two acres to mow, with a push mower! Now I have a normal size yard with it being about the size of two of my houses and I love my yard I love mowing it I love playing in my flower beds I love making my home look like a home. Home ain't a home without a yard!

A number of large houses and manors have what is known as ha-ha around their large lawns. This is a sunken ditch with a hedge or wall with an inward inclined grassed slope in front of it that allows sheep to graze the lawn but not escape. It makes for an uninterrupted view across the lawn without raised fences or hedges. Sheep or other animals can graze but can not climb out of the ditch on the side of the house. 🐑🐑🐑🐑😊😊😊😊

In the 90s I had a 44 thousand square foot lot, which sounds huge until you realize that a large chunk was taken up by a water retention basin. In growing season I’d hop on my Craftman tractor, put on my headphones and turn on the Motor Racing Network as I, Walter Mitty style, attacked the high banks of the basin like Dale Earnhardt at Talladega!

This episode touches on the greatest untold tale in history, "The Enslavement of Mankind by the Grasses!" Think about it, civilization was started to grow grasses, wheat, rice, barley etc. The modern human spends an inordinate portion of their free time tending to the almighty grasses. Plant gardens, NOT Lawns!

My family still won’t let me live down the time I was supposed to cut the grass for the first time after a rather snowy winter and wet spring. Not matter how I tried, the gas mower would not start. I checked the gas tank and it was full of the usual faint red fluid and I told my dad the mower was broken. He came out to check the mower and asked the usual questions dads always do when trying to fix a problem, and after 10 futile minutes of trying to start it he began to check over the mower himself. When he looked into the gas tank to see if there was any gas he discovered that it was full of rusty water from sitting outside all winter and spring. After removing all the water and refilling it with real gasoline it fired right up on the second pull. To this day (I’m 66 years old) my younger brother always calls me in the spring to tell me to give tank on my mower a “sniff” test before I use it for the first time every season.

When we first bought our home in 1990 (California) the entire yard was lush green grass. Over the years I have replaced 90% of it with decorative rocks, native plants and garden boxes. I still have a small bit of grass in the front yard. With all the brown hills, I do like to see a bit of green. I may have to give up this little patch as well due to a lack of water. I have never hired someone to take care of our yard work, it is great exercise and calms my mind.

I'm seeding my lawn with native grasses and wildflowers. Gonna wild it up.

As an owner/operator of a lawn care business I found that very interesting. I did always wonder where the term lawn came from. Also, as the grandson of WWII vet, it is neat to see how the modern industry of lawn care matured as a result of wanting to make their lives easier.

The Czech Republic is quite a small country. One has a tendency to generalize the habits of inhabitants of every country. We used to tend our lawn by the electric lawnmower in 1970s, living in Northern Moravia. But when I visited my relatives in South Moravia, I was very surprised that they and their neighbors in suburbia of one regional city turned every inch of their front garden (frankly, I didn't have time back then for a back garden) into a vineyard. There was no room for grass - every square foot had its vine plant on wire. What blows my mind is, how do these habits travel: every neighbor had it like this, and the same was true for next village in every direction. How does it happen that suddenly some next village stops having this passion for vinery? Except for the local weather conditions of course.

I was amused by the hybrid bicycle and reel push mower at 11:56. I took a photo of a nearly identical device proudly displayed on a lawn last summer in Edgemont, South Dakota in Fall River County; not far from Hot Springs... the childhood home of none other than The History Guy. The lawn mowing apparatus I saw had a large sign next to it that reads: Redneck Riding Lawnmower.

Thank you for yet another great episode! I must be in the minority of people who loved mowing my yard. I guess it really depends on the equipment and/or your personal life. My father bought a Gravely zero-turn, which I absolutely loved driving! When I owned my own home, I had a Gravely zero-turn "walk-behind" self-propelled mower. I am currently seeking to buy another home, which means more lawn care, which I absolutely loved doing.

Dad: "Get out there and mow the lawn"

A well manicured sward is a delight to the eye

Cut grass surrounding the house makes it difficult for bugs, mice & snakes to enter your house without being seen and eaten by predators.

When I was a kid in the 50s a man and his wide lived a block away. He was blind but still mowed his lawn with an old-fashioned push mower. His wife had some lumber, probably 1 inch x 2 inch by 12 feet long. She would lay these out on the lawn in parallel rows and the husband use them as guides. As for myself, I don't mind mowing the lawn as it always looks much better when the job is complete.

I love mowing and caring for my lawn and garden. People who do not like it should speak for themselves and leave me, and others who find law care therapeutic and rewarding, alone.

This THG episode mentioned bocce, tennis, golf, badminton, and croquet, but didn't mention *horseshoes*, nor that quintessential lawn game of my youth: Jarts! 😁 (PS, A history of shodding horse's feet seems to be called for; who was the first person or the earliest civilization/culture that decided to drive nails into horses hooves and put metal rings on their feet? Did they strap some kind of other foot gear on horses before they started using metal horseshoes?).

Lawn care is a soul crushing time suck. that was AWESOME since I can't stand doing any kind of yard work at all. so that statement is perfect for me.

Ironically I put about the least effort into my lawn, yet it tends to be just about the nicest one in my neighborhood. Except for the initial surge, I discharge the cuttings and leave them to decompose on the soil and I let the dandelions and clover grow. Additionally, I'm the only one left who still uses an old two-cycle Lawn-Boy and my grass is a noticably darker and richer shade of green.

I was thinking about this yesterday! Thank you for the post History Guy.

Love these thorough historical investigations of the things that are so benign and taken for granted by us, we don't even give their origins a second thought.

Hey History Guy 👋 👦 🤓 there's a saying that the deep doesn't give up their dead. About 5 years ago and I think last year I said Lake Meade will begin giving up her dead. 3 bodies so far this week. Zoinks there's a few more to be found

As a Californian, we are definitely trying to push for fewer lawns because it's such a huge waste of water - lots of people are shifting towards drought friendly gardens instead.

Land was wealth and if you planted grass and not edibles on your land everyone could see that you were rich so the poorer people started to have lawns also as a status symbol. It is possible to have lawns that are planted with indigenous plants that are eco friendly.

I don’t care what the subject is, History Guy makes the subject matter interesting and always informative.

Frankenstein's Monster is on the loose on the History Shelf!😱😱😱😱 I still remember the smell of the fertilizer my Dad used on our front lawn. Interestingly, he didn't put that much effort into the back lawn. When I was a kid, it was common practice for teenage boys to "borrow" the motors from their dads' lawn mowers to power their DIY street go carts🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️

I really enjoy watching someone else my lawn while I’m inside an air-conditioned room with no bugs.

I love the creativity of your introductions! I’ve always enjoyed your history lessons, but I wait with anticipation to see how the segment will be started! Thanks!

Lawns are a place to graze sheep and let chickens eat bugs. (In the winter, they sleep in the freezer.) Courtesy of Half Vast Flying

One interesting story that borders on "Conspiracy Theory" is that prior to the 1950's, going back centuries, Clover was considered a Desirable part of every lawn, as it is a nitrogen fixer (adds nitrogen to the soil), & also provides pollen for honey bees. In the mid 1950's, the chemical industry, seeing the growth of lawn care as a marketable industry, with fertilizers, herbicides, & pesticides a significant income generator, decided to Demonize clover as a part of lawns. Thus, lawns would be deprived of their fixated nitrogen, which could be replaced by chemical fertilizers. Plus, Clover was now on the list of "weeds" to be eliminated with herbicides. Lawn care "pamphlets" were provided Gratis to hardware stores across America by the chemical companies with this "Guidance". Today, clover is indeed considered a "pest" / "weed" pretty universally, & eradicated enthusiastically.

I am certainly in the 1-in-5 Americans that absolutely loathes mowing the lawn. Yet at the same time, since I became a homeowner a few years ago I feel I have to maintain it mostly to not catch flak from my neighbors. Yes, when its done its nice to look at. However, I also lament when I can tell from day to day that the lawn has grown because I think of the chore I loathe so much. Great video as always!

I inherited the family farm house. Grandfather built it in the country. The lawn is just a hay field that's been mown for 80 year. I don't worry about it.

In common "Lawns" were also used to sun dry washed linen. That is why certain plants were to be excluded. Those plant might stain the linen.

The original meaning of 'lawn' as 'a glade or opening in the woods' continues to be used in the name of Balmer Lawn in the New Forest in southern England, and other open spaces in this forest are referred to as 'lawns'. Is this usage still in existence elsewhere?

Awesome. I lived in Chandler AZ, and we had a good sized lawn. But with the cost of water in that area, it was too expensive to keep. So we took it all out and put in Small pebbles. They looked good and you didnt have to water them.

_”...you kids get off of my lawn!!”_

I can't think of anyone I know who doesn't count, "freshly cut grass" as one of their favorite smells.

Thank You history Guy! Could you please do a segment on the pre-history of Lawns: How Dandelions were essential. At a point in history, Dandelions made up to almost half of the of the populations' caloric intake. Weed-less lawns were thus, showing off wealth. They dedicated lawns to grass, instead of for food.

loved that bicycle lawnmower at 11:57 sole crushing time suck was right on lol

“KEEP OFF THE GRASS” Most beautiful sign ever made. Australia