Lawn mores

Why did the perfect-lawn aesthetic emerge in the 1950s? Because that was a time in the nation's economic history when -- with Americans already awash in consumer goods such as refrigerators and washing machines -- manufacturers longed for new ways of stimulating demand. The perfect lawn fueled postwar consumerism as homeowners repeatedly bought products in the elusive quest for an impeccable yard.

There was no business conspiracy here. Lawn-care companies simply pursued their economic self-interest and sold grass seed mixtures that no longer included clover -- until the 1950s a part of all lawns because of its ability to fertilize by adding nitrogen to the soil. Instead, companies urged homeowners to buy a bag of chemicals to make up for the nutrient shortfall. Or better yet, to put down new weed-and-feed products, which killed clover and then fertilized to replace the nitrogen that the clover had once provided for free.

Lawn-care companies also tapped into other postwar developments such as the trend in color. Brightly colored consumer products were all the rage. Supergreen lawns and hot-pink cars became status symbols. Companies pushed multiple fertilization treatments to keep turf at its greenest.

And, of course, beautiful lawns meshed wonderfully with the conformity that was a fixture of life in the '50s. What better way to show one's solidarity with the neighbors than to cultivate the same green expanse of grass out front.

Economic imperatives, color preferences and conformity are better explanations than genetics for the all-American lawn mania. Focusing on genes tempts us to accept as inevitable the roughly 75,000 Americans injured each year using lawnmowers or the groundwater contamination caused by lawn overfertilization. But, in fact, ecological history suggests that traveling back and forth across the yard with our spreaders is no more natural than the chemicals we are putting in the ground.