The American Lawn

Growing up in some of the driest years on record in Colorado, I was exposed early on to the impracticalities of the resplendent Kentucky bluegrass lawn ideal. Mine was one of few houses on my street to retain a patch of traditional grass; most others embraced xeriscaping by filling their yards with gravel, native grasses, and other low-water plants. The lawn is an intriguing trope of American architecture; our suburban homes, our presidential lodgings, even our freeway dividers are all covered in patches of useless, thirsty green grass. 

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Is it our obsession with the romantic myth that prevents us from weaning off these little plots of nature? Is the lawn so much a status symbol that we will ignore environmental indicators against it? You can imagine my joy to find some answers to questions like these in the CCA's ingeniously (as always) executed 1998 exhibit, "The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life." While the exhibit has long since passed, their wonderful website retains a slideshow and reading list. I know what books I'll be ordering for summer reads, to be completed in my apartment's thoroughly grass-free backyard!