A freshly manicured lawn has become a key feature of many gardens in the modern world. That particular picture of well-cut grass in front of a suburban house is also a familiar part of American iconography.
But where does the tradition of keeping the grass cut short and neat, as opposed to trimming it only lightly or letting it grow wild, come from? Its roots actually lie on the other side of the Atlantic, in Europe, where the word "lawn" was first used in the sense we understand it today in 1733. Here's a look back at the history of taming the grass.
The tradition goes back to the 18th century, when a well-preserved area of grass was viewed as something of a status symbol and a sign of the owner's wealth, as only the landed gentry and the aristocracy could afford it. Those who could not afford to keep a lawn neatly cut often kept their grass short by letting their animals graze on it.
Attitudes to grass were also connected to Enlightenment views of nature as something to be tamed and controlled. While attitudes toward the natural world would change with the Romantic era, which embraced wild nature instead, the idea of the lawn of one's own home as something to be contained has endured.
Back in the 18th century, grass had to be cut by hand, sometimes with scythes for larger areas like fields. Things would change with the arrival of the first-ever mechanical lawnmower, which was invented in the early 19th century by the English engineer Edwin Beard Budding.
On August 31, 1830, a patent was filed for an object fitting the following description: "a new combination and application of machinery for the purpose of cropping or shearing the vegetable surface of lawns, grass-plats and pleasure grounds." Budding's creation would revolutionize lawn care. It has been said that the inventor chose to test out the lawnmower only at night, to avoid attracting attention or mockery while it was still a work in progress.
Ironically, despite how much his invention changed things and how widespread lawnmowers are today, Budding did not make money from it.
The rise in popularity of lawnmowing in the U.S. can be partly explained by a boom in homeownership in the mid-20th century: the share of Americans who owned their homes increased from 44% in 1940 to 62% by 1960. That growth led to a rise in suburbs where each house had a similar lawn out front. Seeing other people's lawns every day made homeowners feel that each lawn should be maintained to contribute to the neighborhood's overall look, so mowing became more and more common.
And in the 21st century, the image of the pristine lawn remains prominent today. Every summer, from late June to early July, the Wimbledon tennis tournament is played on grass courts that are mowed frequently throughout the event. Grass court tennis was, of course, originally known as "lawn tennis." So when we see those lawn-like courts, we can remember that they are the modern legacy of a tradition that stretches back hundreds of years and is still going strong today.