Beyond Wilderness and Lawn

The author talked about the history of the making of American modern front lawns, gardening and wilderness preservations—both lawn and gardening invented. By comparison the author draws the similarity and contrasting, weighing the value on all parts. The differences and yet interdependence for existents of front lawns, wilderness and the genesis of America gardening, which started some years after the civil war, the preservation of wilderness started out of the necessity to conserve some of the remaining wilderness from the fast pace growth in development and expansion. The act was signed in 1872 for historic preservation of the Yellow Stone National Park, in Wyoming.

Gardening:

The relationship between front lawn and wilderness has faired well than gardening.

The lack of recognition of gardening is that it had never been categorized as an art form rather its had function as utilitarian. Gardener’s had tried to recreate a free form less manicured gardens to satisfy the natural structure, “making convincing gardens with less,”[1] however, its many view that nature cannot be improved on by cultivation.  Although gardening followed wilderness similitude of the —natural freedom structure; however the use of straight lines and fertilizer boosters limits the pureness of naturalness.  “A garden’s ecological soundness depends solely on the gardener’s methods, not on his aesthetics.”[2]

The environmental benefit of all these is that through gardening the method of composting will help reduce the stress off the local landfills, creating independent in food sustainability system instead of dependant on foreign chain supply.

Lawn:

The economic, social, and technological advancement contributed to the sprawling suburb development in 1870. New technology (lawn mower, barbed-wire fence) helped created front lawns as part of the landscape in America same time the wilderness preservation was signed.

I really don’t have much appreciation to gardening or lawn because of the demand it required making them look green and healthy. I actually don’t want any real estate with lawn in front or back of it. My recollection of gardening was that on every Sunday evening my father’s hobby was to mend the small garden in front of his house. Watching older sibling laboring by fetching water from the cistern about a mile away from the house and bringing the water in buckets and dumping them on the parched ground, this they did for about one and half hours.

My disregard for lawns and gardens was cemented when we moved to Florida. I hated the wasted time my husband spent to mow the lawn and the waste of water sprinkling. I can say this with certainty that every house in Florida did have front lawn no matter how small the house was.  Sometimes we drive past’s homes on a raining day their automatic sprinkling was going on at the same time rain was falling (Winter or not winter birds houses).  Frankly I don’t think the seedling of grass blades come from America at all. They are not organically or local and they seem harvested in some foreign country because of continuous fertilizer after fertilizer used for the up keeps.  Some have left their lawn untouched for lack of time that foreign seedling have mixed in with the green lawn now looking more like prairies. What then, in my observation its best to leave nature in its natural state as much as possible because mother nature will always win in reclaiming what’s hers in its natural order that seemed contrary to how human sees order.