I have recently performed a “honey I shrank the lawn” in an admittedly small act to appease my conscious. The 2 small remaining patches keep me in good graces with my neighbors.
Just saw that this piece was noted in the Sunday Long Reads newsletter I get, curated by Don Van Natta jr and Jacob Feldman. The Oakland Garden Club is getting out there!
Your grassy story floated in to my peripheral vision just as i was writing about grass for a different reason…so I’ve linked to your post from the end of mine. Hope that’s ok?
"All flesh is grass" comes from Isaiah 40:6, to signify the brevity of human life. (I very much enjoyed reading this article btw - never thought of my lawn in this way.)
The 19th-century composer Johannes Brahms set that biblical passage (“Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras”) in his German Requiem, one of the musical tributes to his mother he penned after her passing.
It’s a profoundly beautiful setting of the text whose thundering climaxes never fail to shake the walls of the concert hall during a live performance:
I was taught, as an Ornamental Horticulture student in the 70s, that the American obsession with the lawn was a result of our culture’s roots in England, where the cool, wet climate made the lawn a natural part of the landscape. It occurs to me, now, that the lawn is also an aspirational goal, born out of the desire to emulate the upper classes, who can more easily afford the massive investment in time and materials required to establish and maintain a lawn in an environment in which it is such a fragile thing. P.S. Your observation of the nature of the soil in the sod field makes me wonder how much of the original topsoil remains there, given that the machinery that harvests the sod must, inevitably, remove some soil with it. P.P.S. Thanks for publishing your newsletter! It’s a unique addition to world gardening and environmental literature! ❤️
Hi Chris! First, thank you so much! I'm glad to hear it is different and that you like it. I think the class elements are real and there. Though I do think those norms can change! And in places like the inner Bay Area, the real fancy thing is more likely to be the obscure native plantings or rare drought tolerant specimens.
I have recently performed a “honey I shrank the lawn” in an admittedly small act to appease my conscious. The 2 small remaining patches keep me in good graces with my neighbors.
Yeah, the large majority of our yard is natives and rocks, but I have the one pool of grass, at lasts until the kids grow up a bit more.
Nice grass
Just saw that this piece was noted in the Sunday Long Reads newsletter I get, curated by Don Van Natta jr and Jacob Feldman. The Oakland Garden Club is getting out there!
Your grassy story floated in to my peripheral vision just as i was writing about grass for a different reason…so I’ve linked to your post from the end of mine. Hope that’s ok?
Of course! Can’t wait to read it!
"All flesh is grass" comes from Isaiah 40:6, to signify the brevity of human life. (I very much enjoyed reading this article btw - never thought of my lawn in this way.)
I did not know that biblical reference! Thank you for that. The whole thing passage is pretty fascinating. 6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
Different translation, obviously
The 19th-century composer Johannes Brahms set that biblical passage (“Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras”) in his German Requiem, one of the musical tributes to his mother he penned after her passing.
It’s a profoundly beautiful setting of the text whose thundering climaxes never fail to shake the walls of the concert hall during a live performance:
https://youtu.be/ZXU9vqVdudM?t=725
Thank you so much for this lovely meditation on grass. ❤️
I was taught, as an Ornamental Horticulture student in the 70s, that the American obsession with the lawn was a result of our culture’s roots in England, where the cool, wet climate made the lawn a natural part of the landscape. It occurs to me, now, that the lawn is also an aspirational goal, born out of the desire to emulate the upper classes, who can more easily afford the massive investment in time and materials required to establish and maintain a lawn in an environment in which it is such a fragile thing. P.S. Your observation of the nature of the soil in the sod field makes me wonder how much of the original topsoil remains there, given that the machinery that harvests the sod must, inevitably, remove some soil with it. P.P.S. Thanks for publishing your newsletter! It’s a unique addition to world gardening and environmental literature! ❤️
Hi Chris! First, thank you so much! I'm glad to hear it is different and that you like it. I think the class elements are real and there. Though I do think those norms can change! And in places like the inner Bay Area, the real fancy thing is more likely to be the obscure native plantings or rare drought tolerant specimens.