Crabgrass = Communism

SUMMARY: Dee and Lauren discuss how a coincidence of events and truly crazeballs marketing in 1950’s America molded turf lawns into symbols of success and high social status while launching a lucrative fossil fuel and herbicide driven market that is still thriving to this day.

ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE:

Get weird and rewild!

-          Advocate for your town’s bus stops to make their roofs bee gardens

-          Advocate for your town’s road verges and islands to be rewilded with native plants or alternatives to monoculture turf grass

-          Replace your own turf lawn with alternatives

ALTERNATIVES TO MONOCULTURE TURF GRASS: *Always check for plants native to your own area!

-          Clover

-          Creeping Thyme

-          Chamomile

-          Native Wildflowers

-          Moss

-          Herb Garden

-          Food Garden

DEE & LAUREN’S WEIRD READING LIST OF BOOKS ABOUT GRASS: 

American Green by Ted Steinberg

The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession by Virginia Jenkins

Suburbia, The Crack in the Picture Window by John Keats

Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are by Paul Robbins

SOURCES FOR INFORMATION IN THE PODCAST: 

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/the-american-obsession-with-lawns/

Ware, Leland. “Plessy’s Legacy: The Government’s Role in the Development and Perpetuation of Segregated Neighborhoods.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 1, 2021, pp. 92–109. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2021.7.1.06. Accessed 21 May 2023.

Schuyler, David. “REFLECTIONS ON LEVITTOWN AT FIFTY.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 70, no. 1, 2003, pp. 101–09. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27778531. Accessed 21 May 2023.

Shern, Lois C., and Ann C. Slocum. “The Impact of the American Lawn Ideal On Environmental Liveability.” Human Ecology Review, vol. 3, no. 1, 1996, pp. 102–07. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24706922. Accessed 21 May 2023.

https://www.yourgreenpal.com/blog/every-wonder-about-the-history-of-lawns

https://www.gardensillustrated.com/feature/the-history-of-lawns/

https://www.lawnweedexpert.co.uk/news/post/the-history-of-lawns

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INTRO MUSIC:

"This Way" Hip-Hop Beat by Music Unlimited