A lawn is an area of recreational or amenity land planted with grass, and sometimes clover and other plants, which are maintained at a low, even height.

Usage

Lawns are frequently a feature of public parks and other spaces. They form the playing surface for many outdoor sports, reducing erosion and dust as well as providing a cushion for players in sports such as football, cricket, baseball, golf, tennis, bocce and stake. In sports venues, the word lawn is often replaced by turf, pitch, field or green depending on the sport and the locale.

Many different species of grass are used, often depending on the intended use of the lawn, with vigorous, coarse grasses used where active sports are played, and much finer, softer grasses on ornamental lawns, and partly on climate, with different grasses adapted to oceanic climates with cool summers, and tropical and continental climates with hot summers. It is also not uncommon to mix grass seeds. A 50/50 mixture of grass types can, for example, form a stronger lawn when one grass type does better in the warmer seasons and the other is more resistant to colder weather.

History

Before the invention of mowing machines in 1830, lawns were managed very differently. Lawns belonging to wealthy people were sometimes maintained by the labour-intensive methods of scything and shearing—in most cases, however, they were pasture land which was maintained through grazing by sheep or other livestock. Areas of grass grazed regularly by rabbits, horses or sheep over a long period often form a very low, tight sward similar to a modern lawn. This was the original meaning of the word "lawn", and the term can still be found in place-names. Some forest areas where extensive grazing is practiced still have these semi-natural lawns. For example, in the New Forest, England, such grazed areas are common and are known as lawns, for example Balmer Lawn.

Lawns became popular in Europe from the Middle Ages onward. The early lawns were not always distinguishable from pasture fields. It is thought that the associations with pasture and the biblical connotations of this word made them attractive culturally. By contrast, they are little-known or used in this form in other traditions of gardening. In addition, the damp climate of maritime Western Europe made them easier to grow and manage than in other regions.

It was not until the Tudor and Elizabethan times that the garden and the lawn became a place to be loved and admired. Created as walkways and for play areas, the lawns were not as we envisage them today. They were made up of meadow plants, such as camomile, a particular favourite. In the early 1600s the Jacobean epoch of gardening began. It was during this period that the closely-cut "English" lawn was born. By the end of this period, the English lawn was the envy of even the French; it was also seen as a symbol of status by the gentry. In the early 1700s, gardening fashion went through a further change. William Kent and the age of Capability Brown were in progress, and the open "English" style of parkland was seen across Britain and Ireland. Lawns seemed to flow from the garden into the outer landscape.