And now, it's time for who's smarted.
Psst, hey, smarty pants, question, do you live in a house, and if you do, does that house have a patch of grass, aka a lawn, in front of it, or behind it, or both?
If so, have you ever wondered, what's the purpose of lawns?
After all, isn't there something more interesting you could put there?
Now, wait just a second, if people didn't have lawns, I'd be out of a job.
And, um, who are you?
Larry the Lawnmower, and this is my turf, literally.
I see, but I also don't see.
What's the point of lawns?
I mean, wouldn't it be more fun if all this flat green space was filled with flowers, or a vegetable garden, or a hedge maze?
A hedge maze? Oh, no thanks.
You could get lost.
Plus, I'm claustrophobic.
It's bad enough being cooped up in a garage all winter.
Anyway, there's lots of reasons people have lawns.
Let's take a little trip to learn more.
Hop on! Well, you are a riding mower.
Here goes. Whoa, seems like I'm not the only one with a time travel app.
Where are we? And when are we?
We're in England, in the 16th century, and you're riding on one of the first ever lawns.
Isn't she a beaut? To be honest, I'm more impressed by the cool castle over there.
That castle is why people have lawns in the first place.
Well, not that specific castle, castles in general.
You see, castles belong to royalty, and they had lots of land surrounding their castles.
I'm talking acres and acres.
But if all that land was filled with trees and gardens and hedge mazes, you wouldn't be able to see the enemies approaching.
Enemies? You know, soldiers, armies, surprise attacks, that kind of thing.
So all the land around the castles was kept nice and trimmed and free of stuff.
So you could have an unobstructed view of your whole property and see someone coming.
That's how and why lawns were born.
Makes sense. Um, what's that?
Sounds like an approaching army.
Hey, get off my lawn!
Yeah, they're not stopping.
We may want to time travel out of here, and while we're at it, let's learn how lawns went from castles to homes, who had the first lawn in America, and why the grass is always greener on the other side.
It's time for another whiff of science and history on...
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Phew, I guess we're not in England anymore.
Nope, we're back in the U .S.
of A, in the 1700s.
So we traveled forward about 200 years.
Exactly. Now, you might be wondering, if lawns were invented for castles in 16th century Europe, why are we now in 18th century America?
And whose property are we now trespassing on?
Did you say trespassing?
Hey, get off of my lawn!
Relax, they'll never catch us.
Now, does this big old house look familiar to you?
It does look familiar?
Hm, wait a second, I know.
This is Mount Vernon.
Quick, smarty pants, which U .S.
president built and resided at Mount Vernon?
Did you say George Washington, the first American president?
If so, congrats. Yep, this old home was George's, all right, but check out the lawn.
It's humongous. More importantly, this was one of the first places in the U .S .A.
to have a lawn. Ah, so the father of the country is also the father of the country's lawns.
Yep, and let me tell you, when Washington put a lawn around his house, all his fancy pants rich friends did too, like Thomas Jefferson at his Monticello estate.
Interesting, since lawns were initially only found around castles in Europe, and then the first lawns in America were put down by rich landowners, it's almost as if you're saying they were trying to copy royalty.
Not almost, that's exactly what I'm saying.
It took a long time for lawns to trickle down to average folks with average homes.
Like you. No offense.
None taken. But if only rich people with big houses had lawns, what did everyone else have?
Everyone else had to be practical.
What little land they had was taken up with fruit and vegetable garden so they could grow food to eat.
Huh, makes sense. Hey, you, get off of my lawn.
Yikes, we better go.
Quick, get on. Welcome to the 1800s.
Let me tell you, the 19th century was huge for lawns.
It was also when one of the greatest inventions of all time was introduced.
The raincoat? That too.
But no, the lawnmower.
I was invented in 1830.
Pop Quiz Smarties was the first ever lawnmower adapted from A, a hay baler, B, a carpet cutter, or C, a beard trimmer.
If you guessed B, carpet cutter, you got it.
Although the inventor of the lawnmower did have beard in his name, in 1830 a British engineer named Edwin Beard Budding saw a cloth cutting machine with a bladed cylinder used for trimming and smoothing out carpets.
He figured the same basic principle would work on grass.
What's really cool is that the way today's modern mowers work isn't so different than the original 1830 model.
If it ain't broke, why fix it?
Besides the invention of the lawnmower, why else was the 19th century such a big deal for lawns?
Well, in the 1800s you started seeing more lawns in more places, and I'm not talking people's houses.
Hmm, smarty pants, can you think of a few places you might see lawns that aren't homes?
Go ahead, shout some out.
If you said parks and golf courses, you're right.
People take it for granted today, but in the 1800s it was new and unusual to see big swaths of lawn in public places for no other reason than fun, leisure, and enjoyment.
Know what I'm saying?
Absolutely, I love a nice picnic in the park.
And lots of big, long -covered American parks built in the 1800s are still around today.
One in particular is very famous.
You might even say it's the most famous park in the world.
Ooh, any ideas what park that is, smarty pants?
Or where it's located?
I'll give you a hint.
The famous park is centrally located in a city known for pizza, tall buildings, and more pizza.
If you know it, shout it out.
Are you shouting Central Park in New York City?
It's every lawnmower's dream to cut the grass in Central Park's Great Lawn.
No doubt. Central Park is 843 acres.
That's about 638 football fields.
It's massive. Yankee Stadium wouldn't be too bad either.
Right, so is this when everyone started getting lawns for their homes?
No, those big parks were where most people got to experience lawns for the first time.
But residential lawns were still pretty much only for rich folks.
Cuz think about it, you still needed a big house with space around it to have a lawn.
True, so then what was it?
Well, the other lawn -tastic thing that happened in America in the 1800s was the opening of the first golf course in New York in 1887.
Once that happened, Americans became hooked on golf.
The sport was very popular, and huge lawn -covered golf courses started springing up all over the place.
And so did more and more public parks.
For the first time ever, the country was littered with lawns.
I love it. Me too. More lawns means more lawn mowers.
As lawns got more popular, people wanted to replicate the feeling of parks around their own homes.
So by the early 1900s, more and more houses had lawns.
Front lawns, to be exact.
The fruit and vegetable gardens people used to grow food started moving to the back of the house.
Oh, which is how we got the backyard.
Yep, but one very interesting thing happened to push lawns over the edge and make them popular with pretty much everyone.
Ooh, we'll find out what that was right after this quick break.
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Now back to Who's Smarted.
Okay, we've learned how parks and golf courses introduced lawns to the general public in America.
But I still don't get how and why today.
Nearly every house has a lawn.
When did that happen?
Remember Central Park?
Yeah? Well, the fellow that designed Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted, also designed many of America's first suburbs.
And those first suburbs were very green and parkish.
Which meant everyone had their own front lawn.
Of course, these suburbs were still pretty fancy schmancy.
After World War II, the suburbs, as we know them today, really took off.
Hey, smarty pants, why do you think suburbs became so popular after World War II?
Was it A, because more people were buying homes?
B, families grew after the war?
Or C, folks just wanted to hang out at home?
Actually, all three are correct.
After the war, soldiers returned home to a much richer country than they left behind.
Folks were spending money on house things like fridges, ovens, and houses themselves.
Families grew, suburbs became more affordable, and everyone wanted to hang out in and around their house.
And what did all these fabulous new houses have?
Lawns? You got it. In post -war America, everyone finally had a lawn.
And get this. A whole lawn culture took off.
Having the best, neatest, greenest lawn in your block became a status symbol.
People were competing with their neighbors over it.
Oh, kind of like how people copied George Washington, who copied European royalty.
Yep. Smarty pants, true or false?
It's better to have a shortcut lawn.
The answer is surprisingly...
A short lawn might look nice, but a higher lawn is better at keeping out weeds.
So we mowers recommend mowing your lawn at the highest you can tolerate.
But remember, the grass will always be greener on the other side.
Smarty pants, do you know what that saying means?
It means people are often envious of what someone else has compared to what they have.
Who knew it originated from actual lawn jealousy?
Personally, I'd be more jealous if I saw someone with a hedge maze.
Enough with the hedge maze.
Sorry, I know you get claustrophobic.
You do bring up a good point, though.
In some areas of the country, people are encouraged to put something other than a lawn in front of their house.
Any guesses why, smarty pants?
Lawns require a lot of watering, and there are places where droughts are common, like California, where you're only allowed to water your lawn on certain days at certain times.
And if you use too much water, you can be fined.
Whoa. In desert climates, a lot of people have drought -resistant plants instead of lawns.
Things like cacti and succulents that need very little water.
Good for the environment.
But bad for lawnmowers.
I wouldn't worry, Larry.
I don't think lawns are going anywhere anytime soon.
They're way too popular.
Say, want to play some lawn games?
Croquet? Lawn bowling?
You're on, trusty. Hey, you.
Gets off of my lawn.
Yikes, we should probably do this in the park.
Sorry, Mr. Washington.
A super shout -out to Super Smarty Jameson in Scottsdale, Arizona.
You told us you like science and history, which means Who Smarted is the perfect podcast for you.
We're sure glad to have you listening, learning, and laughing with me and all your smarty friends.
This episode, Lawns, was written by Phil Jeremy and voiced by Mike Privetti, Max Kamaski, and Jerry Colbert.
Technical direction and sound design by Josh Hahn.
Who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios.
Our associate producer is Max Kamaski.
The theme song is by Brian Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex Davis.
Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert.
This has been an Atomic Entertainment Production.
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