the decline of a proud agricultural tradition
Speaking of lawns, we were biking in Concord yesterday and happened to notice two distinct styles of landscaping in evidence. In some of the houses the owners were true to the agricultural roots of their community and featured meadows, stone walls, and roses and daylilies. Things like that. Overseers of other estates, on the other hand, didn't get the memo, and despite their vast acreages decided to go with the traditional suburban look: manicured lawns and foundation plantings, with maybe a perennial bed clustered around a rock off in the corner. I'm sorry to tell you, that looks weak enough around a new McMansion on a quarter acre; never mind on a property the size of a city block. When you can barely see your house from the road thanks to the curvature of the Earth's surface, you do not need to fill all the intervening space with a lawn that you need to irrigate and mow weekly. Unless you want to put in a hole and some bunkers. And some of these folks could have, too.
No complaints from me, however, if your lawn is mowed entirely by ruminants. Come on, you're supposed to be pretending you have a country estate! The suburban look is for wimps. Or people who actually live in the suburbs, of course.