Grass Seed, Composting, and the American Romance With Sprawling Lawns

Good grass seed

The first group of people to mass produce grass seed on an industrial scale were the Shakers. Starting in the late 1700’s, they supplied good grass seed to rich American families. Since then, grass seeds have become ubiquitous, and most lawns have total grass seed coverage from one edge of the property to the other. Americans are obsessed with their lawns, and this obsession continues to grow. Do It Yourself lawn projects, many involving grass seed coverage, increased 3 percent from 2010 to 2011, and all signs point to the trend continuing. In fact, right now turf grass covers approximately 40 million acres in the USA, which is triple the size of the acreage devoted to corn in the United States. Much of this is drought resistant grass seed coverage

There is some degree of speculation that the first lawns might have been enclosed areas with grass seed coverage in early early medieval settlements. The purpose of these enclosures was to allow livestock a place to graze. Of course, the livestock helped to fertilize the soil, making these “lawns” even more lush. These days, many people achieve such lushness by spreading a thin layer of compost over their lawn once per year. Composting helps add nutrients to the grass seed coverage. It also helps to lessen weeds and grubs.

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