Welcome to Yardwork, a summer yard and garden miniseries from Outside/In. We’re sharing three stories about our relationships with the land around us: the front yard, the backyard, and down the block. This is part one.

Americans love a lawn. Green grass grows everywhere: on baseball fields, in backyards, in front of strip malls. Collectively, we spend billions of dollars every year keeping them fertilized and watered.

But lawns cost more than money in Western states like Utah. Despite a severe drought, residents of Utah’s towns and cities use more water per capita than any other place in the nation, and a majority of that water goes right into lawns. That’s helping fuel an environmental disaster that could wipe out one of America’s largest inland seas.

In part one of Yardwork, we trace the 600-year history of lawns, explore how they became a symbol of power, wealth, and Whiteness in America, and share tips on how to make a yard more environmentally responsible.

Featuring: Malin Curry, Ira Curry, Kelly Kopp, Zach Frankel, Karen Stenehjel

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LINKS

Check out Malin Curry’s essay on the history of Black Americans and yard work. 

To read more about how agriculture and outdoor watering is contributing to the disappearance of the Great Salt Lake, take a look at these two studies. 
 

ProPublica published an excellent investigation into why one of the West’s driest states often rejects aggressive water conservation efforts. 

For some great history on lawns, read Paul Robbins’ Lawn People and Virginia Scott Jenkins’ The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by Nate Hegyi

Editing by Taylor Quimby

Additional editing help from Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Rebecca Lavoie and Jessica Hunt. 
Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Special thanks to Sherry Lund, Zach Renstrom, Karry Rathje and Ken Fox. 

Music for this episode by Walt Adams, Sture Zetterberg, OTE, Headlund, Roy Edwin Williams, El Flaco Collective, Pulsed, Jimmy Wahlsteen, Both Are Infinite, Airae, and Alfie-Jay Winters.

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio