What is a garden?

Although this is going to be mainly a gardening blog I will comment on issues that I care about concerning food and gardening. Please feel free to discuss these issues even if you don't agree with them.

Drive through a typical North American suburb the defining feature of most yards will be the lawn. According to the Canadian Centre for Architecture, grass lawns are cultivated more than any other crop in North America. They also say that lawn care is a multi billion dollar industry each year. What is our obsession with manicured lawns that consist of only a few species of non-native grasses?
Well a quick google search for "history of lawn" yields many results. Basically lawns evolved from meadows that were maintained by grazing livestock in the middle of medieval towns and around castles. These meadows were kept clear for town gatherings and the areas around castles were kept clear to spot the enemy. From the 16th century onwards lawns became a status symbol for the rich in Britain and France, although they did not always consist of grasses but sometimes of ground covering herbs such as thyme. The concept of the lawn was brought over by colonial elites, even though the maintained lawn did not really work in the more varied North American climate.  The popularization of lawns was completed due to technological innovations (such as the mechanical lawn mower) from the Industrial Era onwards which made having a lawn accessible to most strata of society. They continue to be a status symbol and expansive lawns are also used for sports such as golf and soccer.
So why the history lesson? The origin of the word vegetation is vegetare from latin which means to enliven or invigorate. Does the typical grass lawn really enliven anything in any way? It probably harms it in many ways. Kentucky blue grass is considered unsustainstable in the prairie landscape. Here in Southwestern Ontario in the park behind my house they are pulling up and laying down new grass every year. They then fertilize it and several times I've been told not to walk my dog there because it might be poisonous. Is grass really aesthetically more appealing than other plants? Does grass really enliven your senses? Does grass enliven the environment? The grasses that were native to North America had much deeper roots to deal with the dry summers. Why does this matter? Because plants with deeper roots are better at sequestering carbon. Forget cloth shopping bags or turning off your lights. We have more acres invested in grass that really doesn't do all that much for the environment and even harms it in some cases. Imagine if everyone had a little patch of native grasses on their lawn or grew other vegetation that didn't require as much care, chemicals and money and sequestered more carbon, looked better and could even feed you.
People don't mind spending time or money on their lawns as evidenced by the figures from the CCA, more than $25 billion. Why not make that money and time more efficient, achieve more than just status and help enliven multiple facets of life. I'm not saying that we should all go ahead and start growing native grasses that grown up to 12 feet tall, but we can definitely make small changes. Plant some flowers. Not only do they look nice, but they also provide the habitat for bees and other pollinators to thrive in. Plant a vegetable garden. Different vegetables provide different nutrients to the soil and can help invigorate your family's meals. I challenge everyone to grow something this summer even if it just throwing a couple of herb seeds in the ground. What have you got to lose?