"From the experts in lawn care comes Scotts Lawnscaping, the complete guide to landscaping your lawn. With a carpet of green as your starting point, learn how to create a landscape that offers visual pleasure while increasing the value of your home"--Publisher website (November 2006).

Show your artistic abilities to the world--with your front lawn as the canvas!Lawnscapes contains 20 totally amazing designs that will transform the yard into a work of art. With easy-to-follow instructions, readers will learn the skills and techniques necessary to create patterns, pictures, holiday scenes, even words and phrases. All that's needed is string, a lawn mower and, of course, a lawn. Patterns are divided into Basic (checkerboard, bull's eye), Intermediate (flower, sunburst) and Advanced for writing words. Pictures include a glowing jack-o'-lantern and a Christmas tree with lights. With a cool Astroturf cover, Lawnscapes will have great appeal for house-proud suburbanites, as a Father's Day gift, or a gift for guys in general.

"From the experts in lawn care comes Scotts Lawnscaping, the complete guide to landscaping your lawn. With a carpet of green as your starting point, learn how to create a landscape that offers visual pleasure while increasing the value of your home"--Publisher website (November 2006).

This thesis focuses on the origins of the lawn-aesthetic as it was developed in the twentieth century to be controlled spaces. The social construction of the manicured lawn built upon preexisting correlations to social and economic status within a suburban community. The lawn-aesthetic and maintenance of American white-suburbia during this time was implemented within a system specifically created for those of a certain class and race, namely white and rising middle-class. In pursuing greener grass, homeowners sought conformity and monoculture despite the byproduct of environmental toxicity. I propose, through my research into the history of the social and economic factors of the white-suburban lawn, that the contemporary upkeep of these dated expectations should be kicked to the curb to make room for new landscaping methodologies that have the intention of cultivating a space for communication, inclusion, and activism rather than aesthetic conformity. For such spaces to be developed, there needs to be a shift in the ideology that public presentation correlates to social, economic, and political status. This shift can occur if the social implications and expectations of the lawn-aesthetic no longer encompass a reflection of the social and economic position within the community. This thesis argues for the reformation of associations and assumptions made by a public audience of a private space, as determined by the property line, through the analysis of what it means to participate in the lawnscaping culture of American white-suburbia.

Sources: 1) National Gardening Survey, 2002

Gardening is now the favorite leisure pastime in America. Homeowners are realizing the health benefits derived from gardening and the increase in their home's property value. Lawns are the foundation of a great landscape. This series contains regional information on the best lawns for a beautiful landscape.