**6. The meaning of lawn**

Old English was spoken between the fifth and twelfth centuries in areas of what is now England and Southern Scotland, and it is from this period that several words related to grass made their appearance. Turf [96] and grass [97] are derived from Old English and make their way into our vocabulary around the same time. However, according to the OED they have never been combined into a single word viz., 'turf-grass' or 'turfgrass', which is commonly encountered in the industry. The second meaning of turf is related to its use in *seisin*, a c1300 feudal term for the conveyance of ownership, which required a witness to observe the physical and literal transfer of a small piece of ground from one person to another. From this meaning, it is easy to see how we talk about personal space in terms of 'my turf', or 'turf wars'.

**Table 2.** Words related to grass, extracted from the Oxford English Dictionary online [95].

**Word Origins First English use Definition**

Herbage ME before1500

Swath | Swathe

Sod Middle Dutch, sode, soode, Dutch zode

Cereal Latin Cereālis referring

agriculture

Forb Greek - ϕορβή fodder, forage (to feed)

to Ceres, the goddess of

French herbage, earlier 12th C. as 'erbage'

96 Grasses - Benefits, Diversities and Functional Roles

Forage French fourrage c1315 CE Food for horses and cattle; fodder, provender; in early

Lawn Old French launde 1340 CE An open space between woods; a glade = laund, also

pasture.

etc.).

OE swæþ, swaþu c1475 CE The space covered by a sweep of the mower's scythe;

Sward OE sweard 1610 CE A piece or slice of earth together with the grass

use, esp. dry winter food, as opposed to grass. Now

usually applied to grass and other low-growing plants covering a large extent of ground, esp. as used for

growing on it, usually square or oblong in shape and of moderate thickness, cut out or pared off from the surface of grass land; a turf. Also const. of (grass, turf,

growing on it, usually square or oblong in shape and of moderate thickness, cut out or pared off from the surface of grass land; a turf. To form a sward; to become

A name given to those plants of the family Graminaceæ [sic] or grasses which are cultivated for their seed as human food; commonly comprised under the name corn or grain. (Sometimes extended to cultivated

chiefly to any broad-leaved herbs growing naturally on

meaning an open space among woods, a glade.

chiefly provender for horses in an army.

1390 CE Herbs collectively; herbaceous growth or vegetation;

the width of grass or corn so cut.

covered with grassy turf.

1818 Of or pertaining to corn or edible grain.

leguminous plants.)

grassland.

1924 An herbaceous plant of a kind other than grass: applied

Before 1475 CE A piece or slice of earth together with the grass

While today, turf growers and managers would have you believe that turf is just grass or another word for lawn [98], it is clear from the definition that turf has always meant a slice cut from the surface of the land [99], including soil, grass and herbage (other low-growing While turf has retracted in meaning, the term lawn has expanded from its earliest connotation in the 1300s to describe an open space between treed woods that may have been used for pasturing livestock. By 1674 CE, the OED [98] indicates a change in definition to '*a stretch of untilled ground; an extent of grass-covered land'* and a hundred years later, lawn again grew to mean, '*a portion of a garden or pleasure-ground, covered with grass, which is kept closely mown'*.

In his monumental *Gardener's Dictionary* [111], Philip Miller, the chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 to 1770, expanded on the meaning of lawn, which he described as follows:

*a great Plain in a Park, or a spacious Plain adjoining to a noble Seat. As to the Dimensions of it, it should be as large as the Ground will permit; but never less, if possible, than thirty or forty Acres. As to the Situation of a Lawn, it will be best in the Front of the House, and to lie open to the neighbouring Country and not pent up with Trees.*

This larger meaning, which Miller expands upon for several pages, certainly coincides with the period-defining works of the English landscape architects Capability Brown (c.1715–1783) and Humphry Repton (1752–1818), who were employed by wealthy landowners to modernize old Medieval gardens and agricultural land into what the designers called 'landscape parks', which would front many country mansions and stately homes throughout Britain, and be admired and then copied elsewhere.

Miller's suggestion that the lawn be located at the front of the house was essentially a visual cue to all who passed by to take notice that the landowner was so rich that they did not need the space for pasturing livestock. Landowners with lawns could afford to do nothing with it except look at it, sit on it and take walks on it, while their livestock was pastured somewhere else on the estate. In another display of landowner wealth, labourers were employed to maintain the large acreages of lawn by hand-scything the grass, with some assistance from pasturing sheep to maintain bucolic aesthetics. Fortuitously, the Industrial Revolution overlapped (c1760–1840), and the 1830 invention of the reel lawn mower pulled by horses, along with subsequent refinements throughout the nineteenth century, gave rise to a push mower that could be used by anyone to maintain a lawn.

Alongside the Industrial Revolution, the many mechanized inventions allowed an agricultural revolution to occur, shifting surplus labourers from farms into city factories, where they could be workers, rise to management or provide specialty trades. Living standards changed, including a rising middle class that had acquired enough wealth to own a city or town home with space for a garden. In the country, farm labourers and rural villagers typically used the area outside their front doors for growing flowers, fruit, herbs and vegetables—the 'cottage garden', which provisioned a household with many necessities. In cities and towns, the working class transferred their cottage garden to allotments. The middle class copied the aristocracy and grew verdant front lawns using improved cultivars of native grasses which required mowing to maintain appearances. Weekly mowing became a ritual. Further inventions created automatic watering devices and the push mower, various hand tools for pulling weeds and by the end of the 1800s, the green, weed-free lawn was ubiquitous

lawns are an unsustainable indulgence that requires a significant re-thinking of open spaces large and small, and then substantial praxis to create a new sustainable urban landscape for

Beyond Turf and Lawn: Poaceae in This Age of Climate Change

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69736

99

The movement towards a new urban landscape began in the 1980s with the quest to find alternatives to grass lawns. This gave rise to many 'how-to' publications [116–120], along with growing interest in local, native approaches to gardening through publications on meadow, grassland and prairie garden creation [121–124]. All these authors advocate for using low-growing and spreading ornamental cultivars and native species to create more naturalistic, sustainable and resilient landscapes that are lower in maintenance, use less water and create habitat. However, the emphasis remained on the aesthetic and ornamental, still often borrowing non-native species from else-

**7. Beyond the beautiful: realising the full potential of Poaceae in** 

Climate change brings with it benefits and opportunities, including the ability to use plants previously considered not hardy to a region. In 2016, I began testing plants on our newly installed Roof Ecosystem Research Lab that was designed to serve the needs of the Urban Ecosystem programme at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley, BC, Canada (49° 6ʹ33.71ʺN; 122°38ʹ47.08ʺW, USDA Climate Zone 8b). On a roof, which receives and absorbs more heat than on the ground, we can test plants at soil temperatures more conducive to lower latitude climates. In doing so, we can gain insight into the potential for new outdoor food crops such as sub-tropical and tropical chilli peppers (*Capsicum* spp.) that were previously unsuitable for outdoor growing because of a shorter season, or cooler and wetter pre-

One of the plants we grew was lemongrass (*Cymbopogon citratus* (DC.) Stapf.), a tropical perennial native to South and Southeast Asia where it is used as both food [128] and medicine, including antioxidant, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties [129]. Lemongrass and its traditional uses have spread throughout the sub-tropical and tropical regions of the world, in part because of its many outstanding medicinal qualities. In most parts of North America, it is hardy in USDA Climate Zones 10 and 11, where it thrives in summer heat. Lemongrass is not frost tolerant and is thus treated in our region as a novelty annual ornamental with spiky leaves, aromatic scent and culinary flavour enhancer anywhere prone to frosts. To achieve perenniality in temperate climates, winter cover is required to protect lemongrass from heavy frosts. While our plants did not survive the killing frosts of 2016–2017, we will be trialling lemongrass again in 2017, and covering with a low poly-hoop house on

In the fall of 2016, a plant materials course taught by the author explored indigenous species from the West Coast of North America, including Poaceae, and their various cultural properties including food, medicine and technology uses. This nascent examination of the properties of Poaceae triggered a search of the university plant database to examine species planted on campus strictly as ornamentals, or labelled as weeds, that are used for food, medicine or

the twenty-first century.

**human resilience**

vailing weather patterns.

the roof for overwintering.

where in order to make design statements [125–127].

*Shall it be a lawn of one kind of grass, or of several? Shall it be pure crested dogstail, dwarf and verdant, or shall it be the sheep's fescue of the downs, or shall it be a mixture of pons and fescues and clover? Shall it have yarrow in it, or shall it be severely grass, and grass alone? These are questions which are not to be answered hastily, particularly the yarrow question. They sow yarrow at Kew, but it is true that yarrow is not a grass. But, then, no more is clover. If one could make seven or eight lawns, it might be easier to decide such difficulties.* [112, p. 11]

From the mid-1800s, the front lawn as a measure of success shifted to North America and elsewhere, along with grass-related sports such as golf, lawn tennis and croquet. However, the traditional lawn grasses used in Britain, such as those mentioned in the above quote, were not adapted to the various climates on the North American continent. The US Department of Agriculture searched the globe and by 1897 had determined that Bermuda grass (*Cynodon dactylon L*.) from Africa, bluegrass (*Poa pratensis* L.) and ryegrass (*Lolium perenne* L.) from Europe, several native and non-native fescues (*Festuca* spp.), and creeping bent grass (*Agrostis stolonifera* L.) could be used singly or blended to maintain a robust lawn through the growing season [113]. Rural acreages were converted to the turf and lawn seed industry to meet the growing population's need for grass. By the end of the twentieth century, mown lawns were the dominant expression of urban and suburban landscapes in Europe and North America

*Consider the many special delights a lawn affords: soft mattress for a creeping baby; worm hatchery for a robin; croquet or badminton court; baseball diamond; restful green perspectives leading the eye to a background of flower beds, shrubs, or hedge; green shadows – 'This lawn, a carpet all alive/With shadows flung from leaves' – as changing and as spellbinding as the waves of the sea, whether flecked with sunlight under trees of light foliage, like elm and locust, or deep, dark, solid shade, moving slowly as the tide, under maple and oak. This carpet!* [114, p. 159]

Lawns are a completely human creation, composed of mono- or poly-cultures of Poaceae, with the occasional inclusion of other forbs and weeds, and are artificially maintained solely for human use [115]. Admittedly, lawns can evoke the feelings in the above quote, but lawns also characterize the globalization of horticulture by ignoring the local—native species, environment and true human needs for resilience in this age of changing climate. As an amenity, lawn and turf grass landscapes consume limited resources such as money, time, water and energy, but even more troubling, they require upkeep that produces side effects such as pesticide run-off into potable water supplies and greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere from lawn mower exhaust. Lawns do nothing for urban food production and food security. Concern for the environment and the future of the planet requires recognition that traditional lawns are an unsustainable indulgence that requires a significant re-thinking of open spaces large and small, and then substantial praxis to create a new sustainable urban landscape for the twenty-first century.

could be workers, rise to management or provide specialty trades. Living standards changed, including a rising middle class that had acquired enough wealth to own a city or town home with space for a garden. In the country, farm labourers and rural villagers typically used the area outside their front doors for growing flowers, fruit, herbs and vegetables—the 'cottage garden', which provisioned a household with many necessities. In cities and towns, the working class transferred their cottage garden to allotments. The middle class copied the aristocracy and grew verdant front lawns using improved cultivars of native grasses which required mowing to maintain appearances. Weekly mowing became a ritual. Further inventions created automatic watering devices and the push mower, various hand tools for pulling

*Shall it be a lawn of one kind of grass, or of several? Shall it be pure crested dogstail, dwarf and verdant, or shall it be the sheep's fescue of the downs, or shall it be a mixture of pons and fescues and clover? Shall it have yarrow in it, or shall it be severely grass, and grass alone? These are questions which are not to be answered hastily, particularly the yarrow question. They sow yarrow at Kew, but it is true that yarrow is not a grass. But, then, no more is clover. If one could make seven or eight lawns, it might be* 

From the mid-1800s, the front lawn as a measure of success shifted to North America and elsewhere, along with grass-related sports such as golf, lawn tennis and croquet. However, the traditional lawn grasses used in Britain, such as those mentioned in the above quote, were not adapted to the various climates on the North American continent. The US Department of Agriculture searched the globe and by 1897 had determined that Bermuda grass (*Cynodon dactylon L*.) from Africa, bluegrass (*Poa pratensis* L.) and ryegrass (*Lolium perenne* L.) from Europe, several native and non-native fescues (*Festuca* spp.), and creeping bent grass (*Agrostis stolonifera* L.) could be used singly or blended to maintain a robust lawn through the growing season [113]. Rural acreages were converted to the turf and lawn seed industry to meet the growing population's need for grass. By the end of the twentieth century, mown lawns were the dominant expression of urban and suburban landscapes in

*Consider the many special delights a lawn affords: soft mattress for a creeping baby; worm hatchery for a robin; croquet or badminton court; baseball diamond; restful green perspectives leading the eye to a background of flower beds, shrubs, or hedge; green shadows – 'This lawn, a carpet all alive/With shadows flung from leaves' – as changing and as spellbinding as the waves of the sea, whether flecked with sunlight under trees of light foliage, like elm and locust, or deep, dark, solid shade, moving slowly* 

Lawns are a completely human creation, composed of mono- or poly-cultures of Poaceae, with the occasional inclusion of other forbs and weeds, and are artificially maintained solely for human use [115]. Admittedly, lawns can evoke the feelings in the above quote, but lawns also characterize the globalization of horticulture by ignoring the local—native species, environment and true human needs for resilience in this age of changing climate. As an amenity, lawn and turf grass landscapes consume limited resources such as money, time, water and energy, but even more troubling, they require upkeep that produces side effects such as pesticide run-off into potable water supplies and greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere from lawn mower exhaust. Lawns do nothing for urban food production and food security. Concern for the environment and the future of the planet requires recognition that traditional

weeds and by the end of the 1800s, the green, weed-free lawn was ubiquitous

*easier to decide such difficulties.* [112, p. 11]

98 Grasses - Benefits, Diversities and Functional Roles

*as the tide, under maple and oak. This carpet!* [114, p. 159]

Europe and North America

The movement towards a new urban landscape began in the 1980s with the quest to find alternatives to grass lawns. This gave rise to many 'how-to' publications [116–120], along with growing interest in local, native approaches to gardening through publications on meadow, grassland and prairie garden creation [121–124]. All these authors advocate for using low-growing and spreading ornamental cultivars and native species to create more naturalistic, sustainable and resilient landscapes that are lower in maintenance, use less water and create habitat. However, the emphasis remained on the aesthetic and ornamental, still often borrowing non-native species from elsewhere in order to make design statements [125–127].
