What Did People Do Before Lawn Trimmers?

Modern Fashion

• The English and French started the trend of lawn-keeping in the 1600s. Royal palaces featured large lawns that were painstakingly trimmed by groundskeepers. In effect, the lawn was a status symbol -- if you could afford to keep one properly maintained, you were doing well. Americans adopted the lawn in the 1700s, but the concept really didn't catch on until city planning began after the Civil War.

Groundskeeping

• Groundskeepers often maintained the lawns of larger European estates, using a hand tool called a scythe. The scythe consists of a very sharp, slightly curved blade attached at a 90-degree angle to a handle. A swing of the handle creates centripetal force enough to cleanly and accurately cut delicate blades of grass in swaths. This chore was sometimes delegated to farm children in America.

Sheep and Livestock

• Sheep and other livestock were regularly grazed on lawns. Sheep were a favorite lawn mowing animal, however, due to their docile nature and pelleted feces. Unlike a cow who leaves a mess behind, a sheep can easily cut the grass, fertilizing as she goes, without leaving many clues that she had ever been there. As recently as World War I, sheep were grazed on the White House lawn.

Cottage Gardens

• Cottage gardens also dotted the landscape of rural Europe and America. In a cottage garden, many different kinds of plants are grown to form an organic whole and very few grasses have room to emerge. Cabbages may be interspersed with wildflowers and herbs. Medicinal perennials could point the way to a stand of garlic planted near an apple tree. These gardens were the opposite of a lawn -- kept for practicality rather than pleasure, wild-looking instead of manicured.