The American Dream Has Too Much Grass
Think Piece • September 2026
The American Dream Has Too Much Grass
What Is Your Lawn Actually For?
I was born a long, long time ago, in the year of our Lord 1982 AD.
This was an enchanted period when there was hope and magic in the air called the "American Dream": a stable job working for the city, a white picket fence, a little house with three bedrooms, barbecue smoke in the backyard, and a lawn clean enough for the neighbors to know you had your life together.
What a magical time. ..
Saturday was for yard work and mowing. EXCLUSIVELY
That freshly cut grass was the smell of accomplishment. You worked all week, spent half your Saturday pushing a machine back and forth, cracked open a cold beer, looked across that green rectangle, and thought, Damn, I did that. Life is good.
And I am not here to lie that still feels nice.
There is dignity in caring for your home. There is something beautiful about finishing a hard job, stepping back, and admiring what you accomplished.
Then you take the blue pill. Or was it the red pill?...Ah Hell….hold up…Mom!!!
All right, I am back. We are good. I took the correct pill.
Since I now have your attention, let's get honest for a second and discuss what lawns actually are:
BullSh*t and unnecessary!
Yep, you heard that correctly.
Well, let me sharpen that. Grass is not the enemy. Kids need room to play. People need places to gather, sit outside, rest, have cookouts, and enjoy their homes. The problem is that we have been taught that a thirsty, closely shaved patch of grass is the highest and best use of every piece of land surrounding our homes.
A lawn is not just grass. It is a decision about land use and our American culture. It tells the world what we believe land is for. Is it for status and appearance? Recreation? Food? Habitat? Water conservation? Community resilience?
Agriculture means the cultivation of land. But I also see it as land culture because our culture dictates how we choose to cultivate the land. The way a society uses and cares for its land reflects its values, customs, knowledge, priorities, and practices.
If you were visiting America for the first time and evaluating how we use our land, what would you report back?
You might say, "These people have land, sunlight, water, labor, tools, and knowledge. Yet they spend enormous amounts of time and money growing something they cannot eat, only to cut it down every week."
Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?
That is because it is, once you stop and think about it.
Lawns as we know them did not begin as a neighborhood necessity. The manicured lawn draws heavily from European estate culture, where maintaining large green spaces that did not produce food helped signal wealth, land ownership, and the ability to pay other people to care for the property.
Think about the giant English estates, sprawling landscapes, hedge mazes, and immaculate lawns.
Y'all watch, what is it, Downton Abbey or something? Look at those landscapes. Where do we think we got that idea?
The modern American lawn inherited some of that same message: "I have enough space, money, water, and time to maintain land that does not have to feed anybody." Eventually, that message became wrapped up in the suburban American Dream.
Let's establish something right out of the gate. Lawns are not natural. Now that I think about it, neither are gardens. Both are landscapes designed and maintained by people.
But design is not the problem.
The real question is this: What is our design trying to accomplish?
Does it only look tidy, or does it also grow food, support pollinators, conserve water, build soil, create shade, and provide something useful to our neighbors?
I am not saying we should turn every front yard into a damn farm. I am saying we need to stop acting like grass is automatically the highest and best use of our land, water, sunlight, and Saturday afternoons.
Shoot, I am trying to liberate you from your HOA serfdom!
Yep, be a good little serf and make sure that lawn is watered, trimmed, and cut, or you might receive a nice notice from Her Majesty requesting the proper upkeep of your unproductive landscape.
I know I am being harsh and talking a lot of shit, but I am going to keep it real with y'all.
Our food security challenges can be addressed.
We have land. We have water literally being delivered to every single home! WHAT! AMAZING… we have sunlight. We have people with knowledge, skills, tools, seeds, and experience.
What We Are Missing
What we lack is a LAND CULTURE that sees and values land as something more than decoration.
Grass and open space are cool. Let the kids have room to run around and play. Give people a place to gather, relax, and enjoy themselves.
But maybe consider adding a raised bed or two and see how it feels. If you are vibing with it, add another one.
Maybe it is not even a raised bed. Maybe it is a few herbs on the porch, a tomato plant in a container, a fruit tree, or native flowers for pollinators.
Every one of those choices builds local capacity.
Food sovereignty will not arrive because one or multiple organizations say the right words or throw money at the problem. It will grow when hundreds of households reclaim a small piece of their ability to feed NOT ONLY THEMSELVES BUT THEIR COMMUNITY.
Thank you again for reading my thoughts and rants. Our goal is to help build the capacity of our community here in Aurora so that, little by little, we can begin feeding ourselves.
I know that goal sounds massive and maybe even unattainable.
But I never said I was doing it alone.
We do not need every yard to become a farm. What we DO need is every neighborhood to become more capable of feeding itself and using the resources we currently have access to.
With enough people, commitment, and collective will, all things are possible.
We can get fancy with a million and one solutions, but at the root of it all, when the lights go out, the default setting remains the same: seed, water, land, work, and each other.
We have enough...Let's keep it pushing!!
James