My experiences with lawns are primarily in public urban spaces. Neither my family nor I have ever lived in the suburbs. As part of a working-class family, we have always prioritized proximity to work and school, so my earliest memories of lawns are public spaces, which brings back great community memories. When I think about my personal experiences with the lawn, it’s always playing around a park or having a barbecue with the community. I have learned about the suburbs and lawn discourse through older family members who were employed keeping other people’s lawns, as well as popular culture, movies, parodies, etc. 

In “King of the Ant Hill’, of King Of The Hill (King of the Ant Hill, of King Of The Hil, Gary McCarver, Season 1, Episode 11, Fox, 1997), Hank Hill and the supporting characters personify the mainstream narrative of the lawn; it’s importance, and its relationship to war and the American Dream. The show is sarcastic but simultaneously reflects a genuine psychological framework for understanding the characters and their responses to their environment. I do not doubt that people still regard this narrative as a valid reason for keeping and maintaining the lawn. Nevertheless, as someone who did not enjoy a home with a lawn, I can only imagine the sentiment of someone learning about the insidious nature of the chemical companies associated with care maintenance. Hank Hill would feel betrayed.  

I want to bring another kind of yard to the forefront: the swept yard. Thinking about segregation, the history of Jim Crow, and how people of color were not able to obtain properties within the grid, within the green, within sight, most people of color did not have the affluence that would afford them a green lawn; instead, they would have a swept yard.

A swept yard is a flattened space around their home where community activity occurred, the dust was swept out, and the planting consisted of large shade-giving trees or shrubs that could protect people from the harsh sun and where objects were found and displayed (Maci Nelson, The Landscape Nerd Podcast, African American Gardens, 2020). Growing up in the desert of the southwest, water was scarce, and the part of the yard that received water was the garden, which could be a raised bed (or not) of ornamentals or crops. That is the yard that I have a personal relationship with. I spent countless hours weeding, sweeping, and tidying in that yard. African American communities from the South are more familiar with this type of yard, but it was also part of other communities of color. This typology was a response to the exclusionary measures of the time, but it has evolved in different ways. 

The swept yard has much more in common with the new suburbs since they are more diverse and reject conformity and consistency. In the new suburbs, people reclaim space, repurpose yards, and use them how they live. Found objects and different elements are something that the queer suburbs and the swept yard have in common, as well as having real space for gathering IN the yard.

The controversial narrative missed me greatly; it’s far from my reality. This is mainly because I am not the targeted audience, I am not their consumer, and I am not interested in fitting into the stereotype. I see the benefit and use of having a lawn for public use and gathering but not in private residences. Hank Hill has my sympathies; he is an honest man trying to live by the principles he was taught. He is blissfully ignorant, and someone needs to burst his bubble.

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/08/us/in-georgia-s-swept-yards-a-dying-tradition.html