Every suburban garden must have its greensward – but artists are creating plantations of their own to question the colonialism, sterility and capitalist logic behind the lawn
This summer, the grass was not greener on the other side of the fence. In fact, there was no green grass so far as the eye could see, as heatwaves and drought turned our lush lawns into barren wastelands.
A quintessential feature in western gardens and landscaping, the lawn is at the centre of controversy. Its formal homogeneity and neatness imply reliability and constancy, and elicit our trust. And yet its unquenchable thirst for fertilisers, weedkillers and water, and inhospitality to wildlife, have attracted criticism and even spurred an anti-lawn movement in the US.
