How America’s Most Useless Crop Also Became Its Most Commonly Grown One

Contrary to what you may think (and what your food labels may suggest) corn is not the most grown crop in America. The most grown crop is something no one is eating, no one is asking for, and no one is quite sure what to do with. It’s your lawn.

Top image: Satellite imagery of crops growing in Kansas / NASA Earth Observatory.

The U.S. devotes a full one-fifth of its land to agriculture (408 million acres, or 637,500 square miles) for farmers to grow on, of which corn is the largest food crop. However, there are almost 50,000 square miles of lawn growing in the U.S.—almost three times as much as corn.

So how does the country with the most farmland on the planet end up with a number one crop that’s purely decorative? It’s down to two things: Scale and a strange twist of technological history.

The History of the Lawn

Today, lawns are merely what you use to fill up an empty patch of dirt. They are the thing so common, so known, that the eye doesn’t even bother to stop and take them in, except in their absence. But that wasn’t always the case.

The very first lawn care instruction manual dates back to the 13th century written by Italian horticultural enthusiast, Pietro de Crescenzi. Just like lawn enthusiasts today, de Crescenzi had his own unique ideas of how to properly care for a lawn, though his favorite two practices—of first preparing the ground by dumping boiling water all over it and then limiting mowing to twice a year—failed to make it into the wider favor.

It wasn’t until about 400 years later, though, that lawns as we know them began to be seen commonly, and even then they were largely the province of the super-rich. The lawn was a symbol of that wealth, of course—of the kind of household that could afford to turn large tracts of land over to the cultivation of something essentially useless. But it was also considered something of a technological, perhaps even artistic, marvel. To understand just how much of one those early lawns were, you have to put yourself, briefly, in a pair of 17th-century shoes.

Read more here.

Mixing flowers and vegetables

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The majority of people, even gardeners, always think of flower gardens and vegetable gardens as two separate entities, but there is absolutely no reason to think that this is the way it has to be.

On the contrary. Think about the kitchen garden of colonial days in the United States and the cottage gardens of England. It was a mix of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs.

While some see this as companion planting it is not, necessarily thus, as the plants may not be chosen for the companion value. Companion planting, on the other hand, is something that would make such a mixed flower and vegetable garden even better.

Such a vegetable-flower garden can be seen as an artistic palette, strictly for appearances and enjoyment. And with proper mix there is no reason, other than idiotic ordinances in many parts of the United States (and Canada) to have such a garden also in the front yard. Apparently, however, the powers-that-be in some town halls and such demand that the front yard is but lawn and maybe, just maybe, some pretty flowers.

Your vegetable-flower garden can be orderly or not so orderly. It depends on your personal style and choice. As a front yard food and flower production area it might be best to have it rather orderly as to not to upset some town hall folks.

You do however need to take into account the growing style of the vegetables and flowers. Pumpkins, cucumbers, and squash need lots of horizontal room to grow so you want to avoid planting flowers too close. Unless, that it, you train those plants to climb trellises, which most will quite readily do.

Think about plant forms and foliage too. Peppers are upright and shrub-like. Corn is tall, vertical, and leafy but would look terrific mixed with sunflowers. Or, concentrate on color combinations such as white, purple, and pink for earlier flowering vegetables and flowers, or yellow, red, and orange for late summer crops and blooms. The gold color of marigolds and the dark green of spinach for example or red flowers of nasturiums next to those bright red chile peppers.

You could also add some colorful brassicas into the equation. Despite the fact that some people see them just as, as they are also referred to by seed merchants, ornamental cabbages, they can be eaten and thus make for a great color combination, even still giving color in the depth of winter.

When it comes to planting corn why not follow the Native American approach and plant the Three Sister, that is to say corn, bean and squash together. The corn then acts as a trellis for the beans and even the squash to climb up and they seem to love to live together in perfect harmony.

© 2013