The Making of The American Lawn:  World's most expensive sod?

Also on FloridaTurf.com:  "The American Lawn"

Careful digging of sod and placement in boxes

Grass is more tender in preservation than other kinds of plant materials.  When grass leaf blades wilt, they often roll up.  Visit a major diorama, e.g., in the National Museum, and you will see shrubs and trees carefully recreated, painted, and preserved in glass cases.  Imagine the difficulty the preservationists faced in taking samples of warm-season grasses, involving thousands of slender leaves.

To carefully prepare sod samples, I used the "idiot spoon," the oldest Florida instrument designed to carefully lift up pieces of sod.  Samples of bahiagrass were dug, shaved to depth, and carefully placed in a wooden drawers specifically designed for the purpose, before shipping them to Madison, Wisconsin.

Our biggest concern was that the moment the sod samples were opened up, they would wilt, therefore delaying the preservation process.  It was cold in Wisconsin, and if the samples had to be left outdoors to rejuvenate, there was a possibility of cold night temperatures causing them to go into winter chill injury, something that happens to C₄ warm-season grasses when they go below 11C (52 F).

Once the thick-cut sod was placed in the wooden drawers, metal rods were run through pre-drilled holes in the side of the drawers, and then run through the sod pieces.   The metal rods were just the right length not to stick out beyond the walls of the drawers.  Just to be safe, I used duct tape to cover the ends of the metal rods, and hopefully if the box was jostled they would not fall inside.

Shaving the bottom of Argentine bahiagrass sod to make it level.
Almost ready for overnight shipment to Wisconsin

The American Lawn (and related) links

Press release  issued by Canadian Centre for Architecture.

British Lawn Mower Museum  Don't miss the greens horse mower.

Buy the book  The American Lawn:  Surface of Everyday Life, by Georges Teyssot (ed.)

Critique of The American Lawn  By frieze, a London art magazine.

Equal Rights  National Lawn Care Now!  A parody.

Law and lawn  Turf wars?  Neighbor won't cut the grass?  John Marshall Law Review looks at the law and the natural lawn movement?

The Lawn  Thomas Jefferson's dream lawn lives on at the University of Virginia.  Interactive tour.

The grass is always greener  "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence:   An American proverb of discontent."

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