Welcome to Yardwork, a summer yard and garden miniseries from Outside/In.
We’re sharing three stories about our relationships with the land around us:
the front yard, the backyard, and down the block.
part one
Lawn and Order
Americans love a lawn. Green grass grows everywhere: on baseball fields, in backyards, in front of strip malls. Collectively, we spend billions of dollars every year keeping them fertilized and watered.
But lawns cost more than money in Western states like Utah. Despite a severe drought, residents of Utah’s towns and cities use more water per capita than any other place in the nation, and a majority of that water goes right into lawns.
“I don’t want to water the grass. I don’t want to mow the grass. I don’t really care about the grass.”
In short, our obsession with lawns is helping fuel an environmental disaster that could wipe out one of America’s largest inland seas.
In part one of Yardwork, we trace the 600-year history of lawns, explore how they became a symbol of power, wealth, and Whiteness in America, and share tips on how to make a yard more environmentally responsible.
Featuring Malin Curry, Ira Curry, Kelly Kopp, Zach Frankel, and Karen Stenehjel. Reported by Nate Hegyi.
Full episode details, credits, and transcript available here.
part two
Gardening is heavy metal
Every so often, when she’s digging in her backyard garden, amateur gardener Maureen McMurray encounters something she didn’t expect: a lump of coal. She’s planted vegetables in the same soil for a few years now. But as she prepared for an upcoming growing season, she wondered: is her homegrown produce poisoning her family?
The answer is nicer than you might think.
“I feel empowered, excited, and relieved.”
Featuring Maureen McMurray, Nate Bernitz, and Ganga Hettiarachchi. Reported by Justine Paradis. Full episode details, credits, and transcript available here.
part three
A bitter melon grows in Boston
Some people see something special happening at the Berkeley Community Garden in Boston’s South End: a multicultural garden community built from the rubble of a demolished city block; a green oasis of Chinese plants like bitter melon, cultivated here for over half a century.
But others… well, all they see is a trash pile.
In the final installment of Yardwork, the story of how a predominantly immigrant community garden is shaping the built environment, even as gentrification threatened its existence every step of the way.
Reported by Felix Poon.
“To have something that is so weird and funny looking and foreign... is that idea that: how do you help people understand differences of value to different communities and cultures?”
Featuring: Arlene Ng, Kim Szeto, Chun Lee, Sue Fong Lee, Helen Ng, Fanny, Ada, Sarah Hutt, Jeremy Liu, Betsy Johnson, Ann McQueen, Valerie Burns
Full episode details, credits, and transcript available here.
