The Perfect Lawn

St. Augustine "greens up faster and holds its color longer," says the job-safety contractor, and it has a knack for thriving in shady spots like the ones beneath his prized crepe myrtles. So he's tucking the plugs away on the edges of his lawn, where they will mount a sneak attack: "It'll grow about 10 feet a year into the Bermuda," Dobson says with a chuckle. Before long, the takeover will be complete, and the St. Augustine will enjoy total lawn domination.

What drives the mild-mannered Dobson to turn outlaw, upsetting his neighbors and risking the ire (and possibly the fines) of his homeowners association? The quest for the perfect lawn, of course. After years of being trampled on as homeowners swooned over flashy trends like in-ground fire pits and outdoor kitchens, the lawn is once again front and center. The renewed love affair makes sense, given that lawns are literally the foundation of the deluxe "outdoor rooms" that have been hot in recent years. There's also the old-fashioned curb appeal of an immaculately groomed yard. In a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors, nearly half of buyers said they'd pay more for a house with professional landscaping.

Indeed, a record 91 million households participated in some type of do-it-yourself lawn and garden care in 2005, no surprise when you consider the finding of one recent study that there are 40 million acres of lawn in the U.S. The $35 billion lawn- and garden-care industry also looks green and healthy; industry king Scotts Miracle-Gro, whose products include fertilizer and weed and insect killers, has seen sales jump more than 50% in the past five years, while a recent survey found that a remarkable one in four American households planned to hire or continue using a lawn-care or landscaping service.

But today's lawn is a far cry from your father's simple suburban oasis, or even lawns of just a few years ago. As Dobson can attest, homeowners face an increasing array of thorny issues, and not just over what variety of grass to plant. To begin with, the environmental movement has hit the yard, forcing people to balance new trends like organic lawns and native grasses with that old craving for a flawless carpet of green. Homeowners — or the services they hire — must also contend with weed-killer and pesticide regulations, which range from outright product bans to requirements that neighbors be alerted before chemicals are used. Water conservation is an issue too, with more areas imposing, and enforcing, strict lawn-watering guidelines; violators in states like Florida have gotten slapped with fines of as much as $500.

If that's not enough to worry about, homeowners are also scratching their heads over the best products to put on — and roll over — their beloved grass. For serious turf aficionados, the hot toys are professional-grade lawn tractors that can pivot 360 degrees, while gadget freaks are agog over RoboMowers, automatic mowers that work like the Roomba vacuum. Of course, before you can cut it, it has to grow. Enter products like "soil conditioner" and color-enhanced mulch (are we at the garden store or the beauty parlor?). If it's grubs or beetles that plague you, try one of some three dozen pest-control products sold by home-improvement stores, or go with all-natural options like canola oil bug killer. Desperate? Grab the turf dye — we won't tell.

Of course, America's lawn obsession is not a new phenomenon. It began in the Leave It to Beaver era, when TV and magazines were flooded with images of suburbia and its rows of identical, perfectly manicured lawns. A new national ritual sprang up as people across the county celebrated the weekend by firing up the lawnmower and hitting the yard. Over the ensuing decades, more families flocked to the sprawling suburbs, and lawns evolved from a basic square of grass to an elaborate landscape, complete with details like decorative hedges and flowerbeds. By the 1970s, the neighbor's kid and his small push mower could barely keep up, and the professional lawn-care business took off.

Today's lawn fanatics are taking their passion to new heights. Kevin Nash's house in Germantown, Wis., has become a local landmark. The real estate agent has taken to mowing patterns in his lawn, with stripes one week, checks the next. He mows every four days, often stopping to jump off his tractor and attack a stray weed by hand. In between, you'll find him "out there picking, clipping, pruning — you betcha." He's also organized an annual "powerwash party" in his subdivision, where the neighbors get together to wash and wax their mowers. Nash spends about $700 a year maintaining his three-quarters of an acre, but to him it's worth it. "Some people go to bars, some people go dancing," he says. "I have my lawn."