Clothes change but the lawn remains the same. Healthy families have healthy lawns. To feed your lawn is to feed your family. In fact, activity in the American suburbs was usually restricted to the concealed backyard. The lawn is first and foremost an image, something to be seen rather than used.
Enormous effort is spent on constructing the right visual effect.
The whole point of lawn care is that you do not have to display the family. Rather, you display the lawn itself as surrogate or certificate of your adherence to social norms. Even better, you display your lawn care activity. Working on the lawn is a civic duty of the gravest importance. The lawn mower is the protagonist in this public performance of citizenship.