Roman Grass

[Faustus]

even used as valued humus.

 

I thought hummus was a spread made from chick peas (speaking of which, I should make some. Yum!)

How clever of you! You've taken us full CIRCLE (see etymology). The word hummus (humus) is a Romanization of an Arabic word which means chickpeas with tahini.

It seems Rome always takes a shortcut in the fabled six-degrees of seperation, to but one or two.

[Gaius Octavius]

From the above: "The spelling humus is avoided in English due to its similarity to the English word humus, though this is the most common Turkish spelling[2]"

[Lost_Warrior]

So, why would you be using leaves for humus (hummus?) I know when I rake my yard, I do NOT eat the leaves. LOL

[Faustus]

So, why would you be using leaves for humus (hummus?) I know when I rake my yard, I do NOT eat the leaves. LOL

 

Around these parts, as I'm sure many others, leaves are a problem. Many, in city like environments, unable to dispose of them conveniently erect a 4 or 5 foot diameter circular fenced enclosure of light wire (chicken wire) into which they add yard wastes. As the leaves (and other stuff like small limbs, and even other less interesting stuff already mentioned here) rot, at the bottom humus builds up in just a few years which can be accessed at any time for potting, planting, garden, and landscaping purposes because it is a very rich new dirt with many uses. As a last resort it can simply be spread over the lawn to enrich it. That is humus with only one m.

[Lost_Warrior]

Oh. LOL

 

No matter. I have hummus now. With red pepper.

[docoflove1974]

Around these parts, as I'm sure many others, leaves are a problem. Many, in city like environments, unable to dispose of them conveniently erect a 4 or 5 foot diameter circular fenced enclosure of light wire (chicken wire) into which they add yard wastes. As the leaves (and other stuff like small limbs, and even other less interesting stuff already mentioned here) rot, at the bottom humus builds up in just a few years which can be accessed at any time for potting, planting, garden, and landscaping purposes because it is a very rich new dirt with many uses. As a last resort it can simply be spread over the lawn to enrich it. That is humus with only one m.

 

AKA Compost!

[Northern Neil]

Here is a website which has an article about how lawns became popular. Sadly for me and some of my models, they seem to have developed as areas to play sports, and as such were a status symbol in post - medieval times. The upkeep of one would indeed be very exhaustive. Prior to the late medieval period I cannot find any reference to lawns, only pastures. The central garden of a house or villa in our period would therefore be flagged, cobbled or intensively planted with useful things like herbs, flowers and fruit trees, or low maintainence but pleasing things such as shrubs and small trees. It seems that lawns, which abound in recontructions of roman structures, are a very modern idea.

http://www.allaboutlawns.com/lawn-maintena...ehind-lawns.php

Edited April 27, 2008 by Northern Neil

[Melvadius]

I may have missed mention of it but within Rome, the Romans had a number of sacred animals (ie geese), which also do a fair job of croping grass, or anything remotely like grass as an cereal farmer will tell you, given half a chance.

 

The Romans also had sheep as well as goats so letting a few animals loose to crop grass around a villa would be a simple answer although probably either a series of sickle (or more likely a scythe fior use with putative lawns) and possibly poop shovel armed slaves may have been the alternative weapon of choice for anything you wanted to walk on afterwards.

 

I would however observe that there is plenty of evidence for small enclosed courtyards in town villa's either being paved or else having topiaried gardens (as NN mentions above). Evidence for gardens containing a large number of hedges comes from root remains notably found at both Pompeii and Herculaneum but also at sites like Fishbourne Palace where efforts have been made to fully excavate the garden area.

 

BTW I recently found an article referring to a particularily long scythe blade being used in Gaul by the 4th century AD which may be of general interest as a possibly related topic:

 

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/cb...32/03202011.pdf - start of article (at page 61)

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/cb...32/03202012.pdf - 2nd page with dimensions

Edited April 27, 2008 by Melvadius