By Hannah Holmes
Read by volunteer reader Randi Lebar

Who knew that an investigation into that patch of grass in the backyard could be so fruitful – and so funny?

More than 550 square miles of new lawns unfold each year in the U.S. alone. Although new research shows that these lawns aren’t nearly as unnatural as ecologists once thought, no one has offered an accessible exploration of this novel habitat – until now.

Equipped with a lawn chair and her infectious curiosity, Hannah Holmes spends a year in her yard, hoping to discover exactly what’s going on out there.