What caused monoculture grass lawns to become the norm in many places? What were lawns like before this transition?
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Lawns became popular because prior to the industrial revolution and then subsequent suburbanization in the following decades. Only the wealthy could afford lawns. For one you actually had to own enough land to have a lawn, and then painstakingly maintaining it would require either a lot of personal work or hiring A grounds keeper.
So having a lawn became a status symbol and something special (and still kind of is for people in cities). Along with having the nicest Looking lawn, which tends to be a monoculture one since it is uniform.
Prior to that, the land just grew whatever was growing on it, some people would maintain pastures by having any animals they had graze it, but otherwise any areas that weren’t getting used or walked across (trodding down the plants) just grew whatever was there.
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