Most homeowners care about their beautiful patch of turf. They mow. They edge. They may even cast the occasional side-eye at a neighbor who lets the lawn get a tad too messy.

Need more proof that we Americans love our lawns? In a NASA-sponsored study, researchers estimated that lawns cover about 49,000 square miles in the United States — about the size of Mississippi — making turfgrass one of the largest irrigated “crops” in the country.

We wondered: Of all that acreage, which areas have made it their mission to cultivate stunning lawns? Here, the insights that sprouted from our research.

Drive through Naperville’s wide residential streets on a summer evening, and you might see someone mowing with the concentration of a marathon runner nearing the finish. There is a reason for that dedication. Naperville restricts grass and weeds to 8 inches on private property, which is noticeably stricter than the 12-inch limit common in many American cities.

Eight inches isn’t wilderness. It’s about the height of a large iced coffee. But once you know the measurement, you start noticing the difference: fewer lawns that seem like they missed a week of mowing.

Atlanta’s climate — long growing seasons, high humidity, and frequent rainfall — creates ideal conditions for grass, which means the line between a tidy lawn and a runaway one can be surprisingly thin.

The region’s long growing season keeps turf lively most of the year, which explains why the metro area has one of the largest landscaping workforces in the country. Federal labor data shows about 13,000 landscaping and groundskeeping workers employed there. That’s quite an army of professionals coaxing suburban grass into crisp formation.

In the Sunshine State, grass grows fast. Warmth, humidity, rain? That’s a lawn’s love language. No wonder so many of Orlando’s lawns (estimated at about 45%) are regulated by HOA rules. Florida has one of the highest numbers of HOA communities in the country, and landscaping regulations are often included directly in those agreements. 

These can dictate height limits, approved grass species, and edging expectations. Sometimes, it’s even about fertilization schedules. In other words, you likely need to step up in the lawn-care department because your neighbors may be paying very close attention to the lawn.

Just north of Houston, Conroe is a town where yards are spacious and lawn care is a local industry. Exhibit A: According to one analysis of 450-plus U.S. cities, Conroe is among the towns where households spend the largest share of income on lawn-care services. Residents devote roughly 0.66% of household income to lawn maintenance, noticeably higher than the national average.