Artificial lawn

[jigster01]

Hi all ...our lawn is very very patchy (4x4m X 2 squares) we have a large dog that doesn't help ....
We are thinking of artificial grass and are happy to pay a but more for good quality...just wondering if anyone has had this done and how it is with the dog and poos etc ...any photos would be good or recommendations

Returf or over seed it now. Honestly plastic grass is as bad as it gets, and with a big dog it’s going to be stinking plastic grass.

We got it turfed @ 3 years ago when we got extension..looked wonderful..but now looks like a rugby field after a tournament 😬

I have it. In any other circumstances I’d have real grass which I prefer for so many reasons but, our garden is tiny and shady. V young kids, every time it rained (often here) the lawn would turn into a mud bath and no option if ever having a paddling pool out, mud everywhere. The lawn was unusable but now it’s great. Can use every inch of it in every weather and season, unthinkable before when it was grass.

We have a dog, so before long our lawn was completely mud. We got some strips of artificial grass and laid it ourselves, so we had half and half. We are thinking about getting it done properly all over this year. Yes it does get really hot in the summer, but our dog doesn’t wee or poo on it.

Could you over seed it op? It likely looks bad due to winter snd the dog.

A lawn, be it plastic or real needs maintenance. A plastic one if you did nothing to it over winter will look really bad come spring, dirty, with leaves and stinking. They don’t have some magic repellent,

So you brush it, hose it down, clean it for spring, and then hose it down when the dogs been on it, so it doesn’t smell, or you over seed now, let the ground dry snd any bare patches fill in and then cut it every two to three weeks

Which ever option you take, both have work. But a real lawn is always much more aesthetically pleasing than a plastic one, which always looks plastic when anywhere near it.

Think of artificial flowers v real ones. It’s like that on a much bigger scale. In addition if you ever come to sell a huge amount of people will be put off when they see it’s plastic.

@Bmidreams

It makes me die a little bit each time I see it.

This 100%

Hideous, ghastly, revolting, fugly, grim - any similar word of your choice.

Thanks all ...didn't realise it smelt of wee as advertising says once you hose it down with soapy water , it will get rid of the smell ....anyone else with a dog and positive (😬)reviews ?

@jigster01

Thanks all ...didn't realise it smelt of wee as advertising says once you hose it down with soapy water , it will get rid of the smell ....anyone else with a dog and positive (😬)reviews ?

That’s really contradictory

If it doesn’t smell why do you need to get rid of the smell? You’ve said both in the same sentence. Of course it doesn’t smell after you’ve washed it with soapy water. The point is it does till you do that. As you even said that’s how you get rid of the smell.

How many times a day are you up for doing that then? Every morning? What if the dog pisses on it and hour later and it’s a warm day...it’s gonna stink right? Are you going to wash it with soapy water again..how many times are you up for it...

I did word that wrong 😁..I meant I didn't think it would be a constant stream of hosing down every time he weed...decision made ,we've both decided it's a no .. appreciate everyones thoughts 👍

Good decision.

Do you have much footfall on the grass? If not, have a look at sedum lawns. Super low maintenance and good for the wildlife.

I’m in a terraced house with a small garden. When I moved here it was full of brambles and weeds and I paid a gardener to clear it and he actually advised me to have fake grass. He said the weeds/brambles had their roots in other gardens and I’d never be rid of them but by using fake grass with some kind of protector below, I could stop them coming through. So it isn’t always a bad choice.

I wouldn’t have it with a dog though. It will stink. The urine will destroy it over time as well even if you do rinse it.

I hate fake lawns. Theres nothing more that screams 'I only care about how things look' and 'I couldnt give a fuck about the environmemt' than fake lawns.

I have never been a big fan of fake grass but last year my husband convinced me to get it laid in our garden, and I begrudgingly admit it was the right decision for us.
I think it's only a better option than turf when:

• you have kids and you have a dog
• you've tried to maintain a lawn but your soil isn't good enough for it; we tried all sorts of things over the years and none of them worked; none of the houses on our street have a good lawn
• it's a small lawn area- I think it looks ok in a small area but super naff in a big are
• you mix it with other landscaping textures and make sure you still have planting
• you're aware that it still needs some maintenance; it needs brushing to remove leaves etc

Re the smell we tried to encourage the dog to wee in the beds but still hosed it down about once every month (well actually we just emptied the kids paddling pool). Here is a pic of ours

MavisMonkey did you not have to hose it down more regularly to keep the smell at bay? ....I think your garden looks nice

Awful. Just awful.

What's next? Plastic plants?

@jigster01

I did word that wrong 😁..I meant I didn't think it would be a constant stream of hosing down every time he weed...decision made ,we've both decided it's a no .. appreciate everyones thoughts 👍

It will need washed every wee, particularly in summer. My old boy got too sore to use the steps up to our garden so he would wee on the concrete yard and I took to keeping a watering can by the back door to instantly rinse every pee away because it does smell pretty much straight away. Then once a week I would wash the yard with jeyes fluid. Your artificial grass will hold the urine in the same way as concrete. It will stink.

We have fake grass (moved in recently, previous owners installed) one bit of advice, just don't! It's horrid, devoid of wildlife and you have to clean up any debris, unlike real grass where (in our case seagull poo) just get absorbed into the soil and is fertiliser.

You can buy grass seed for shaded high use areas

@jigster01

MavisMonkey did you not have to hose it down more regularly to keep the smell at bay? ....I think your garden looks nice

No we trained the dog to go to the toilet in the soil in the flower beds, but occasionally she would go on the lawn and it never smelled offensive to us.

I was surprised by how hot it gets though, so that would probably be more of a warning from me than the smell. When the temp goes over 25 degrees you can't comfortably walk on the grass bare foot. I think this also helped encourage the dog to toilet in the beds as she preferred to sit in the shade of the trees.

My thinking is that it only gets really hot in the Uk for six weeks of the year, 8 if we are lucky. If you felt you needed to hose the lawn down weekly that's when you would need to do it. For the other 44 odd weeks of the year you have a garden that the kids and the dog can't wreck and that even in the midst of winter doesn't get muddy.

That pic was taken out of my window today - we were all sitting out there this morning and the kids played for ages; when you get a bit of sunshine we are more inclined to use the garden as it's not a mud pit like it used to be!

I know loads of people turn their noses up at it, and in other circumstances I would prefer a lawn but for our family / dog / inability to create a nice lawn the artificial lawn makes sense.

It looks like one of those crazy golf putting greens. Up close op it always looks plastic, that’s why when anyone posts a pic it’s always. Always at a distance.

Environmental disaster. Every time you mow it, little pieces of plastic are either going to landfill or onto the compost heap and will take 400 years to degrade away.

What's next? Plastic plants?
There’s a house on my street that’s had its entire front garden “landscaped” with plastic plants. Beds, raised beds, pots, all filled with garish plastic. Looks both mental and terrible.

I can’t think of anything less appealing than a plastic garden you have to hose dogshit off. Barking.

Buy lawn seed.
for the love of all things holy do not get fake grass.