To think fake grass is not tacky

[Dizzydodo]

At the Doctors with dd about eczema, GP says it can be triggered by pollen, grass seed etc and asks if she's been in the garden a lot with the nice weather. I say 'yes but we've got fake grass'. GP rolls his eyes, laughs and says 'fake grass?! Like Wayne Rooney? Goodness me!'

I have no idea if Wayne Rooney has fake grass or not and I'm not in the least bit offended by the GP (I think he was trying to be funny) but it got me thinking....does fake grass in my garden make me a wannabe WAG?

Ditto, teacher. The builders tend to leave so much crap and debris in the earth when they finish a new build that it's impossible to grow a nice lawn.

From an environmental point of view it is a catastrophe, it becomes a sterile desert for all manners of insect life and adds to the urban heat island effect (towns and cities becoming much hotter than their surroundings), there are concerns about some of the chemicals used in some of the turfs and at the end of its life there is the landfill issue.

Each person thinks that their garden won't have an impact, but of course if others choose to do the same around you, then the impact rapidly grows.

acasualobserver. FFS THE OP ASKED IF IT WAS TACKY. I was having a laugh with her, hence the 😁 Mind your own business, especially on a light hearted thread FFS.

VeryBitchyRestingFace. No we didn't miss it. But given the OP already has fake grass and so it isn't that, it's not bloody relevant. Jesus.

If people choose fake grass, for whatever reason, then more power to them, whatever works for them, in their garden, but if someone ASKS if I think it's tacky then I'm not going to lie.

One day if I want a play area in a space in a garden that grass really doesn't grow, or a 'lawn' the dog doesn't destroy or whatever, I might put some down for convenience, it wouldn't stop me thinking it was horrible, fake & tacky.

If I asked 'Is it tacky' about a random item, decorating idea or whatever I'd hardly be surprised if some people to said 'Yes, it's tacky'.

EXACTLY OhYouBadkitten God save the world.

We had a small patch of fake grass in a part of the garden that was too shady for anything to grow. It did the job. I don't see why it's tacky.

I've been meaning to look into fake grass for ages, is it expensive? There's a big place near us that does it but I haven't got round to going for a look.

One of our neighbours has it and it just looks like a really nice well kept lawn and a colleague has it and he's the king of moneysaving and deals so I can't imagine him paying a lot for it but I don't know how big his lawn is.

The timesaving by not having to cut the grass is really quite tempting but I don't want to spend loads and our lawns are massive (not a stealth boast, we live in a council house).

We have a square of lawn which was never a lawn because it was by a tree and below the DGCs' swing so we bought a chunk of fake grass to cover it. Five years on the 'grass' still does its job and is barely noticeable I would not want the entire lawn covered in it though.

I might have thought so until I saw 2 of my friends' lawns who have had it done. Looks great. Grass is soft to sit on. It's nice and dry, low maintenance, I'd get it if I could afford to. Was unaware that Wayne Rooney had it though. Is this common knowledge?!

We only ripped up gravel and a pond to put the fake grass and patio down, toddlers and ponds don't mix! I feel I should also point out dd only has a very small patch of quite eczema which has only cropped up recently (she is 17 months) so wasn't really a consideration when we did the garden.

It is a class issue, and you will be judged for it. Not stating my opinion, just fact.

Nicely put OhYouBadBadKitten. I cant imagine it helps in a flood situation either. Plus there are concerns about its link with cancer.

It is a class issue, and you will be judged for it. Not stating my opinion, just fact.

Do you mean you're stating your opinion, not fact?

Do you roll it up and put it in the shed during the winter?

It doesn't help in flash flood situations, AuntieMaggie, you are correct. Although artificial grass is permeable, it is not as permeable as real grass and has the potential to make pluvial flooding more likely.

We're considering it - current garden is a north-facing concrete box. Grass won't grow so we have paving stones, laid down by the previous occupants. It so child unfriendly.

I'd love real grass, but it's not a realistic option. So, given the choice between artificial grass or concrete, I'll take the latter if the bank balance allows.

I can understand the advantages in small areas.
But I can't see it being good for flooding & wildlife so I'm not a fan.

Does snow last longer or melt more quickly on it? I wonder if it varies much between 'types'?

It would be classier of the GP not to pass comment.

Is it hard to keep clean? It always looks to me like you'd need to remove every leaf or bird poo that landed on it, whereas a real lawn is kind of self cleaning.

Yeah let's not worry about the possible cancer causing effects or flooding or survival of the insects and the world ; it's a nice bright green and means the kids don't bring mud into the house that's much more important.

PurpleDaisies there is a difference between "I don't like it but each to their own" and "it's tacky and it means you must have dubious taste."

We tried for years to have a real lawn in our small, north facing, wet soggy garden. It was hindered.by ds and friends practising goals. Then when we got our dog the garden was a disaster. We really did try, especially dh.

We've had our fake grass for a year and instead of the garden being a no go zone for most of the year, it's now a useable space and we can enjoy sitting out when Scotland gets some occasional sun. It drains really quickly, Ds plays on it all year round and the dog doesn't come in covered in mud when it rains.

I don't care if it's tacky, I do care it's not the most environmentally friendly, but for us it's the only practical solution.

Someone on our street did their front garden with it. It looks great, and as I loathe mowing I did consider it. But we have a huge lawn and loads of plants, so I think it would look out of place and get dirty.

We're having it done next week! Not in main garden, just to make a kids play area (which makes our garden sound massive; it's not).
I also have concerns about it tbh but the garden is shady and turns into a mud bog easily, kids love being outside. Also the area were having done is currently a mess. And I'm hoping that I've offset my environmental issues by ripping up the paving slabs in the (albeit very small) front garden and planting lots of bee friendly plants).

It does look fake. But I'm worried about the environmental impact of it. Can birds still pull up worms or do the worms not come up through fake grass? No daisies either.