To astro turf my garden?

[hibbledobble]

I put beautiful turf down and it's sadly looks like the pennines now: bumpy and lots of dead patches.

Astro turf would mean minimal maintenance and would look good, not good for environment though and pricey.

Wibu to astro turf it? If not, how does one maintain a lawn?

I wouldn't consider astroturf. Your lawn is a whole ecosystem - doesn't matter if it has lumps, bumps and weeds.

It looks ugly though. Happy to relay but how to maintain it? Don't know if I have the time either

I had my garden Astro-turfed a few weeks ago and it looks AMAZING!

I finally have a garden that I enjoy being in. Me and DS (3 years) have spent so much time out there in the last few weeks and seeing him play happily makes me smile so much.

Prior to getting it Astro-turfed it was an ugly jungle, I hated it!!

Life is better now

Best decision I've ever made on the domestic front, OP. Looks great all year and it dries much quicker than real grass so the dc can play/sit/picnic on it all year round. I do miss the fresh cut grass smell occasionally but my mum is more than happy to let me cut her (enormous) lawn!

Please don't. How can you think about replacing a living, breathing eco system with a lump of plastic. Fucking awful. Bad for wildlife too.

I love the fact I can walk around on it with bare feet safe in the knowledge that I'm not walking on mud or soil (which I hate!!)

We have it. It functions as a football pitch until they boys grow up, when I'll revert to an actual real garden again. Looks great, though.

I love mine.

Been down for, nearly, 10 years now. It's looking a bit tired now, but still looks great.

DS12 loves it.

How do you clean all the bird shit / cat poo / leaves etc off it - isn't it really high maintain in that respect?

Nooo!

Stop trying to grow a 'lawn' and just let everything grow. No weed killer; set the mower high.

Our grass is full of clover, wild grasses, weeds, daisies, wild flowers and moss (in one corner). It stands up to anything including a pack of wild children.

If we ever get a bald patch (usually from the fire pit) I throw on a pack of grass seed from Wilko's and all is fine very soon.

I don't like them at all, but if you do make sure you get ones that aren't based with old tyres as they are a real health risk, particularly to small children

Please don't. They look really awful and don't take up water as well, so they're a flood issue as well as an ecosystem issue. I think they should be banned TBH.

Go for it. Best thing we ever did. Every year we would be seeding or turfing and every winter it would just turn to a mud bath the kids couldn't use. Now it's perfect all year round to use come rain or shine, no mowing, no weeds etc.

dean my lawn has been untouched for over a year now. It looks truly horrendous: patchy and hilly. If it was a nice meadow I wouldn't mind, but it isn't.

itsall I've been told that you just hose it down. It can also be vacuumed.

I have refused to buy a house that had a fake lawn. It was nasty and muddy all round the edges.
I have been fixing our 'real' lawn up, it is still bumpy but using appropriate lawn feed and over-seeding with grass seed (I have also used micro clover) has resulted in a green lawn. Too many insects and other creatures are dying out because of what people are doing to nature - ie: killing it off.
You may as well buy plastic flowers too.

We have one because it is more practical for our soil/plant eating disabled child. It's only a small patch though. I don't think I would have a large lawn of it.

TBH i think it looks creepy and a bit depressing. as someone above said, grass is an ecosystem for actual live insects, insects feed birds, etc etc etc. it is messy but alive.

astroturf is phoney. do you want to replace your son with a robot so that there is less mess and more perfection?

gives me the creeps.

Don't do it, it looks ridiculous.

I wouldn't do it, personnally, but I have seen it look nice before when used in smallish patches at the front of houses. Normally when used like that it is as an alternative to gravel anyway, so is not so bad there I think.
How long ago did you turf your lawn? If recently, maybe it just needs to settle in more? If its been there a while, could you try scarifying and reseeding first? Like DeenKoontz, I just chuck cheap grass seed over the bald patches and often scatter it over the lawn after mowing, and it works well.

Lawns are an important part of the ecosystem,it would be wrong to rip it up for aesthetics IMO.

It is the feature wall of gardening. Please don't do it.

www.artificiallawn.co.uk/how-to-look-after-your-artificial-lawn/

Hmm, looks more complicated than mowing occasionally...

Don't do it! It's so bad for the environment. Do you not care about all the insects and wildlife that will essentially lose their home? It looks ridiculous as well.

AstroTurf looks ridiculous I wouldn't

My neighbour has this and I often see him out hoovering the lawn! Looks good though I must say.