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?

For me if you put artificial grass down you might as well stay indoors. It's just carpet.

But it's carpet that makes the place look much nicer and what makes you to spend more time outside and getting more air can only be a positive thing

I'm far happier now my son has somewhere outside to play (which he does for hours) as opposed to keeping him inside, especially at this time of year

As I spend ages cutting around the edge of the lawn after mowing

If you want sharp lawn edges have you thought about installing some metal lawn edging?

it really is indistinguishable from the real thing

Photograph?

Antibacterial dettol isn't bleach or disinfectant.
I was told not to hoover mine, there was a lot of layers including sand.

Explain to me how my plastic ends up in the ocean if I dispose of it responsibly?

We did it and it looks lovely, but we had it done properly and it's a very small area. They need the surface to be level, also we still have loads of bees etc, maybe even more than before because we really focused on the flower beds. I think it depends on the size of the garden.

MIL has it. Her lawn looks like a fruit and veg stall. It's just missing a pyramid of shiny apples in the middle.

I couldn't get worked up about it. Next door's hideous cat has pretty much decimated the wildlife in my garden. If I decide to astro-turf it isn't going to do any further harm.

I must admit I would be tempted at times - mowing is my least favourite chore

As with all things you get what you pay for...

You don't expect a cheapy £5.99 sq m carpet to look and feel like a luxurious £95 sq m carpet, surely?

It's really interesting that astro turf has such a marmite reaction.

For all those talking about the loss of nature, I hear you. When we moved in our garden had a concrete skim on it. We spent forever smashing it up,then a fortune disposing of it. We just don't have the time to maintain a nice lawn.

Can anyone who is successful in lawn maintenance tell me how you do it and how long it takes each month?

Can anyone who is successful in lawn maintenance tell me how you do it and how long it takes each month?

Mow it weekly but only because dh enjoys doing it otherwise everything other week. Sprinkle some grass seeds if needed. Don't mow too short. That's it,nothing else.

OP - we cut our grass at tops twice a month, probably takes less than an hour each time. That's it. Sometimes it looks a bit brown because of the weather, but in a his country's climate doesn't take long to be lush and verdant again.

For a PP there is no way to responsibly dispose of plastic. It is either burnt or buried in landfill. As a planet we should be reducing out demand for plastics, and not using plastic grass seems a good way to do that.
And I feel for the poster who feels it's not safe for her son to play on a garden without AT - really?

And I feel for the poster who feels it's not safe for her son to play on a garden without AT - really? hmm

Maybe 'safe' was the wrong word.

What I meant was that the land was all uneven, there were hard patches of mud, weeds, nettles all over the place, bloody wasps and bumblebees everywhere etc - it just wasn't somewhere I really wanted my son to be playing. If he went out there I worried about him whereas now I can just let him go outside knowing that it's a clean and tidy environment whilst I get on with the housework

Naff, horrible stuff. Just awful. It would also put me off buying a property that had it.

I think it's sad people feel an unveven patch of grass with some mud, weed, bumblebees and nettles isn't safe enough for this children to play.

It's so much better than an artificial plastic environment. Better for their health now and in future and better for educational purposes.

I've actually had more bees in my garden since we did it up as I've chosen plants that are bee friendly. Before that it was half dead as I couldn't be bothered.

My friend had it done in her garden. It looked nice but stank of dog piss. I think if you have a pet, although I'd love it for the mud issue, you'd have to be fanatical about hosing it down.

in our street we have sheltered, north-facing, split-level, very shady gardens courtyard gardens. Very hard to grow anything at all, even a lawn. My next-door neighbour has laid a small lawn area of top-end fake grass and it looks fab - loads better than my scrubby lawn. I assume some of the water absorption issues can be countered to a degree if you retain plenty of flowerbed space as they have done..

we only keep our mossy, patchy lawn because the cat really enjoys digging about on it. She is a walking ecological disaster in terms of her wanton destruction of bids and insects so no moral high ground for us .

I always think of the film Wall-e when I see threads like this. We are ruining the environment and yes every time a lawn is replaced by plastic it adds to that. Urgh.

They should be banned.

I have two lawns and a gardener (I'm disabled). It takes him under an hour to do both, twice a month. I've lived here for fourteen years and the lawns have never been fed nor watered. I'm not interested in a pristine lawn, I love the daisies and forget-me-nots and other wild flowers which appear every year. I also love watching the birds rooting about looking for worms etc.

Please don't replace yours with plastic OP.

They should be banned

I wonder if it will be at some point. You can't tarmac drive ways without proper drainage these days that's why bricked ones are so popular, maybe AT will be the same?

If they are done properly there shouldn't be drainage issues. DH did a lot of research before him and his mate laid ours and made sure whatever is underneath (I can't think what it's called) allowed proper drainage. We actually had more issues with the lawn as it was a lot lower than the path and water used to sit there. Before the artificial went down they raised it to the same level and we've had no problems with water sitting there.

I'm another one who thinks astroturf is both incredibly naff and environmentally unfriendly. Go for the lawn option! There is nothing more lovely than sitting back in your deckchair, with the smell of new mown grass around you and your lawn looking trim. Just mow it fortnightly and weed/feed as necessary.

I am not judging, I'm really not, I don't care what people have in their gardens and I genuinely believe everyone who says it looks good - but HOOVERING your GRASS?!

I mean do you not feel weird?! Like a PP said, it's like Wall-E! Is there not a moment where you're like "wait this is odd, wtf am I doing"?