To get artificial grass?

[ILoveEurovision]

We have a small garden. There's an approx 9ft/3m square patch which currently has sharp and pointy gravel that I hate. We have a 7 month old who is crawling. We have big planter flowerbeds around the edge with lots of fruit trees, bushes, flowers (I don't know what type they are but we have something the bees are absolutely mad for) and a pergola with bird feeders which are mainly visited by goldfinches.

I want to replace the gravel with something DS can sit and crawl on. AIBU to get fake grass to replace the gravel? I always was against it as it just seems so sad for the environment as I know birds eat worms etc. It's only a small patch but if everyone does it then I guess it adds up. DH seems so keen and is dead against real grass - he thinks our neighbour's grass looks shabby, neither of us are green-fingered or have heaps of time for gardening, we'd have to get a lawn mower and find somewhere to store it. DH thinks if we don't get the fake grass we should get decking or paving which are not much better for the environment I guess.

Should I stick to my guns and try and encourage him to get real grass? Or WIBU to go for the fake stuff?

Another one here who hates plastic grass. Wild animals need invertebrates for food, invertebrates need somewhere to live. Our native wild animals such as hedgehogs are decreasing in numbers, largely due to the lack of resources available to them from people making gardens wildlife unfriendly. We need to be providing more opportunities for invertebrates to live and for our wildlife to nest and hide, not less.

I'm not an expert on lawn management but when we had a really scrappy looking lawn we put down good quality turf and kept it well watered and fed. It now looks lovely and is really soft surface for my son to play on. Plus I'm sure there are thousands of invertebrates living in it.