Artificial garden lawns - what a weird world

[Figmentofmyimagination]

Another installed on our street. I just don’t understand it. Why would anyone do this?

There is a petition to ban their sale for installation in residential dwellings if you want to sign it:

It’s only got 5,900 signatures so far, which seems a pretty low number, given how much of a no brainer this is, imo. Maybe that’s just me.

petition deleted by MNHQ as we don't allow them, we're afraid.

My parents are getting it fitted in the summer, they have beautiful borders and trees, but my dad is 83 and mam is a wheelchair user and can't manage anymore.

They are kind, thoughtful, intelligent (mam has a phd) wonderful people who want to be able to use the garden with their Grandchildren.

It's nice to know that due to my mam's disability she's regarded as stupid, selfish and chavvy.

Some very ignorant people on here.

That looks do unnatural and out of keeping with the local environment.

You need some taller plants in your garden beds to provide shade. Spend some money on buying some established ones that suit your environment. If you aren't watering much those litlle ones are going to wither and die. Also maybe build some kind of pergola over the top - and grow a vine over it. There are heaps that love the heat and sun, like grapes and bougainvillea. Again will give you shade.

I don’t think they should be banned but there should be a big environmental tax just like the “sin taxes” for petrol / diesel, cigarettes etc.

All the holier-than-thou posters on this thread obviously haven't been to Kew Gardens lately. They have it in their children's area, and I'd trust their expertise on biodiversity and sustainability over some randos on the internet.
I don't particularly like the aesthetic but I think some of the eco warrior 0posts on here are just thinly veiled classism/ablism. It's a privilege to have a garden big enough for a shed and be able-bodied enough for a lawn mower or wealthy enough for a gardener. And some people want to actually use the outdoor space - the benefits of outdoor play for children's development and for anyone's mental health are huge - so leaving it to become completely overgrown and unusable isn't desirable either.

Genuine questions, who maintains your parents beautiful borders and did your parents consider a robotic lawn mower? It would be cheaper than artificial grass.

Beat this one then, my former neighbour had grass out the front of his house and strips of plastic grass on the concrete three steps leading to the front door🤔

I don’t know why ‘overgrown’ is unusable, especially for kids, plus leaving your lawn to grow wild is extremely beneficial for the environment.
I have to say, I’d be judgey too. We live rurally and one person locally has it in the village and it looks bloody awful. Plus it’s like a neon green. I hate the stuff and don’t really see any justification for it, you could choose a nice moss instead if you had a shady garden.

Some very nasty posts on here, calling people thick, stupid, selfish, lazy, chavvy. How is that the way to get a message across? I wonder if any of those rude people are climbing into cars every day, travelling abroad by plane, buying a large percentage of their consumables etc wrapped in plastic? By all means go ahead and agree that astroturf is not environmentally sound, but there's really no need for rudeness.

I promise you, it doesn't!

I don’t understand this argument to be frank. Being environmentally conscious is about making better decisions where you can.
If I’m in the supermarket and x pack of bananas has slightly less packaging than y, I’ll buy x. It doesn’t mean the first pack had no environmental impact.
I used cloth nappies over disposable. I understand that having a baby is still costly for the environment
I’ll let my lawn go an extra few weeks without mowing and I plant as many wildflowers as I can. It doesn’t mean I don’t understand that never mowing would be environmentally better.
I recently took a short haul flight after not flying for 4 years. Yes ideally I’d never fly at all.

I don’t understand this argument to be frank.

It's not very difficult to understand, with respect.

Our environmental impact is the result of many complex choices. Honing in on one and doling out massive judgement on that one is just silly without considering wider context. There are reasons why fake grass makes sense for some people. Yes in that one instance they could be doing better environmentally, but the overall picture is about much more than that.

Unless we're vegan, childless, living off grid, never travelling, don't use cars, we all have big issues we could be addressing.

Fake grass seems to be the new hot tub on mn 🙂 I don't like those either but everyone to their own.

Awful for the environment, and really tacky.

Those saying about drainage issues I don't think it has been installed correctly if you have these issues. It is totally permeable if you have the correct sub base.

We have it as no grass or clover will grow properly due to the soil and trees etc...... it isn't no maintenance we still have to brush it once a month etc....... it also has made our mud bath usable all year round as opposed to about a month in the summer when it's stayed dry for a week.

Oh, here we go again……..
The drainage issue - incorrect - my fake lawn drains perfectly.
The ecological issue - incorrect - my large garden has plenty of trees/shrubs/plants to support wildlife.
And it’s MY CHOICE!
Some people are incredibly judgmental about the lives of others, and this seems to be the latest thing.
Presumably you have nothing made of plastic in your house and garden? Presumably you mow your lawns with an old fashioned metal push mower, and not one with a plastic shell using electricity or petrol?
Presumably you are fit and able to mow your lawn yourself, or can afford to pay someone to do it for you, and who will arrive in a van using petrol/diesel and a mainly plastic lawnmower?
My fake grass looks just as good now as when first laid 8 years ago, and will probably continue to do so for another 20 years.
There are much worse things affecting the environment than fake grass.
Get a life!

As you say "I have never found a dead animal on my astro", well may be have you even considered that it is devoid of any life and so does not attract any other species. you have effectively bleached the whole area of life and killed every thing living there.

I have a cat so I really don't want to encourage wildlife. He's the world's worst hunter but as we've cat proofed the garden (no doubt the plastic netting is wring as well) it doesn't seem fair to encourage anything into the garden as he might manage to catch something that's trapped!

We put this down in our back garden (but not right up to the hedge as that looks stupid when people do that) , ours is a temporary solution to a north facing garden whilst the children are small and we have a dog who runs out it like a crazy thing, the kitchen was constantly a muddy mess. The plan that once they are teens it will be taken up and replaced with real grass again as they are out there all the time now and may be festering in the bedrooms as teenagers 😀

it’s definitely not permanent in our garden, just a ‘for now’ our front garden is grass

i do think it looks stupid in front gardens as usually they are not used as much so should be grass for the ecological reasons

This.⬆️

100% with you OP

soil is a living thing - this stuff kills it dead.
dead worms everywhere
dead beetles
dead bacteria
death

microplastics are everywhere - in your organs and your kids, even in the womb

fossil fuels

no insects to feed birds, no birds

the people who install this stuff are ignorant and selfish. I honestly despise them.

no excuse!

Signed @Figmentofmyimagination

One or two gardens won't be a disaster, but if this trend catches on... oh fudge. Nobody needs fake grass. Get a patio if you can't be bothered. The other thing I can't stand is people buying a house with front/back garden and cutting trees down.

the people who install this stuff are ignorant and selfish. I honestly despise them.

You despise the disabled people who've explained on this thread the reasons why this choice works for them - and who may well have lower carbon footprint than average overall - possibly than you?

Aren't you a lovely person

Our new garden has a little patch of it also shrubs abs a few trees

after not having any outdoor space for years I’m overjoyed can’t wait

maybe I’m one of those types 😆 yay always wanted to belong somewhere. I think I also need to get a white Range Rover, have fake nails (often do) fake tan (always), holiday in Dubai (would love a holiday)

Some of us do

Lots of things haven't been banned or restricted, that should be. First thing that comes to mind is disposable plastic bags. With artificial grass there's a chance to get in before the effects are seen, which I think would be:

• surface runoff
• creation of it in the first place
• masses of plastic waste being discarded after the use period
• habitat loss
• general disdain for nature, plus it's ugly and tacky

Some of us do

As ive says before unless you're childless, vegan, no car, never travel, living off grid etc it's an easy matter to pick holes.

There are much worse things that people do everyday that others don't feel empowered to be breathtakingly rude about. I'd get my arse handed to me on here if I said 4x4s and foreign sun holidays are 'shitty' choices that I 'despise' people for.

The difference with this is that it doesn't align with naice middle class sensibilities. It's seen as tacky so people seem to think they can be as rude as they like. 🤷‍♀️