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.

I see fake grass a bit like fake tans. Both look shit and don't fool anybody

They are awful. We have inherited a very ugly 'summer house' with a tatty plastic roof, which we have covered in AstroTurf to make it blend into the rest of the garden a little more seamlessly. When we fitted the AstroTurf, thousands of bits of it were shedding all over the garden, blowing around in the wind. We actually had to hoover the garden with the indoors hoover to try to capture all of the little plastic fragments. These will all making their way into our water supply and the ocean etc. Yes we've contributed to the problem - I honestly thought it was more 'stable' as a material that it is.

The link doesn’t work, but it is quite grim. I really don’t understand why so many people have them, especially when environmental concerns are so high right now. They leach micro plastics into the soil and therefore the organisms that live there, contributes to flooding, it blocks burrowing insects and bees and thus the animals that eat them, not to mention the pollution produced to actually make the plastic. Same people probably still use disposable wipes and other unnecessarily wasteful and polluting things. Sad, but people are lazy and don’t give a fuck.

I wouldn’t get it personally. MIL has it and a dog, who toilets on it, stinks to high heaven. Friends also have it (plus two spaniels) and they hose it beforehand.
I’d rather patio the area, some people don’t want to mow /generally deal with a lawn. Especially if it’s a lawn you can’t use, slanted, North facing, you have no side access etc. Cat poo is a pain whether you have real or plastic grass.

One of our neighbours vacuums hers 🤣

Lawn!

I'm totally the devil. I used disposable wipes and nappies 😱

It looks very common

I love mine. It looks great. No mud.

The environment is not just about you, your home and garden are part of a wider environment.

Obviously plastic grass is not banned, but many things are e.g. burning certain fuels in smoke-free zones.

Assume that is the sort of parallel the survey is drawing - person X's plastic grass harms the wider ecosystem.

Agree, its hideous and you can spot it from miles away.
If grass won't grow or you're too lazy to mow, get a moss lawn. I'd much rather have moss than plastic, in fact I'd rather have mud than plastic.

Yawn

I love mine. It looks great.

No it doesn't, it looks tacky as shit.

@carefullycourageous but they are my little patches of environment. So it's about me.

It’s grim. I’m sure an alternative could be invented that was better suited.

And to the poster putting it under a tree where nothing grows. Why? Just don’t put anything there.

The environment is not just about you, your home and garden are part of a wider environment.

everyone of us could be making better choices for the environment, I don't see much value in focusing on one above others.

Well no, as I just explained - you are not free to do whatever you want in your home. On environmental health, building standards etc.

Do you really not understand that legal reality?

I don't get the appeal of fake grass. Our friends who are massive garden people have it and I just don't know why!

We are looking at it, our new garden is smaller than we like. By astro turfing it we can actually use all of the garden not have a mud pit for 80% of the year

Quite. Or make a bit of effort to understand the growing conditions under the tree and which plants might be happy there. There are shade-loving plants that will do well under a tree. It's not rocket science.

The whole attitude of just covering it with a crude plastic facsimile is...gross.

It's perfectly legal to put artificial grass in my garden. So again, my garden, my choice.

It’s definitely a certain ‘type’ that seem to have it 😆

Flags then. With gaps for drainage.

Like?! I’m not putting gravel or bark because I have cats so not making a giant litter tray for them... it’s Patio is already there but it’s on a slope and hasn’t been laid properly so means it can’t be walked on or stepped on even because it’s not flat and is a tripping hazard (the person before me laid it) not laying patio again as will need to be levelled and cost too much, it’s my garden and can do what I like in it

Ah, the whataboutery cavalry arrives!

We can talk about things one by one, or as a whole. Humans are amazing like that. This thread is about plastic grass, which is shit for the environment.

Don’t want plants, have kids and want them to be able to use the space as our garden is tiny!