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.

Not at all, all the time environmentally friendly hypocrites fly around in their private jets. Think that's called selfish and entitled. Forgive the pun but you can drive a tractor through these and most liberal's arguments.

Painful ignorance. Environmentalism is not a political affiliation. Most liberal people are buying from PLT. Most older conservative people have their little gardens.

Not everyone flies or can afford to.

Just because there are worse things, doesn't mean you have to see it as a target to beat.

Why do people clean it?

I definitely don't think it's a good idea to have it if you are letting dogs do their business on it but what other reason?

I have to clean the concrete area outside my backdoor because of the dogs. The concrete was there when I moved in.

'But the 'edgehogs luffs it!" posts make me laugh. 🫥

Never "cleaned" ours. It gets brushed every now and again. The rain wets it you see.....

Hedgehog on turf (eating snails)

You can buy all sorts of artificial lawn maintenance paraphernalia. From electric lawn sweepers to cleaning products. Though many just use zoflora

Often if a dog or cat is using the area as a loo, I should think. I don't know why they clean them, or even I install them in the first place, so...

Well I’ve got it and I quite like it. Several years ago we paid someone to pave our garden (we just don’t have the time to keep a nice garden) and they did a god awful job. We couldn’t afford to dig all the sub base out, but it was the perfect base for artificial grass so we laid that.

it might not be perfect but it looks an awful lot better than having a 3/4 finished back yard that looked like Del Boy had done it.

Judge all you like. I promise you it’s far less of an eyesore than what was there before it.

If you look at the Nomow website about the pros of having it will wind some of you up.

I love Hedgehogs too.

They look hideous and require the same ground work as a patio. Which means in ten years (if you are lucky) when they need to be replaced you are stuck with them, or will need to spend £1000s having to get the ground back to be able to lay grass.

A guy around here costs £15 per month and comes every two weeks to cut the grass.

'I don’t think I could have any respect for someone who does this'

Haha! Soooo judgemental 😂

Yup

I love this thread - I don't even have a garden but this it engaging me waaay more than it should!! 😂

….Eating snails along with a big helping of toxic plastic grass, which will probably end up killing the poor thing.

On every level, it is insane

Perhaps not quite every level - there's fake grass at my disabled son's house, because he's not able to mow real grass himself and paying someone to do it would make a hole in his limited money

They can comment, and I can take absolutely no notice at all. Because the choices they make, without any judgement or sarcastic comments from me, are their choices. But surely you don't do one of the worst things you can do for the planet - reproduce - then try to ban someone else from having a few feet of artificial lawn? It's laughable.

Oh and I own my choice. I've had it for 5 years now and it absolutely was the best decision - for me. Highly recommend to everyone.

Humans are an odd species - we’ve developed the ability to quickly come up with anything to excuse behaviour that is detrimental. Seeing it laid out in black and white so often is quite eye opening.

theview Yes I do judge people in this issue. This is an anonymous forum so people can tell the truth. They almost certainly won’t say anything, but inside, most people will be thinking ‘wtaf’ if you install one of these.

Poor things won't be able to find anything else to eat. Whilst they do eat them they should actually be eating beetles instead. Slugs and snails carry lungworm, a parasite that will kill them.

However beetles don't live in plastic grass

We tried for years to grow grass under the huge trees surrounding our garden. Council land and they will not trim. TPOs on the ones in our garden and we are limited to what we can do with those.

We re-turfed several times with increasingly expensive and specialist turf. Nothing worked - it was a unusable mud bath. The change to artificial grass gave us a garden we could use. We also have plenty of shade loving plants and a shade loving wildflower area (although only one flower has ever grown).

@Elphame Well said😉I'm glad you pointed this out it's the first thing that I thought. Not cute at all, the plastic grass means the hedgehog is having to eat snails that should not form any main part of its diet and can be lethal to it, by putting down plastic death you have remove all the valuable food sources from this habitat.

😂

Not the bit I've got on my front. It is about 3m by 4m. Only small front garden, massive natural back garden.

Do people realise that you don’t actually have to mow a lawn, you could sow it with wild flowers and just let it do it’s thing. All these excuses about well, I can’t mow it or I haven’t got anywhere to store a mower etc are a bit pathetic really.

Well they can eat the beetles in the flower beds all around the small lawn or in amongst the patio slabs.

I see plenty of beetles.

I never minded mowing. It was about the capacity of grass to grow in a 5 metre deep North facing clay soil garden surrounded by mature trees and high fences. We tried for 7 years, resowing every year. It just didn't work.

5 metres being the total length of the garden from the house to the fence.