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.

YANBU. It's horrible stuff. My parents are about to get some .

This is mumsnet where the right to drive a 4x4 and take multiple foreign holidays is defended to the death.

By some people. Probably not usually by the people who are against fake grass for ecological reasons though.

Thank you to everyone in this thread, who have already contributed with a wealth or really good information, there is some great information in these posts 😊

But for all those with circular arguments, I do wonder if any are invested in artificial grass sales or just goady.

I do wish they would teach more about this in schools as the main response to having artificial grass is always linking back to climate change and carbon capture, which whist is important it only makes up fraction of the main issues within the environmental debate. Perhaps this is from the MSM and government only focusing on single issues.

I agree. It looks bloody awful even in a small garden/yard.

You realise that carbon emissions are only one part of humanity's impact, don't you?

I also don't get why you keep on about building extensions. I haven't built an extension, nor do I have plastic grass - it's not a binary choice, you know, you can just have neither.

I also don't get why you keep on about building extensions. I haven't built an extension, nor do I have plastic grass - it's not a binary choice

Of course. I never said it was or that anyone had. My point is that from the POV of losing grass therefore biodiversity i don't see much difference in covering grass with fake grass or a kitchen extension. But the latter doesn't attract much outrage as far as I can see.

Mine looks better than the sunken, muddy weed patch that was there before and at least we can walk on it! Since we cat proofed the garden we wouldn't have been able to use the shed in winter (the shared path is on the neighbour's side of the fence).

There are many other alternatives. It's not just perfect natural lawn versus plastic grass or paving.

I tried to post a link but it didn't work.

Fantastic news that the Chelsea Flower show have banned fake grass this year.

we have a small patch of it in our back yard.. but we have well established raised beds surrounding it that are made from old railway sleepers that are a haven for insects, lichens and mosses, and the beds themselves are full of a variety of trees, shrubs and flowering plants, we also have loads of pot plants dotted around the slabs, climbers all up the fences, and a massive front garden thats full of wildflowers, hedging and real grass. So far this year we've had bees, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, ladybirds, and damsel flies out the back, and deer in the front garden munching on our hedge.

Our choice to have slabs/plastic grass in the back yard instead of a lawn is down to the fact the garden gets zero sun from october through march and turns into a bog, and we didn't want to be looking at a sea of slabs, so we chose a small patch of fake grass.

I can assure you, our gardens are more diverse in planting and wildlife than most of you people bitching about fake grass.

Great news!

Very good news

Excellent news

Try again.

Excellent news!

When we moved into our house there was aritifixal grass, I wanted to replace it with real lawn. But apparently one of the main drains runs under our garden and under the artificial grass was just inches thick.of concrete. It was put in new artificial grass or stare at grey, 1960s concrete.

To add, we have raised beds to either sodez filled with shrubs and flowers.

I thought any "gardens" on show there were temporary anyway.

My landlord refused to let us have a lawn at the back. We have vile gravel instead. I've just bought a grass rug to break up the dreariness. I've loads of pots with all sorts of shrubs and flowers and the front where we have got real grass is currently a beautiful meadow for no mow may. It's full to the brim with clover, dandelions, buttercups, and a few wild flowers. The resident hedgehog seems to love it and the cats spring around like Tigger over it.
I think I'd rather see fake grass than paving.

Completely false logic here. The land that is lived on is only 7% of the UK. Only a proportion of this is gardens (the majority being housing and infrastructure).

The majority of the UK is farmland. Changing how we eat, by becoming vegan, would vastly reduce the amount of land required to produce food. Therefore sustainable farming practices can be used, and land be rewilded.

The majority of gardens are paved over other synthetic ground covering. Focusing on artificial grass is tokenism at best, and snacks of snobbery.

Far better to focus efforts on eating sustainably, and this cannot include meat. There is a lot of evidence to back this up.

You should read the full thread first.

It is not tokenism to discuss one problematic area, and does not mean people are not concerned about other, larger, more important, environmental factors. In fact, this has been covered on this thread already.

Daris Yes, I have read the thread. Your response is incredibly patronising.

It is tokenism, when much greater issues are ignored. Is there the same criticism of home extensions that destroy biodiversity, and have a large carbon impact (look up the impact of concrete, it's shocking).

People here claim that artificial grass is more important than what we eat. It's really losing sight of the true issues.

No mowing, no bees, no bugs - hoorah for your contribution to destroying the environment

'Mead' You can't possibly have read the thread properly or you wouldn't be talking about tokenism, which doesn't apply to many of us who have posted on this thread. Hth

We used artificial grass for the small patch at the front of the house as it gets no sun there. And kept dying. Im not happy that we had to do that.

Made up for it at the rear though with lots of bee /nature friendly shurbs and perennials etc .

And commandeered some derelict land nearby and made a wild flower bee sanctuary as I feel so guilty about the fake grass 🙃 😕

No mowing - good, my hay fever is bad enough in summer as it is
No bees / bugs - I get loads around the plants and bushes and they seem happy enough.

The biggest issue was bees getting caught in the cat proofing netting but DH changed it for one with bigger holes. Some still get caught occasionally but there's not a lot I can do about that.

I don't like artificial grass. It looks artificial - too perfect. Also bad for biodiversity. Personally I would not lay it. We've just moved into a property with a tarmac drive. It has drainage but I hate it. I can't wait until I can afford to rip it up and have a front garden with flowers etc.

I don't think they should be banned. Someone I know has a child with a genetic condition who required chemo and bone marrow transplant so they could live beyond their teens. They had artificial grass so they could clean it and keep it sterile whilst their 3 year old was undergoing treatment and had an incredibly poor immune system. Considering the child couldn't attend play groups, school, play dates etc that fake lawn/garden was so important during the treatment that took several years to complete.