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.

What would you suggest for someone with a concrete garden and young children?

I hate it, it's so bad for the environment on multiple levels 😭

There are many low maintenance plants that are low growing and so won't need mowing, and never get more than a couple inches high. They add coverage (like grass does) and sometimes lovely scents and flowers too, depending on what you pick they can also naturally suppress weeds. Such a better option than fake, plastic grass!

Lawn chamomile, clover and red creeping thyme are all great options.

I worked for a company that supplied/installed it & it’s utterly gross - it’s cheap
to buy wholesale but expensive to buy domestic. It smells in a very short time & why would anyone want a cheap looking plastic grass imitation.

I have a lawn full of weeds & spend more time than I have mowing it but I would NEVER have artificial grass!

The people I know who have them have done so as they have lurchers/sighthounds that fast turn a lawn into a muddy race track.

Yes obviously it is legal, the whole thread is about a survey calling for a change. Honestly, don't you read the words people write?

I don't even favour banning it personally, it is so awful looking it will not be popular for long is my guess.

It is the garden equivalent of artex ceilings.

And fuck the insects and wildlife that live there, yes? It’s not just your garden, I think you’ll find it’s theirs too.

Then chuck a packet of wildflower meadow seeds out there and have something beautiful you can look at. I don't own a lawnmower because I don't have a lawn, not all gardens need a lawn. Irish moss works quite well as a substitute if you want small grassy areas.

All the new build developments around me have artificial grass already installed, probably because the ‘garden’ they create is the size of a postage stamp. Mine fits a table with 2 chairs and not much else.
The ‘courtyard’ areas behind the buildings are also all artificial grass. I’m surprised it’s allowed from an environmental perspective

I hate fake grass even more than I hate mowing the lawn.

This thread is about plastic grass, which is shit for the environment.

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

I imagine a small patch of plastic grass is pretty darn low down on the list of poor choices people make everyday with regards to the environment. It just suits you to focus in on this for whatever reason.

And fuck the insects and wildlife that live there, yes?

But paving isn't any better from that pov, yet I don't see it getting the same kind of ire on here.

They are absolutely hideous. So bad for the environment 😪. My imperfect lawn attracts so many birds .. next door's plastic not so much..

We have it in our garden and love it. It’s been down for 6 years now and still looks great. My kids can play out all year round and the dogs don’t bring mud in every time they’re out. We brush it or jet wash it to keep it clean, the same as we do on our patio 🙄🤨
Some people on here are so rude.

I agree that it is awful as are gravel/paving/concrete garden. My next door neighbours recently gravelled both the front and back of the house. The house 2 doors down concreted it. Grass and flowers are becoming rarer and rarer.

Hopefully it'll be banned in domestic gardens soon. It's only OK for mobility issues.

My grass (half shaded) needs nothing done to it. It's never had a chemical or water on it. It has some weeds and ants. It's damp and squishy in winter and goes brown in summer. Zero effort. Push along mow it once or twice a month.

Pots with flowers round the edges & Halfords do some cheap, good quality interlocking foam black mats that I used to put down in the back yard(concrete) of my old house! Worked fine! There was artificial grass there when I moved in but I ripped it out as it stunk & was full of ants - if you do get it, don’t ever let your child drop even a crumb as it will be full of ants!

and it’s difficult to clean, hair/dust & muck just sticks to it!

Vile, ugly, chavvy, hideous, destroyer of habitat for countless living creatures.

It is a thread started by someone else.

I'm extremely confident my choices ecologically are up to scratch, so I'm happy to discuss any environmental issue I like.

We have it in our garden and love it. It’s been down for 6 years now and still looks great.

It really doesn’t 🤣

Exactly, the area I’m replacing under the tree is a patio

Sorry my reply above was to the poster that asked ‘what do you suggest in a concrete area with young child’ but it’s not replied!

My elderly neighbours replaced their lawn with it when his health became more frail some years ago. They don't have to worry about outsourcing regular maintainence. They have a lovely garden with a substantial amount of well-mulched flower beds and relatively small lawn. It's not an ecological wilderness and its allowed them to keep an attractive, practical garden that just needs occasion care to be organised.

The other gardens I've seen it in are too small or shaded for successful grass maintainence.

It's not substantially worse than people paving the lot anyway.

I'll keep to my ecological weedy lawn but I'm not desperate to ban anyone else.
"Well maintained" lawns kept short and managed with fertilisers etc are no great wildlife haven anyway.

Oh good lord… I couldn’t read this and not reply.
if you want it get it, if you don’t like it don’t get it and sign the petition.
We have it, because our garden was just boggy without it- now our boys (and dog) can go out without bringing all the mud into the house and we can now use our garden all year round. (Side note very easy to keep clean, doesn’t smell).
Yes, grass is greener (pardon my pun), but do you all walk or cycle to not use a car? What about allllll the plastic fake flowers?

Some of your words in this post are quite awful to call people JUST because they have fake grass. Let’s hope you are all pretty perfect….😘

I was looking at houses on Rightmove and discounted a house because it had a fake lawn. It would have to be lovely house for me to consider the work involved in ripping up a plastic lawn and laying a proper one.

I'm extremely confident my choices ecologically are up to scratch, so I'm happy to discuss any environmental issue I like.

Assuming you aren't a childless, petless vegan, living off grid, non car owning and no foreign travel, holes can be picked if people are motivated to do so.