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.

Friend on new build estate has unusbale mud grass. It’s slime in winter and already has huge crevices now and grass doesn’t grow, everyone is either fake grass or patioing. Would you rather then pationtheir entire garden to be able to use it or her plan of half fake grass and half wildflower meadow?

We inherited ours with the house and it is high end and looks lovely. We also have patios and shingle. But we also have very established plants and shrubs and the garden is teeming with life.

When it gives up the ghost we will replace with grass but till then I like it

I have dogs & in the summer I put a neutralising solution down that kills the smell 🐾

I hate it too. Don’t understand why anyone would want a strip of plastic in their garden either 🤷‍♀️

My garden is 20 sq.m. Its a tiny space. The impact ecologically of what it's covered in is infinitesimal.

But times that by all the people who have it and it's an absolute environmental disaster.

I saw an article on Holly Willoughby's house today and she has an artifical lawn by the looks of it. Really surprised me with all that money as even a presumably very expensive one was still obviously fake. Surely she already has a gardener too, so not sure why she'd need one. They look disgusting and are so damaging.

Yes I’ve noticed as well. We have an artificial lawn because our garden is north facing and gets very little sun. It as practical and will last years. Some people seem very snobby about them. Whatever next? Ban carpets that aren’t 100% made of wool? Ban all plastic bottles? Ban composite doors and decking? I hardly think that artificial lawns are contributing much towards plastic use worldwide.

Such an over reaction when you consider the pollution that’s chugged out by countries such as China. The tiny proportion of home owners in the UK who have an artificial lawn is an easier target I guess

You don’t usually put artificial grass on tarmac. Well you can but it looks awful. It doesn’t always look rubbish if you buy a good quality grass and have a laid properly. You could always dispose of tarmac in some areas to make beds instead of putting raised beds if you think they won’t survive.

Not directed at you, but it’s laughable how some posters here can only discuss issues while using insults while at the same time thinking they are morally and ethically superior. Especially those calling artificial grass and people who have it “chavvy”. It says a lot about them.

They are absolutely vile. Even the supposedly high end stuff is minging.

I'd judge.

Though our neighbour gravelled over the whole front garden and then made a "Wishing Well" out of rainbow painted car tyres as a centre piece. 😳

Please someone tell them about plastic grass! Im sure they would love it!

For lots of people claiming real grass won’t grow - it really will. There is a HUGE variety of grass types and you might also need to sprinkle/change the top soil.

I’ve never seen anywhere wild grass won’t grow. Find ic you want an artificial lawn but ‘the grass won’t grow’ isn’t a reason in 99.99% of cases.

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?

I haven't owned a car in one and a half years (and even then I had only owned the thing for two years, beforehand I cycled everywhere just as I do now). Not sure what plastic flowers have to do with anything, I'm no fan of those either. Nor for that matter am I a fan of sex ponds, flamingo garden ornaments, abandoned sofas in the front garden, frequent flying, or rampant consumerism in general.

*fine if you want…

I’m not uncreative, stupid or incredibly lazy despite having … plastic grass. I put it in ten years ago when the kids were toddlers after spending hundreds three times laying proper grass - it just got obliterated by the shade and the neighbours Leilandi and massive tree sucking all the water out the earth - turned brown and dry and yet also managed to be swamp when it rajned
the plastic glass doesn’t look fab (though i got high end stuff) but it meant the kids could go on a swing without falling onto concrete and play outside unsupervised.
my brother is a Gardner and just this week I asked him if he’d take the plastic grass up and put down real grass and he said what’s the point it will all get sucked into oblivion again.

Ah yes, the "we can be as destructive as we want because China" argument.

It's a) facile and b) illogical - where do you think China exports all its plastic (which generates their pollution) to?

We can't ask another country to do our dirty work and then claim we're alright since it's not US doing the pollution, oh no, just the country we ask to make almost everything for us...

Nope been told nothing will grow under a conifer

Plastic grass is just awful. It's one of those things which is probably really expensive to install, but still looks very cheap and nasty.

I don’t think this is fair. Tiny gardens and kids…..

I’d love real grass. However have a courtyard. It’s mostly sandstone. Real grass would be a mud bath as small and secluded with variable sun. I have kids and the garden was pretty much unusable to them when little. I installed a small area of astro in a corner-they had somewhere soft to land when learning to walk, somewhere to land from a toddler slide, somewhere to put a little paddle pool etc. It has made the garden useable.

This is not laziness. I have lots of pot plants for pollinators, climbers on fences, a little herb garden, grow fruit and veg in a trug, we have a couple of trees and back onto a nature reserve. But for the kids to have somewhere safe to play it needed to be fake grass in this garden.

Imagine I’m not alone here.

Artificial lawns, no matter what the size destroy local biodiversity. They destroy connectivity and habitats corridors for all species including insects and many burrowing bees. They not only leach chemicals but micro plastics in the the surrounding soils and local water tables, which in turn end up in our oceans.

Biodiversity does not need perfect lawns, bare earth and sheltered areas with no grass house unique species in their own right. If you have a sheltered area in your garden then plant hostas and ferns, plenty of plants that need little to no maintenance will make a perfectly nice garden area. Comparing it to other small ways of cutting your carbon is comparing apples to oranges. With the decimation of many of wild habitats, gardens no matter how small make up a mosaic of habitats for all species including ones you don't see like earth worms and burrowing insects and all together make up all important bio diversity that supports us as humans.

It honestly makes me cringe to read many replies on here because they are purely down to a lack of knowledge of eco-systems and how the vast matrix of bio-diversity works and how it sustains all your lives. I do not expect people all to study advanced ecology but just by owning artificial lawns shows a lack of knowledge on the subject and how it affects all our futures.

i hate mowing i like to grow the grass theres been some great widlife in there

but my niehgbours dont like it -aparently all he wildlife is going into their garden god forbid-sorry off topic a bit just annoys me its my bloody garden

oh theres is all paved

Would countries like China be spewing out anything like as much pollution if we weren't buying all of this tat?

Vile and tacky! Also extremely bad for the environment, completely moronic thing to do.

That’s because you need to change the soil acidity and remove needles etc. If you don’t want to fine - but it’s not “nope” and akin to a nuclear wasteland but yay we have trees.