Has anyone actually put real grass IN their garden?

[copernicium]

I've an area approx 15m2 that currently has slate chippings. As a result, we don't use it, as it's the back of the garden and we like to wander barefoot. It's about a third of the total garden, the other area is Indian stone. There's raised beds with sleepers all around.

It feels like a fairly simple job to move the chippings and to lay some turf...but it feels like everyone else is ripping theirs up to lay artificial grass. I can't bring myself to lay so much plastic as we are very environmentally conscious.

It's not a feeling I want to have the same as everyone. I'm just thinking if everyone js ripping theirs up, it's for a reason...will I regret laying real grass to a garden that is currently maintenance free...

Ours is a mix of moss, grass, several clovers and flowers although it looks quite green in that photo, we have some wildflowers beds in another part of the garden.

Lots of garden have fake grass here. I always wander if the owners go out and hoover their lawns, how do you keep it clean?

@IrishGirl2020 ryegrass is meant to be hardy.

The poster who asked if thrift is spiky underfoot, I don’t walk barefoot so I couldn’t tell you.

The foliage is lovely and soft but the flowers are quite ‘firm’ with relatively stiff stems so I can imagine it may be uncomfortable underfoot.

It is in my experience very tolerant of foot traffic though, i trample it regularly to get to my borders behind and it’s fine and the children play in the garden including running over it regularly.

@wonkylegs

We did it in our old terrace house and didn't regret it at all. Make sure you water it loads when you put it down so it establishes well and make sure you put it down on soil and not rubble. Ours was small but great with the kids and not really that much hassle. But after its established just now it every now and then (how much depends how you want it to look), once established you don't even need to water in drought periods as they bounce back well but it must be established first so give it some love for the first summer. When we moved to this house it's came with just a 'little bit' of lawn which was a shock to the system

Oh my god 🤣

I hope you have a ride-on mower!

The picture on the right was my first year of having a meadow. This year is even better as we now have some beautiful grasses and new flowers we never had last year. Every morning I go out to see what has started flowering. If I wanted to walk through it to get to a shed or something I'd have to move an informal path.

@frazzledasarock

Lots of garden have fake grass here. I always wander if the owners go out and hoover their lawns, how do you keep it clean?

@IrishGirl2020 ryegrass is meant to be hardy.

My neighbours hoover their real lawn...

Here's some pics of my garden gone wild. No mow May and I've decided not to mow till autumn.

@copernicium

I've an area approx 15m2 that currently has slate chippings. As a result, we don't use it, as it's the back of the garden and we like to wander barefoot. It's about a third of the total garden, the other area is Indian stone. There's raised beds with sleepers all around.

It feels like a fairly simple job to move the chippings and to lay some turf...but it feels like everyone else is ripping theirs up to lay artificial grass. I can't bring myself to lay so much plastic as we are very environmentally conscious.

It's not a feeling I want to have the same as everyone. I'm just thinking if everyone js ripping theirs up, it's for a reason...will I regret laying real grass to a garden that is currently maintenance free...

You never regret having real grass provided you have the ability and equipment to take care of it. The biggest job is weeding but you can get varieties of grass that are more effective at fighting weeds for nutrients and so reducing their spread.

There are a lot of ground cover/lawn alternative seed mixes these days with different levels of maintenance, all much better than artifical turf.

I'm in an area where it seems play gravel is the go-to, the previous owner and some of of our neighbours have it in various colours. I'm eyeing up this Pearlwort Lawn to replace the gravel with, though may not get to doing it until next year.

Wildfire, really!?

I can't be dealing with that.

Real grass all the way for me.

We did @copernicium and it was the best decision ever. We lay turf down which was double the work at the beginning but much easier long term. Lots of daily watering (mostly twice- we lay it in mid July in the heatwave ), and after that done nothing to it. Once it took root it does its own thing. I have to reseed some patches after the autumn as we have an overhanging sycamore that sheds its leaves there. I need low maintenance so I just let them rot and then reseed after. By spring it's back to being a lush lawn again and I mow it every few weeks in the summer, don't mind it being long for a week or so, rather that than weekly mowings and barely mow it after the summer

Good luck with yours

@WildfirePonie lovely! This is what I imagine mine will be - not massively overgrown as that won't work with the other levels we have, but a nice wild aspect to it.

@Ozanj I have a tortoise. Weeding is a daily activity and it'll save me going to the fields 😂

Right then. I'm doing it. I've ordered some top soil, it's soil underneath the chippings membrane but it won't be good quality. Mission for the weekend is to relocate the chippings.
Still undecided on the actual planting but there's been amazing ideas here thank you!

I wouldn't get fake grass I don't like it.
Mostly all the people I know have real grass I only know one person with it.

This thread has inspired me to transform the patch of grass, which a tent sat on for about 6 months and consequently the grass hasn't grown back, into a wildflower area.

Could I do it on the cheap and just buy some soil and seeds or is special turf the best way? It's about 3 metres by 2 metres. Not huge. But could look amazing if it works!

We're quite lazy gardeners and don't mind weeds and longer grass so we do have lots of birds and bees in our suburban garden.

@LivinLaVidaLiverpool
There's a good thread on starting a wildlife garden lots of ideas.. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/4263121-Wildflower-advice

@LivinLaVidaLiverpool you need poor quality soil, wildflowers don't like soil that has lots of nutrients as they get out competed by grass etc. I had a £30 bag of wildflower/grass seeds mix and it was far far too much, they need to be sprinkled very finely. I did the seeds this time last year and didn't have many flowers as it was too late but have so many plants now.

Yes to a wildflower area. We did this with a small weedy and it looked lovely. You can always mow a path through.

Small weedy area it should say !

We had our garden landscaped two years, ago. Prior to this it was a swamp 9 months of the year as it sloped down slightly and we are north facing.

It cost us a lot to have it levelled etc and the landscapers talked us into fake grass.

To be fair it looks great but I really dislike it from an environmental point of view.

It lasts about 10 years I am told and when the time comes I will take it up with no regrets. I'll go back to normal turf or a thrift lawn. I get loads of bees and other insects thanks to my pond and other plants.

I think artificial grass does have its place, although it’s not environmentally friendly. Some of my friends have balconies and they’d like to go there barefoot, or let their kids, who are much older and therefore don’t need to be supervised in the balcony, wander in and out. They can’t exactly put down real grass and so they ended up putting down artificial grass.

@AvidNameChanger

I think artificial grass does have its place, although it’s not environmentally friendly. Some of my friends have balconies and they’d like to go there barefoot, or let their kids, who are much older and therefore don’t need to be supervised in the balcony, wander in and out. They can’t exactly put down real grass and so they ended up putting down artificial grass.

We have a balcony, why would any balcony need fake grass?

Simon, it’s not my decision to make. As said, my friends put it on their balcony because they wanted to be able to walk in and out barefoot.

They’re planning to put out some patio furniture to put their balcony to good use now that the kids are older.

@Whiskyinajar

We had our garden landscaped two years, ago. Prior to this it was a swamp 9 months of the year as it sloped down slightly and we are north facing.

It cost us a lot to have it levelled etc and the landscapers talked us into fake grass.

To be fair it looks great but I really dislike it from an environmental point of view.

It lasts about 10 years I am told and when the time comes I will take it up with no regrets. I'll go back to normal turf or a thrift lawn. I get loads of bees and other insects thanks to my pond and other plants.

I can see how they talked you into it and I can totally see how it does the job you need it to.

But grass holds so much water, you’ve just pushed your water problems on to someone else.

Artificial lawn is literally an ecological wasteland. I honestly don't understand why anyone would want it in their gardens.

We have grass. Yes, DH over mows it, and has an unnatural obsession with killing all wild flowers and weeds. He drives me to distraction. Nevertheless, and even so, we have every kind of insect and bird in our garden. We currently have two blackbird pairs foraging for their babies, and you would not believe the number of worms they collect from the grass every day, literally hundreds. They are amazing, industrious, excellent parents, and I love to be able to help them thrive. May be a bit whacky, but it's what I love to watch.