Anyone laid artificial grass in their garden?

[askarisiddiqui]

We have a small garden that faces north and is mostly in the shadow due to our 3-story house on a raised foundation. The area receives little to no direct sunlight. Currently, the majority of our "lawn" is covered in moss. We are looking for a surface for our child to play on that requires minimal maintenance. Additionally, we frequently go away for extended periods during the summer.

Is artificial grass good? [spam link removed by MNHQ]

Any suggestions, recommendations or opinions based on your experience would be greatly appreciated.

I know why they get it, the marketing spells it out.

Just wondering how they deal with the health concerns.

Head in the sand I suspect

I disagree that it's cheap - we found the invoice for the work the previous owners had done and it was £6000!!!! How I wish they'd kept the lawn and just knocked £k off the house price for us!

£6k would have easily paid for a gardener to come in a few times a year to do mowing and tidying up... such a shame. I think that the plastic lawn companies target elderly/retired people and hard sell it to them a lot of the time...

Unlike most PP I do have 'plastic' grass laid on top on concrete on my north facing roof terrace. I've had it years because, like you OP, I wanted something soft (to look out on0. It has been great, needing no maintenance whatsoever.

Bit like double glazing and conservatory salesmen in the 80's

Dreadful, looks tacky, terrible for birds, the environment and the planet. Sorry op

What a beautiful garden @Callimanco you would think the grass is real!

Why would anyone want a green plastic mat in their garden. Hideous.

It’s hideous stuff.

Identifies people as having no taste whatsoever.

It’s plastic, can’t be recycled, it kills the soil life beneath it, has no benefit to wildlife whatsoever and it looks bloody AWFUL!

Well I love artificial grass. My gardens currently a shitty pond of grass and weeds, would love it to be levelled off and fake grass or resin. Not a big plant person.

@orangegato

Are you really not bothered about the health concerns?

Genuine question

We've had artificial grass. I wouldn't do it again. Imagine putting a carpet outside and trying to keep it looking like a carpet. Especially if you say the grass doesn't dry out.

Artificial grass in the great divider in 2023

My next door neighbour has it, in a garden that was once full of wildlife - birds, hedgehogs, frogs.

It is now a barren sanitised monstrosity

@QuertyGirl not something that’s ever crossed my mind. My garden is small and looks cluttered so just want a flat zero maintenance space I can have garden furniture on, normal grass it would just sink I think.

@orangegato fair enough

It’s funny how the assumption is that if you have artificial grass, your garden must be some kind of vast, barren expanse devoid of anything living.

Our patch of artificial grass takes up about a third of the entire garden. The rest of it is trees, shrubs and flowering plants. We put in plants which attract bees (and we get loads in the summer), we have a lovely mature beech, a magnolia and honeysuckle climbing up one wall. We get hedgehogs, foxes, field mice and squirrels as well as plenty of birds.

A real plastic paradise!

I had a patch of garden which was boggy (often a reason given for fake grass), I got some discarded bricks and put them on the boggy area paving style, the grass grew through and now you can't see the bricks but you can walk on that area ok and the things that live under those bricks are all happy with their home, nice and moist and cool. No detriment to the soil health, garden appearance or use. Low maintenance and no plastic. 👍

Thanks! We like it. 🙂

Our garden is similar, small and shady grass has never worked out. I'm looking into either a moss lawn or a thyme lawn with stepping stones.
Artificial grass is conceptually, aesthetically and environmentally awful. I'd rather have a patch of mud tbh.

www.homesandgardens.com/news/moss-garden

www.gardeningknowhow.com/lawn-care/lawn-substitutes/creeping-thyme-lawn/growing-creeping-thyme-lawns.htm

This is a great solution!

I have tried everything, different seed, turf, soak away, you name it we've tried it and spent £££££ on it!

We are getting artificial in feb! We first looked in 2016 but I was out of by how plastic it looked but now I'm amazed how far it's come on!!

Artificial grass is really awful. I can understand posting about it in 'chat' but not on 'gardening' - bad for the environment, bad for wildlife..

Few of my friends have it, the ones who did it cheaply looks horrendous. The couple that spend a fortune looks beautiful.

One of their lawns gets ridiculous hot. Too hot for their dog to go out and kid to play.

Was coming on to suggest the same. Moss lawns can look lovely.