Artificial grass - yes or no?

[ChicagoBears]

I have a substantial garden, some has porcelain tiles but it’s mostly loose stone which looks bare and is difficult to use so I was considering artificial grass.

I know there’s lots of grades of grass, I’d opt for the premium grade but wanted to garner opinion, what (if any) are the drawbacks of artificial grass? Will I love to regret it?

Those gardens are awful, sterile wastelands and are of no use to the world. As @Abracadabra12345 says, we should be sharing our gardens with wildlife, not driving wildlife out of them.

Some people may do it due to disabilities/be disabled ect

It's grim!

Grass seed is cheap and easy to put down. If you cba with that then turf!

Most people saying that. probably have a drive for their 4×4. At least 2 of them 🤣

Er no, these are the type of people who have fake lawns, not the types who criticise them. It's always people with the same taste. Black UPVC windows, driveways, 4 x4s and fake grass 😮‍💨

Absolute abomination. Non-living ugly plastic crap. Kills all the soil organisms underneath it. Impossible to dispose of responsibly when it's inevitably taken up. Gets hot in summer. Stinks if a cat or dog pees or poos on it. People have to wash it with chemical disinfectant, causing more pollution.
I'm pleasantly surprised that so far there hasn't been a flood of "I like it, it's clean and tidy". Maybe the tide is turning. I've been in despair because I see more and more of it, and half the houses on Rightmove seem to have ugly plastic lawns.
I equally hate plastic shrubs, houseplants and those weird plastic leaf screens that are meant to look like climbing plants. But I honestly thought that this stuff was becoming increasingly popular and that people like me, who want living plants and animals in gardens not polluting plastics, were becoming the minority. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/17/why-fake-grass-is-far-from-green-in-ways-you-might-not-guess

Just leave it alone or have it paved over. If you got the money to spend you'd just pave it over.

Because people have fake grass does not mean they don't have. Real tress, flower beds , bushes etc. Its no worse than someone having a patio.

I would cause much more damage to the environment if I had a car.

I think there is a growing movement amongst enlightened people to reject all that plastic crap and the manicured, landscaped ethos. Have you heard of Mary Reynolds? She is an ex landscape gardner who had a realisation about the damage being done by her profession:

www.afri.ie/category/tag/mary-reynolds/

Whats the difference between having it paved over and fake grass?

The people with fake lawns didn't criticise anyone till quite a few people found it ok to make really horrible comments and then they got abit back.
What I dislike is people who think it's ok to put down other peoples houses, gardens. It's bad manners. When we are all perfect about everything maybe say something then.
Let's all think about what we can do in our own lives to improve the environment without being nasty and making other people feel rubbish about what they have done with their homes.

Fake grass will be banned at some point. Generations to come will look back and wonder what the fuck people were doing, filling their gardens with plastic.

At least if it gets paved over you can get ants through the cracks, or weeds. Food for birds.

Why do people want to cover their lawns with plastic.

You cannot recycle fake grass either so it goes straight to landfill.

Let's all think about what we can do in our own lives to improve the environment without being nasty and making other people feel rubbish about what they have done with their homes

One simple thing we can all do is share our gardens with the wildlife we all live alongside. Even just giving a little section of it back to nature will help.

You wan to know the difference between natural stone and plastic?

@IClaudine interesting. I was disappointed to see Charlie Dimmock using a plastic lawn in one of her "designs". Maybe it will become less acceptable amongst the professionals.

It's OK someone up thread actually answered the question

It's Gawjus, I don't understand why everyone dislikes it. 😬

a couple of folks are being very defensive, honestly if you like plastic grass you like plastic grass, and I think need to accept many folks, think it’s a tacky travesty and there is growing outrage about it and the damage irs doing,

personally I think. As well as the government working on banning in certain areas, and increasing council tax for those who have it, I would be concerned that random eco warriors start targeting it and damaging it, eco warriors like a bit of that and of course nothing shows your environmentally destroying ways better than swathes of plastic fake grass clearly visible in your garden. Will be like folks chucking red paint on the twats who wore real fur.

I had already said if you read my earlier posts that we have trees, bushes etc etc in garden where there is a lot of wildlife. We planted some of these trees too.
Anyway I just don't like the nasty comments. Surprises me but hey Ho that's life I suppose.

But then people with fake grass will still have tress bushes etc so will still have worms ants.

I mean I agree real grass would be the better choice . But I understand also why people may want to use fake grass .

At the end of the day we all do things that are not environmentally friendly.

But then people with fake grass will still have tress bushes etc so will still have worms ants

But I think maybe the fake grass unbalances a garden's eco system? So some of what wildlife there is in a garden will lose some of the things they need to continue existing if the grass is hoiked out and replaced with plastic? I don't know, just making a guess here!

And this is why the government need to get on with banning fake grass... because people just don't get the huge amount of environmental damage it does. Or they do and just don't care.

I do think people will look back and wonder wtf we were thinking covering the earth with tacky, plastic carpet. A bit like how it now feels strange that people smoked inside pubs and restaurants.

I don't mean planting trees and bushes. I mean rewilding part of your garden.

They aren't defensive just putting their opinions out like everyone else.
Yeah those so called environmentalists who damage things wouldn't be good news.
I have a fake lawn and if someone damaged it they would be going to court and I would find out where they live to see what sort of things they have that damage the environment.
Then I would out them on Mumsnet😂😂

I really don't like the look of artificial grass but I'm a bit skeptical about the amount of hate for it from an environmental point of view. If you had posted about not being sure whether to patio over the area with slate or granite I bet posters wouldn't not be commenting about the environmental side of things.