Advice on fake grass please?

[SpottyGreenFrog]

I'm thinking of a fake lawn because frankly my real lawn is like a bog & I'm sick & tired of mowing. My best friend is dead against them & warns me all sorts of bad stuff will happen like the joins will come apart and it will fade quickly & 'trails' will show where we walk. Have you had one? Does it look real? What did it cost? & did the joins come apart? I'll probably need 20m2

This is like a breastfeeding vs. formula or Brexit debate.

Personally, I think those of us who are doing the miserable work of maintaining horrible soggy lawns that we can't even use, solely for the benefit of the worms and hedgehogs are "considerably greener than yow" those who, probably, do have lawns that humans can actually enjoy too. G'wan admit it, while you're sunning yourselves on your own lovely green lawns, watching your DC enjoy a few cartwheels, at that point you're not actually thinking about how nice it is just for the beetles

The environmental concern for me is the fact it will end up in landfill in 8-10 years.

Crumbelina I would live photos please as we are looking at getting some!

Where did you get samples from?

Are there any good brand or particular things to look out for e.g. thickness?

I'm just bumping this - anyone have advice on where to buy; what brands and what to look out for in terms of pile and thickness?

I think they look awful.

For a small garden a nice patio or decking is much, much classier.

If buying a house with fake grass I would offer less (I would work out the cost of putting proper grass back and want that knocked off the asking price).

Love it - most of our garden would be a mud pit otherwise. Water drains away really quickly.

Downside - it can get very hot in the direct sun. BBQ coals can melt it.

Get one with lots of brown (dead looking) bits in, as it will look more real.

Look at Easigrass and Quickgrass

I have never seen one that looks real, and I have two sets of friends who bought the best that money could buy. The one in the photo earlier looked lovely though.

I would be thinking about breathing in plastic fumes as you lie out on a hot day instead of lovely natural planty smelling stuff. Would personally prefer wooden decking or patio.

Ours has been down for 4yrs and it was a low cost one from Ebay. Looks great and, so far, no problems at all!

ooh thats very intersting about it being too hot to walk on. I never thought of that. Is it scratching to lie on? I remember playing sports on astroturf in school and it was horribly scratchy.

I'm struggling to imagine more child friendly than actual grass. Surely real grass is nicer to sit on... also softer.

as you lie out on a hot day

You'd never have to worry about lying out on our lawn of honest-to-goodness real environmentally friendly grass, however hot the day, unless you genuinely enjoy getting a damp muddy back.

From an environmental POV, for any given square meterage, do we think fake grass is worse than paving/decking? How about from a usage POV?

So for example: Fake grass (apparently) allows drainage, whilst paving doesn't; fake grass is evil plastic, whilst paving isn't (but then what about decking which is available as composite?); fake grass is probably more useful for sitting on or for DC to play on, whilst paving is too hard for this...

We have it on our balcony - would much prefer real grass but obv not possible! The type we have (which was very “high end” apparently, not put in by us) is soft and feels nice to lie on. You definitely need to feel samples though not just choose one online.

Roses, will dig the samples out for you tomorrow.

Revolting stuff, really puts me off now I’m looking to move and would rip it up straight away. I hate fake anything though.

Another thing that puts me off real grass (apart from my NW facing garden and two young kids) is the fact that our garden is pretty small (9m by 5m - typical London) and using/storing a lawn mower for a small patch of lawn - 4m by 3m - would be a massive pain.

We have just got rid of the fake grass in our new house. It was horrible. There is nothing like the smell of freshly cut grass!

We looked round loads of houses with fake lawns and one of the vendors was telling us how great it is as you can just hoover it. I found that a horrifying idea. Loads of people who have it seem to have dogs that go out and shit on it, which makes me heave - yeah, you can wash it but I can’t imagine it being truly clean when subjected to dog crap day in day out. Plus it’s scratchy.

Any real-lawn enthusiasts willing to come and maintain my lawn, say on a monthly basis, pretty please? You won't be able to use it, but neither can I as I said above, but we can all feel environmentally angelic for our efforts !

Oh c'mon, really no volunteers? I would actually offer home-baked cake to anyone who would pop around to maintain my lawn

On a more serious practical note, seeing as there are lots of real-lawn owners on this thread - with a wet, lumpy lawn like mine, should I ditch the lawn mower and purchase a strimmer instead? The garden is small anyway, the whole thing being approx 11m x 4m and I estimate less than half that area is lawn. The rest being small patio, flower beds etc.

Thanks blossomandbailey, I had no idea there was a Which report for grass.

Lazylawn won the award so I've requested as sample.

I received samples from Easigrass this morning and I really like the Belgravia grass.

I'm only looking for 4m x 5m so the price difference in the different samples I've seen are minimal so I'll most likely go with the Which best buy unless I hate it when the sample arrives.

Our astroturf was laid by professionals a few years ago, and we are very pleased with it, retained its colour and shape. Boon if you are elderly, arthritic, and like to sit out in a garden with "grass". No lawn mowing involved! I just hoover it now and again much to the amusement of my neighbours.

they are awful.
plus they can stink if you have lots of cats and foxes in the area or let your dog use it as toilet.

Doesn’t it get covered with fox shit? Runny fox shit that seeps into it.

if you don't like maintaining lawn but want green you can sow clover or ground covering herbs instead.

or put down paving and lots of pots of evergreen slow growing shrubs.

I have to say having plastic grass would also make me reduce the offer price on house too and could potentially put me off totally as it May tell me there is a problem with growing a real lawn.

It always looks great in photos,and from a distance, but up close you know you're walking on, sitting on or looking at bit of plastic.

They also have to be replaced, there is a reason the guarantee only lasts a certain amount of years, and it's becayse after this time they start to deteriorate.

We have a small, north-facing garden with clay soil but it seems to grow grass fine. I can't imagine ever liking fake grass. We might one day pave it over because I'm allergic anyway, but we haven't done it yet since I'd feel bad about the environmental impact.

Funny how allergies change your perspective; the small of freshly cut grass makes me cringe and run inside because I know how easily it will make me ill! Hate the sound of lawnmowers now, too.