Artificial grass - share experience and where to buy

[Mummyfry]

Hi,

Can anyone please share their experience with artificial grass and what to look out for when choosing and installing the artificial grass? Did you install it yourself or get the shop to install it?

We would ideally want something realistic looking, high quality and our daughter will play in it. The grass area won’t be that big so we don’t mind paying a higher price per m.

I’m not looking for any comments on how we shouldn’t get artificial grass (I’m aware of the negatives ie environment concerns and how it can get very hot) as I have a grass and pollen allergy so we can’t have real grass and we don’t want the whole garden paved as we already have a patio area.

thanks in advance!

Absolutely!

My son who's just bought a house wouldn't entertain any with artificial grass because of the huge cost of reinstating a real lawn, so it works both ways. A flat lawn with real grass doesn't take long to mow, it's hardly high maintenance.

The trouble with the outdoors is that natural substances are forever landing on the ground. So seeds, windblown soils/grits etc etc and a natural ground covering will just incorporate those things into the soil layer and they don't build up into anything unwanted.
As soon as you have a plastic carpet outside you are putting yourself into the situation of King Canute trying to turn the tide, where you will forever having to cleanse away or otherwise remove these little accumulations on a routine basis or in a couple of years that AG surface will be semi swallowed back by nature and you'll be back to square one.

It always strikes me as one of those pointless constant battle tasks like having curly hair but wanting it to be straight (or vice versa).

But there are loads of natural alternatives to grass. I never got the obsession with grass lawns (is it historical? Originally a high status thing in royal houses where the head gardener had a point of pride of a beautiful grass lawn with stripes and the masses aspired to the same?).
My parents lawn is mostly moss, which they feel a little embarrassed by, because of some inherited perception that being able to maintain perfect bowling/golf green is some necessary entry condition to successful adulthood.

But it's heaven to walk on, always cool, always green, never needs mowing and the insects love it! I think it's gorgeous.

Our neighbours got the fancy stuff in a small but south facing garden. They said they now hate it as it gets so hot in the sun their kids cant play on it.

We have a few people with artificial grass in my street. All of them look awful now they are older. They look dingy browny/green, wrinkled etc. I think you would be disappointed with it if you do it.

When I look out my back windows, my artificial grass looks better than all the neighbours real lawns. We are north facing and overlooked. Actual grass doesn't stand a chance.

North facing you can get mosses, sedums and others.

Grass is particular but other ground cover isn't.

I'd love a camomile lawn, I love the smell of it. And thanks to Mary Wesley I think the idea is so romantic.

When we were looking to buy our house we wouldn’t even go to look at any that had artificial grass. It’s horrible stuff. We absolutely shouldn’t be covering the planet in unnecessary plastic.

But when you stand up close and personal to it. Uou can see it’s plastic.

I'd rather see that than the sodden, patchy uneven lawn with weeds that I had before.

Grass pollen from your lawn will be minimal if you keep it short - it doesn't have flowering heads generally. There is pollen everywhere.
Please think of your children's future world before you introduce more plastic. The bee population is already in trouble. Have you seen the photos of a world without bees?

Okdoke.

Why so snooty? We don't all have huge gardens or the ability to garden. My garden was pretty much unusable for the past ten years despite my efforts. Once I could afford it I got it done and now have a small space I can actually sit in. It makes me very happy. Unless I'm supposed to sit indoors in order for bees to use my garden instead of me.

I think it’s been explained multiple times on this thread why people do not like plastic grass? I don’t consider it snooty or because people have large gardens or time to garden.

no one is going to re explain it. Your plastic grass makes you happy. There is no more to be said.

It really shouldn't be legal to deliberately cover the land in plastic

It's not about snootiness, it's about the destruction fake grass causes. So you couldn't sit outside before fake grass was installed? Yeah right.

Clover lawn?
Creeping thyme lawn?

Try chamomile or other grass alternatives. Cheaper in the long run.

I would. Plastic grass has a terrible reputation and is awful for the environment, it always looks like plastic when you get close, hence why so many folks take pics from far away.

it will devalue your property , plenty of articles on it, just google, and it costs thousands to put right. As a country, we are becoming much more environmentally conscious , so a massive roll of fake olastic grass in your garden is abhorred my many, and most will factor in the cost to remove and put a natural lawn in. In addition many of them so far are not even biodegradable, just a scurge on the planet.

They don't even have to ban it, could even just require planning permission. The fact that this hasn't even happened is a joke.

The thing that gets me is: imagine going to the park to walk on fake grass and look at plastic plants. It would be awful. It's like being in some Legoland exhibit. Yet people willingly choose to do that to their gardens.

Now someone who's paid hundreds for it is going to start quoting me lmao

Some local authorities in America have banned its use in public parks because of the risk from the chemicals.

Sales are down though, 66 percent, and folks are ripping them up

it surged during Covid and now folks are realising the mistake , sadly many won’t be able to rip them up as it will cost too much to put right, and they are saddled with the embarrassment of it.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jul/31/plastic-lawn-backlash-fake-grass#:~:text=Do%2520you%2520use%252C%2520like%252C%2520a,%E2%80%93%2520no%2520bugs%252C%2520no%2520weeds.

The house I am in the process of buying has a patch of plastic grass. I always said it was a deal breaker for me, but as the house was otherwise perfect, I'm overlooking it. It's only about 3 metres square, so not a huge patch, and clearly the current owner paid for one that looks quite real. Some I saw on RightMove looked absolutely diabolical. Bumpy, wrinkled and like a badly laid carpet.
It's only been in-situ about 2 years, so still looks decent, but as soon as it starts to look shit, I'll get it taken up and put back to real turf.

Personally I’d make the sale conditional they took their plastic with them,