Artificial grass. Your thoughts please...

[Branster]

We are looking into the idea of installing artficial grass. We are constantly replacing our lawn throughout the year because our dog, its wee-wee and green grass don't go together. It is hard work, we have tried maintaining it by immediately watering the grass where the dog has had a pee, we have even tried something called Dog Rocks which are meant to remove the tin from tap water so the dog's pee doesn't burn the grass and so on. No success after years of trying.
My main concern is environmental impact because worms will not have a habitat anymore, then birds will have no worms to eat and so on. However seeing that our grass is only green for 1/3 of the year, not much seems to be happening in the way of worms colonizing it. I do realize that must be a lot of other types of creatures making use of the area even when the grass is dry but, in a way, I can try and convince myself I can live with that particular issue.
The other problem would be fire hazard. But we do not smoke, never use candles in the garden and hardly ever get around to organizing barbecues (maybe only three times a year if we're brave enough).
Has anyone got this in their garden, or know of anyone using artificial grass? How difficult is it to maintain? Does it work? Etc..
We looked at a number of samples and only the most expensive looks realistic but the cost is not a concern seeing that we already spend lots of money on replacing the existing lawn anyway.
And for some bizzare reason we just like having a lawn in the garden! That's why we don't want to re-landscape the garden. It looks very nice with the present layout and we have put a lot of effort into it over the years to get it looking as it does now. With that in mind, we would very much like to keep the existing lawn area.
What do you wise people of MN think? Any advice, comments much appreciated.
And no way am I getting rid of the dog

Does the dog have to wee on the lawn? Can it be taken for a walk or have an area for the dog to wee in?

We have also been looking into getting artificial lawn, we got quite a few samples sent to us from a company called Lazy Lawn well worth a try.

well yes, he's always done it. we tried training the dog to use one area only, it never worked. and he does use the grass even though he gets at least three a day (one of which is seriously long).

Janbo25 we did get some samples from Lazy lawn but they did not look very realistic. beeter finish at The Artficial lawn Company, and the best we found was from As Good As Grass (their no7 is the exact match in colour and density as real grass but the pile a bit too short)

meant the dog gets at least three WALKS a day (one of which is seriously long).......

thanks branster i think i will get some samples from them.

can you smoke it?

There's also a company called no mow lawn or something. We got the details, i'm sure if you google you will find them. If not, give me a shout and l'll see if I can find the stuff.

have you tried bicarbonate of soda in his drinking water? Worked for our neighbours.

No idea about artifical grass, but sounds great! No mowing, no bald patches, no weeds.

we've just had some done at our nursery, where the grass was threadbare & had become a bit of a dustbowl. it's terrific, and children who fall, well, bounce

Message withdrawn

really Kelly1978??!! How much do they mix in the water bowl? And does it realls work? Does the dog not end up with a tummy ache or something?

thanks cocpos, i'll google it tonight.

that's reassuring bundle. i now i have this image in my head of little kids bouncing on the grass!

well megglevache, that's another issue ofcourse. you'd have to pick the stuff up, then wash the grass. what concerns me about this aspect, is if the grass itself does not get smelly (mainly from pee) with time? In my vision, the dog would refuse peeing on the artificial grass because it's not the real thing. Of course there's no guarantee about this happening.

I have it! although we have about an acre of garden altogether and had to have it all re done and re seeded so bought some artifical stuff so the lo's could play out until the real stuff had grown! its fab though - its got a permable layer underneath and the rain seems to "wash" it and its stayed clean - although no dog so not sure about that aspect - i would imagine a hose down with some cleaning solution every now and again would be fine though ?

i/2 teaspoon for every litre. It did really work for them. They dogsit their daughter's dogs and she told them to do it, as it worked for her. They are elderly and have a beautiful garden. Def hasn't caused stomach upsets, so worth a try.

cleaninglady it sounds encouraging. some of teh samples (only about three of them really) we have do feel very nice to touch and i did a few tests with a watering can to see how the water goes through them. it worked well. the problem with the hose wash is taht we have a hosepipe ban around here and i doubt it will be lifted for a good while yet! So no hoses are allowed. On teh plus side, i secretly fantasise about being able to hoover the new grass. I know, it sounds crazy, but I looke hoovering. With a bit of luck we might het some artifcial trees & shrubs, then I can go out tehre and dust & polish

Thank you very much for the info Kelly1978. It is a weak solution then. Phew!
I phoned the vet today. She must have thought I was mad. Anyway, she said to be careful with the bicarbonate of soda solution because urine is supposed to be slightly acidic in a healthy dog. If it becomes too alkaline (? I think that's what she said) then the dog might end up suffering with kidney stones later on in life. . She said where grass is affected by the dog's urine, there are two possibilities:
1.urine far too acidic. so i can consider using the bicarbonate idea but with great care which means testing the dog's urine samples at the vets to make sure we get the right balance.
2.urine too concentrated. if that's the case we must increase the water intake for the dog. so i'll start doing that and see if things improve!

Got the samples from LazyLawn too, fantastic stuff. They have one that is dog resistant but I believe that they only refer to dog not damaging the surface with its nails while running on it. I'm sure it would be a NIGHTMARE to remove poo/pee from it. If your are considering it because of the poo... well natural surfaces are more likely to degrade the rest of faeces better, so maybe what you need is to designate a doggy area.

Please keep in mind that artificial grass is "stuck" to surface by adding lots of sand on top of it, so hoovering and pressure washing would be a no no

My ex-neighbours had it and it looked fantastic from a distance but a bit naff close up. Not sure of the practicalities though.