Artificial grass - experiences?

[48k]

Welshbeef said:

48k said:

As far as spillages, drips, grease poo etc etc you treat artifical grass the same as normal grass - ie. if you want to get rid of it, either pick it up or chuck water on it / hose it. It's not that hard.

Apart from picking up the Poo I’ve never chucked water onto such a spillage nor had to hose it.

Surely hiding something like spilt ice cream simply smarts that ice cream elsewhere in the garden.
You let it melt done

Bucket of water on some split condement or bird poo on real grass are you joking?

Not sure you quite understood what I wrote.

If the way you treat a spilt ice cream on normal grass is to leave it to melt / get washed away by normal means, then you can do the same with the artificial.
If the way you treat grease on normal grass is to leave it to get washed away by the elements, then you can do the same with the artificial.
If you wanted to remove the offending spillage straight away and you'd do that on normal grass by hosing it, then you can do the same with the artificial.

Artifical grass is still permeable, same as normal grass . It's no different.

[Silverage]

I’ve been trying to sort out my front lawn for years now. I got Green Thumb in last Autumn and gave them carte blanche to use everything in their arsenal to bring it round. Now, six months later, it’s still like a battlefield out there and to cap it off I’ve got a nice infestation of chafer bugs.

I’ve had a long chat with Green Thumb today and they want to carry on and do some reseeding as well, but I’m wondering if it’s time to give up and get some artificial in.

The lawn is purely ornamental, used for nothing at all apart from filling the gap from the front of the house to the curb. It’s frankly embarrassing the way it looks at the moment, but I reckon there’s something like 70 sq m of it, so if the artificial stuff is coming in north of £50 per sq m that could be a problem too.

[anonymous-user]

Put down some plastic grass and never look back, my kids have been out for the last few weeks playing footy and netball and not a trace of mud in the house.

[PositronicRay]

Silverage said:

I’ve been trying to sort out my front lawn for years now. I got Green Thumb in last Autumn and gave them carte blanche to use everything in their arsenal to bring it round. Now, six months later, it’s still like a battlefield out there and to cap it off I’ve got a nice infestation of chafer bugs.

I’ve had a long chat with Green Thumb today and they want to carry on and do some reseeding as well, but I’m wondering if it’s time to give up and get some artificial in.

The lawn is purely ornamental, used for nothing at all apart from filling the gap from the front of the house to the curb. It’s frankly embarrassing the way it looks at the moment, but I reckon there’s something like 70 sq m of it, so if the artificial stuff is coming in north of £50 per sq m that could be a problem too.

If it's ornamental, imitation grass will look crap.

Why not some weed proof membrane, slabs and gravel. A few plants and pots to finish it off.

[Silverage]

PositronicRay said:

If it's ornamental, imitation grass will look crap.

Why not some weed proof membrane, slabs and gravel. A few plants and pots to finish it off.

I meant ornamental as opposed to functional. It’s not used for anything.

I got onto Lazy Lawn for a quote earlier and he’s just got back to me with a price of £65 per sq m which puts the job over £4000, more than twice what I was thinking of. I reckon I’ll have to let Greenthumb crack on instead.

[PositronicRay]

Silverage said:

PositronicRay said:

If it's ornamental, imitation grass will look crap.

Why not some weed proof membrane, slabs and gravel. A few plants and pots to finish it off.

I meant ornamental as opposed to functional. It’s not used for anything.

I got onto Lazy Lawn for a quote earlier and he’s just got back to me with a price of £65 per sq m which puts the job over £4000, more than twice what I was thinking of. I reckon I’ll have to let Greenthumb crack on instead.

I think the point I was trying to clumsily make. Artificial grass has it's place, a practicle hard wearing finish, a bit like putting laminate flooring into a playroom.

If it's to look nice there are other things you can do.

[eltawater]

My only regret with artificial grass is that I wish I'd had it done sooner.

Years and years wasted being on the losing side of a war against ant hills, moles, uneven surfaces buggering the lawnmower, strimming and wild grass all to no avail.

Apart from sweeping the leaves off it I've not had to do much else in terms of maintenance as the regular storms have given it a good rinsing so far.
The kids absolutely love it as there's no longer the risk of being covered in ants or mud when they run around on it. They made more use of it in the 2 months following the installation than we had in the past 8 years. It's really come into it's own over winter because they've been able to run around in their wellies without fear of getting stuck or causing a huge Glastonbury style mess.

Wildlife is already well catered for by the fields behind us. The cat never shat in the lawn anyway, he prefers the borders.

Went from this:



to this:


Is it to everyone's taste? Probably not.

Is someone with a real lawn going to turn their nose up at it? Maybe.

Do my kids give a toss what someone else thinks? Nope.

[Welshbeef]

Those pics look nice but if it was cut and maintained properly on a normal manner then it would be far far nicer


Fake grass harms insect life.
Materials cannot decompose into the lawn
Birds cannot dig for worms

[eltawater]

Like I said, I'm surrounded by fields. The birds and insects aren't going to suffer.

[Welshbeef]

eltawater said:

Like I said, I'm surrounded by fields. The birds and insects aren't going to suffer.

But you are denying nature from your land?

Surrounded by fields - are those frequently short cut grass? If not then it’s much harder for our declining birds stocks to get the worms and insects.


Face it you’ve done it because of ease you’ve not bothered with it before hence the shocking first picture. Nature isn’t even on your register is it with respect to your fake lawn

[Heartworm]

I like it, I’m really tempted.

[Dr Jekyll]

Welshbeef said:

But you are denying nature from your land?

Surrounded by fields - are those frequently short cut grass? If not then it’s much harder for our declining birds stocks to get the worms and insects.


Face it you’ve done it because of ease you’ve not bothered with it before hence the shocking first picture. Nature isn’t even on your register is it with respect to your fake lawn

There is no difference between artificial grass, a tarmacked drive or just having a house in the first place. I don't spread mud over my living room floor to allow birds to dig for worms, so nature isn't on the register there, is that a problem?

I'm sure the 95% of the country which isn't built on is enough to keep the birds busy.

[anonymous-user]

If you've got kids and/or animals it's got to make sense.

[Welshbeef]

Dr Jekyll said:

There is no difference between artificial grass, a tarmacked drive or just having a house in the first place. I don't spread mud over my living room floor to allow birds to dig for worms, so nature isn't on the register there, is that a problem?

I'm sure the 95% of the country which isn't built on is enough to keep the birds busy.

Do you have a grass drive or concrete/anti nature from as well as the back garden?

Worms wouldn’t exist if you sprinkled some mud on the ground floor of your house nor I doubt would you be leaving all the door and windows open all the time to entire the birds and insects into the property (surely that idea is for the birds/sectioned territory)

[Dr Jekyll]

Welshbeef said:

Dr Jekyll said:

There is no difference between artificial grass, a tarmacked drive or just having a house in the first place. I don't spread mud over my living room floor to allow birds to dig for worms, so nature isn't on the register there, is that a problem?

I'm sure the 95% of the country which isn't built on is enough to keep the birds busy.

Do you have a grass drive or concrete/anti nature from as well as the back garden?

Worms wouldn’t exist if you sprinkled some mud on the ground floor of your house nor I doubt would you be leaving all the door and windows open all the time to entire the birds and insects into the property (surely that idea is for the birds/sectioned territory)

My point is, why is it wrong to deny nature from my lawn but OK to deny it from my living room.

[Welshbeef]

Dr Jekyll said:

My point is, why is it wrong to deny nature from my lawn but OK to deny it from my living room.

Because the living room is already done instead if you’ve done the front and now the back your in essence making the entire plot not just house footprint a no go for nature.

[eltawater]

Welshbeef said:

But you are denying nature from your land?

Surrounded by fields - are those frequently short cut grass? If not then it’s much harder for our declining birds stocks to get the worms and insects.


Face it you’ve done it because of ease you’ve not bothered with it before hence the shocking first picture. Nature isn’t even on your register is it with respect to your fake lawn

Yup, works for me.

[anonymous-user]

Welshbeef said:

Because the living room is already done instead if you’ve done the front and now the back your in essence making the entire plot not just house footprint a no go for nature.

What if your kids just want to play football?

[Welshbeef]

desolate said:

What if your kids just want to play football?

Ours do occasionally (year round) shoes/boots taken off either outside or in utility room or garage.

[anonymous-user]

Welshbeef said:

Ours do occasionally (year round) shoes/boots taken off either outside or in utility room or garage.

And what about the grass?

A couple of kids can totally fk up a garden.