artificial grass? really?
I saw some commercials for this recently and was taken aback — is artificial grass really moving into the realm of acceptable — even eco-friendly — landscaping? The Artificial Grass & Landscaping site is designed to impress, and apparently it was a featured product on the program Designing Spaces. (The “eco-friendly” designation comes from the no-watering, no-lawnmower-needed benefits.) Meanwhile, SYNLawn Synthetic Grass heavily promotes the safety factor of their artificial turf. But while an online search turns up dozens of places to buy artificial grass, I haven’t seen or felt any of the new versions in person — have you? If so, what did you think about it? Is it something you’d consider? I may have to order some samples just to satisfy my curiosity. –Mary T.
Artificial grass has come a long way. There are so many varieties now that mimic different species of turf. I actually potty trained my 2 dogs on artificial grass when I lived in a condo and it looked like real grass. Now, when you cover a large yard space with it, you can tell it’s not real, but mostly because you never get dead spots. The one thing I would caution is when you have a lot of dogs. It’s advertised as being great for dog owners, but you need to rinse the grass off periodically or you get, you know, build up and then flies lay eggs which turn into larvae and it’s gross.
you may want to check out the blog posts at syntheticturfmd.com for information that you may not have seen elsewhere, also availible through webesite.
There are a couple of homes in our neighborhood that have artificial turf… not a fan myself. From a far distance it looks real-ish, but get within 50 feet and you can tell it’s not real… we joke about vacuuming the lawn when we walk by. To me it’s the sort of thing your grandparents who have the fuzzy toilet seat covers and plastic covers on the lampshades would put in….
I’d also worry about how hot it gets in the summer (playing soccer on artificial turf, while it’s different stuff, it heats up like crazy) and the possible smell. And yeah, do you sweep it to keep it clean?? And I just think it’s weird to be eco friendly by using plastic in the yard, it just seems wrong.
One of our neighbors across the street has this on their front yard, and a heavy rain washed away one corner of the dirt underneath. Looked really stupid with the “lawn” all bunched up. It may be green in color, but it isn’t “green”. Maybe for those who want a green plastic covered yard. I’m currently using an electric lawnmower, another green choice would be to get a push mower. I live in Portland Oregon, and many people here just don’t water their lawns. During our non-rainy summers the lawns turn brown, but they green right up once the rain starts in the autumn.
Alison, sounds a lot like Seattle. Have either of you felt the grass? Really curious as to what it feels like.
I’d rather plant some drought tolerant plants and groundcover. As if it’s not enough that most of a city is paved over anyway.
A house in my neighborhood has this, accompanied by a big sign advertising “ItsNotGrass.com”. My thoughts? They should have found a different name for their company, because that stuff is fooling no one. Per their website: “Our Synthetic Turf Conforms to all Guidelines as set by the EPA for Lead Content!” Note they don’t say it’s lead-free, just that it’s within EPA guidelines.
It’s really hideous stuff. To make matters worse, this house just underwent a major renovation, so now their “grass” is covered with sawdust and footprints. Much as I hate seeing people pave over their lawns, I really think it would have been preferable to the fake grass.
I took my shoe off on the side of the road and realized that the grass I had been standing on wasn’t real. I was actually really impressed. It felt soft and the look of it totally fooled me. Now this was on a very flat peace of front yard and it was cut perfectly to fit the space otherwise outlined by concrete. And this is in LA so we never get much rain or rough weather that would make this “grass” look out of place. I have a few flat spots in my new mountain home in Big Bear and I am concidering going back to that house and asking them what company they got theirs from.
I bought a house with a lovely small backyard consisting of mostly of lush border plantings of trees, shrubs, perinnials and then a small area of grass in the middle. Then, we had the drought of last summer combined with a WILD & CRAZY mastiff puppy combined with pooling of water at the far corner of the yard. Ended up with a mud pit and no grass. I was seriously considering and even got samples, but I could not justify the expense. We ended up with “Mulch Mountain”., a huge pile of cedar mulch where the mud pit was — which someday may get spread around the yard.
Somehow, I left out the name and link to the K 9 Grass that I was considering, http://www.k9grass.com/
replying to Mary T’s question – Yes, I have felt it, and it doesn’t feel like grass. It feels like springy stiff plastic. In the summer it is quite hot to the touch, so you wouldn’t want to say, sit on it. And most lawns have some “irregularity” of content, even if they don’t have actual weeds. This looks more like a clone of the idea of a lawn…
Hi all- love to see the dialogue-
First- SYNlan is the largest manufacturer in the country of synthetic landscape grass and putting green surfaces. The only company that manufacture’s, distributes, installas and warrantees synthteitc landscape grass.
If you have seen grass that looks fake up close, it is not SYNlawn- and if you think it feels like springy plastic, it is not SYNlawn, and if you want to know more, please, talk to some of the many tens of thousands of people around the nation that have installed SYNLawn in their homes.
SYNLawn is featured in some of the most impressive installationsof synthetic grass around the country- like the over five acres at the WYNN Hotel in las Vegas for example installed over 3 years ago. That’s the largest installationof synthetic landscape grass in teh world.
It is not filled with ground up crumbs of rubber from tires, so it does not get nearly as hot, the backing is made with renewable resources and recycled content- something we invented, and it is also green in color, further reducing the heat issue.
It is perfect for pets- and there are many varieties to choose from- they range from products made for high traffic areas, to dog and pet products, to playground to golf, to just plane gorgeous grass.
Mowers are not the only pollution associated with grass- there is grass clippings- huge amounts of green waste from those! Also, there is the chemical pollution from maintenance materials.
You will walk by SYNLawn and not notice it- it comes in versions that have brown fibers at the bottom to simulate dormant grass, and in multi colored versions we invented that create extremely natural looks for areas where grass has color variation.
SYNLawn is sold in many states in Lowe’s home imprivement sotresand it is sold directly through SYNLawn facilities which are nationwide.
There are SYNlawn showrooms and warehouses serviceing the entire Wes Coast- we have two 20,000 foot facilities in Southern California, showrooms in Central Californi, Northern California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, New York, Texas and All over Canada.
Call 866-SYN-Lawn- you simply won’t believe what it looks like and how it feels- nothing like any other products out there.
Wow thanks for the sales pitch, Hair Club for Lawns! A couple of points– grass clippings are actually great mulch for your lwn, as well as good for your compost bin. And you don’t need to use chemicals to keep a grass lawn!
I’m with DJ on this one– look into alternatives for grass such as native plants, and maybe just reduce your amount of lawn-to-plant ratio… there are lots of other green alternatives that don’t include–and I know I’m going to sound like my Hippie mother here– smothering the earth with plastic. Sunset Mag did a great spread on dog-friendly yards that featured alternatives to grass, both the real and fake kinds.
A friend rented a room in a condo over in Greenlake (Seattle, WA) with synthetic grass and it was ridiculous. I agree that from a distance it looked fine (and there were real plants in the gardens so that eased the involuntary wincing) but up close it was laughable. The lawn was about 10 feet square at most so I guess I can understand it from an upkeep perspective… but me? Would I ever do it? Never, my friend.
Wow, what a ridiculously long sales pitch for a comment! Have you ever seen the installation at the Wynn? Its laughable, and I asked some of the employees there about it and they are all embarassed by it. They had also heard that the Wynn was looking into replacing it. If all synthetic grass looks as crappy as that I say no thanks!
I apologize- I’m not a blogger.
I was providing information. It was intended to give you some feedback on artificial grass. Sorry if it violates some kind of social convention.
I agree with Dorian about grass clippings- if only everyone mulched- but they don’t. And major commercial installations certainly don’t. Green waste is a huge environmental problem. That’s just a fact.
I also agree with you that it is wise and deesireable to incorporate drought tolerant plantings in your landscape. But please understand that for 40 years this has been advocated in California for example, and the results have been very smal indeed.
Artificial grass encourages people to take the baby steps necessary to change thier view of lanscaping and to accept their responsibility in contributing to reducing water usage and improving the environment.
We do not encoruage every customer to swap out their lawn foot for foot wth artificial. Ours consultants encourage all kinds of alternative landscapes. Succulents, Xeriscape, California natie, etc. Where simple advocacy has failed, artificial grass has worked. ou need to start somewhere, and knocking off 60 to 70% of residential water use plus all the other ancillary benefits is not a bad place!
Please don’t think we are blanketing the world in plastic- it’s so small- so very small in the scheme of things.
I wish I could post pictures here to show you what we are talking about.
As to Shannon’s comments- sounds like someone in the undustry that is saying negative things about our work. That;s not something to discuss here, but suffice to say that the WYNN Hotel was completed 3 and a half years ago and there has been a great amount of additional grass added since then and you can contact them and see that they are very happy with us. For example, we installed 18,000 sq. ft. of grass there this summer alone. It generates huge amounts of business and it is only one of 20 major properties we have done in Las Vegas alone.
Those sort of canned comments have been made by our competition for years about that project.
That’s all I will say on that issue. And forgive m again for intrudig on your blog, but I would hope you would think of me as a guest speaker- it’s not very sueful to discuss topics in a vacuum without expert input on the specific subject is it? Anyway, thanks again and apologies for the intrusion and I hope that I was more informative than infomercail.
Hi there! We do moderate comments, so if I felt there was something offensive in what you’ve written, it would not have shown up here. So no worries. As I said in “Five Things” earlier today, we appreciate very much that business owners or reps would even bother to read what’s being said and respond. The essence of blogging is open communication and space for civilized debate. We appreciate all information and comments on the subject. And next time I’m in Vegas (gosh, let’s hope that’s soon — I love Vegas!) I’ll stop by the Wynn to touch the grass. I mean that sincerely!
We have done a lot of research into all types of landscaping for our newly built home and we are going with SYNlawn.
We have a large pie lot and two very large powerful working dogs.
We live in a very dry climate, Calgary Alberta, Canada, and our growing season is short.
For us to keep that large amount of natural grass green and healthy, we’d use copious amounts of water, and being on a slight inclined grade, much of it is going to be wasted run off.
Water is a valuable resource, I think it’s a waste to pour gallons of it away for a green yard for only a few months out of the year.
I also don’t like using pesticides and fertilizers where my dogs are walking, I’m no friend of Monsanto.
Also, the damage from urine on a live sod is something I’m not prepared to be constantly fixing.
As for Xeriscaping, yards of gravel beds, mulch gardens, and all the other water reducing alternatives for this type of climiate, I find none of them attractive in any way aesthetically. Most I have seen in person are poorly executed.
I’d rather not have grass that looks like a wheatfield 7-8 months out of the year, or that looks like a gravel truck dumped it’s load on my garden, or mulch that looks like a dried up mess and gets blown all over the place on a windy day.
Some people love spending time, money, and resources in their gardens each year, many look spectacular for the few short months of Summer we have.
That’s great if you have the inclination, skill, and passion to do so.
My late Mother was a genius in the garden, she was a brilliant horticulturist. I’m sure she’d turn in her grave that we are putting “fake” grass in our yard!
We have live sod in the front because we are in a cul-de-sac and all our front gardens are joined in some fashion or another.
I don’t want Job Blow neighbour mowing the synthetic grass by accident and it’s easily maintained due to it’s smaller size.
I’m not trying to trick anyone or have people think it’s real grass, it’ll be in our back yard for our own enjoyment because it suits our needs.
Everyone has their own ideas of what looks nice, all valid, it’s just personal.
Hi Everyone,
Great Blog! Keep up the great conversation about the Artificial Grass industry. People need to know that the industry has been changing by the day and product are getting more realistic by the minute. I suggest keeping your eyes out for AGLgrass is the very near future or go to http://www.aglgrass.com to see whats happening. It’s time to revolutionize the industry once again.
I look forward to hearing from you all.
To add on to the conversation, like AGL said, the industry is changing day by day by leaps and bounds. Pretty soon we will have natural feeling grass with no rubber or silica manufactured into the actual grass and base.
The synthetic lawns are also suitable to be laid around swimming pools as they are not slippery and they provide good grip. Very recently artificial grass comes in other colors like blue, red, white, yellow and black; these colorful fake lawns can be use for decorative exhibition; where you are organizing a party any other social event these color artificial turf is very useful and make the surrounding attractive.
I am a director of an artificial grass wholesale company in the UK, which provides artificial grass through a network of landscapers and garden centres, so I know a bit about this.
Artificial grass is now a lot better than it used to be (it used to be made of nylon which could be quite unpleasant to fall on during games) and it can be hard for people to tell the difference. Our postman actually thought the artificial grass near our office was natural. While it may not be for everybody, it is an ideal solution who have particular problems that make real grass unsuitable. For example, dogs or children playing could be turning the existing lawn into a muddy mess. Some people may be considering replacing the lawn with paving or some other surface for this reason, and artificial grass can be a viable alternative.
If installing round a swimming pool I would generally suggest leaving a 1m gap between the pool and the grass – as chlorine can be very strong – and it will be fine. Some people get an installer to install it, but if installing it yourself, the key to a successful installation is proper ground preparation, making sure the edges are hidden, pulling the grass tight enough (ripples would make it look unrealistic), and making sure you have the correct information about how to do any joins that are needed.
Interesting comments on the artificial grass.
In my neighborhood Ancaster Ontario, AGLgrass has replaced quite a few lawns with the artificial grass and let me tell you, it looks amazing and so real, plus it feels like real grass!!! It blends in so well with the real grass that you can’t tell the difference. The best part of AGLgrass is that it always looks great no matter the time of year. And funny enough, you never see the homeowners out fussing with the lawnmower, or on their hands and knees digging out those annoying dandelions and weeds like I do!! I am happy to say that I have just put my deposit down to be one of the first in the spring to have my AGLgrass installed. “I can not wait!” So while you are out fighting with your grass to get it perfect, I will be in my backyard enjoying the sun and sipping on a nice cold cocktail. Maybe you should think about calling them too!
Ever since artificial grass’ debut, it has improved significantly over time. The advancements in technology, have made artificial grass a more eco-friendly solution. Artificial grass has been proven to be a “green” alternative for many folks who decided to switch. Besides the low maintenance and cost savings mentioned in the article above, the natural and feel is almost as close as natural grass itself. What many people fail to realize is that artificial grass does a lot more than you think, no more weeds, pollution, fertilizers, and pesticides. This is why we see a growing trend within the residential community for home owners. It has so many advantages especially in warm climates. It may not be for everyone, but it should be considered as a environmentally safe solution for all.
I was able to read an article that there has been new development of artificial grass. A hybrid class filled with turf and organic grass. The artificial grass is installed first and instead of rubber filling or sand it uses soil. Grass seed is then planted, nurtured and grown to a height just right above the synthetic grass. This will result to a combination of organic and artificial grass.
I’ll add in with the others that artificial grass isn’t what it used to be. It used to basically be a spiny green carpet, whereas they’ve gotten really good at blending the appearance so that it looks/feels right.