Thinking of swapping your grass for the synthetic kind in a bid to get your lawn looking green and immaculate? Or do you think these gardens are gaudy and unnatural?
My garden can be a lot of work: planting, pruning, weeding and feeding to keep it looking decent through summer. The thing that I feel I spend most time on, and is least rewarding, is my lawn. But recently I’ve had my eyes opened to the fuss-free joys of (whisper it) artificial grass.
Artificial grass trend
When visiting a National Gardens Scheme garden I stepped out on the lawn I realised that the colour was just a little too uniform for it to be real. But it looked good. It complimented the bold planting. Considering how many hundreds of feet must have pounded across it before me, it didn’t show any signs of wear.
The owner of the garden told me that she’d struggled with the patch of grass – it was always in shade so was either muddy or mossy. She’d thought that the only solutions was to remove it completely, but didn’t want to pave her garden.
Since then I’ve seen artificial grass used at a National Trust property and it was amazingly realistic. There were brown strands woven through and an irregular length; just enough to give the illusion of real grass.
It would seem that those who have it in their garden rave about it. Although it can be a little pricey to install, I hear that it’s brilliant if you’ve got dogs, great if you get hayfever and it’s wonderful if you have kids who like to play football.
And for those with patchy lawns it can be put in next to real grass, so if you’ve got a problem area then you can just tackle that bit.
But while artificial grass offers a fuss-free alternative for your garden, I’m aware that it’s not the best for the environment. It’s plastic after all, and so doesn’t provide any natural food or habitats for wildlife that you get with grass. So if you enjoy welcoming wildlife and spotting the odd Robin hunting for worms into your garden, then artificial grass is probably not the product for you.
Turf war
But all in all I have to say I’m tempted. No more hard, brown, dry lawn in the summer or a mossy lawn covered in weeds the rest of the year. And let’s face it, no more endless hours of mowing.
So where do you stand on artificial grass? Have you been tempted by this synthetic lawn trend? Do you lust over an immaculate garden, or do you prefer to keep yours natural?
Would you install artificial grass?
No, never (40%, 709 Votes)
Maybe, it depends on the situation (33%, 591 Votes)
Yes, I would (22%, 380 Votes)
Not sure (5%, 85 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,765
