Plastic Grass

Chavtastic, undoubtedly. But I’m not a gardener. What does it look like down and does it wear well?

Any experiences with it?

Reem, innit!

Don’t try and smoke it.

Send me your email and I’ll send you a photo. I’ve grown mine about 2 months ago 🙂

theres a house near me but right on the sea front so it get a lot harsh conditions it had plastic grass for a few years now still looks as good now as it did when i first saw it and realised it was artificial, made me think about changing mine.

matt_outandabout – Member
Don’t try and smoke it.

POSTED 49 MINUTES AGO #

[Rodders]I’ve never smoked AstroTurf[/Rodders]

Mugboo – Member
Send me your email and I’ll send you a photo. I’ve grown mine about 2 months ago

POSTED 47 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Email in profile if you genuinely do have pics. I’d appreciate it!

How does it handle dog eggs? Genuine question.

What ever have we become……. 🙁

Dancake – Member

How does it handle dog eggs? Genuine question.

It’s that cats that concern me, but I had thought of that.

What ever have we become…….

…..I’m not sure, please enlighten me…….. 🙁

never used it but I cycled through a park last week where they were putting up a marquee for some posh event. They had rolls of what looked like turf they were about to put down but when I looked closer it was artificial but it looked scarily realistic from not too far away.

I saw some samples in my local garden center the other day – looked just like grass – was quite uncanny….

My front garden is just earth, weeds and bits of brick and sand from getting all of the building work we had done. I’m keen to get it sorted this summer, and I’m quite taken by the minimal maintenance approach.

Photo’s sent.

Its not cheap but it looks and feels good. Looks better now than it did when it first went down. Strangely enough it looked too perfect 🙂

When you say not cheap. Have your rough M2 price for prep, mats and labour?

That looks very good by the way.

Main cost was the carpet. £28 m2 but the difference between that and the cheaper stuff is obvious.

Other than that, its just a few metres of tanalised barge board, some 50mm x 50mm posts and a 100mm of hardcore from the builders merchants. And an old lawn roller for the hardcore.

I used this company for timber and grass as its local to me.

http://www.estatesawmills.com/

Plastic grass? Jesus f*cking christ I thought the idea of a garden was to make you feel more at one with nature…..not pollute it even more.

Sad sad people

Does it let water flow through?

Apart from the fact it’s made of plastic, it wont convert any CO2 etc why??

it’s made of plastic

There’s the issue. It’s probably not as good for insect life either.

Then there’s the issue that you have to be unbelievably lazy not to want have to mow the lawn.

The rental house I have in Oz has plastic grass and to be honest I can see the benefits. I wouldn’t have really considered it in the UK but there are lots pro’s: firstly no need to cut it, ever. Therefore no more lawn mower and the associated costs and think of the riding time you will gain. Secondly you can use it year round. Just think of the UK summers where the BBQ is going well but due to an early rain shower the grass is soaking and it gets destroyed when people walk/play on it, (let alone all the mud in your house) so you don’t use it. Furthermore, those who are allergic to grass pollen will be happy too. Here’s a few pictures of the lawn at our place. It’s also fairly common here due to the harsh conditions. It drains well too so can be used after the rain. As for the lack of bugs, well I’m happy with that here!
View from the Kitchen:

Closer look,

Drains well

And why would I want to cut the grass when I have this lot out the front of our place, which is all natural.

I think a lot of places in the UK could benefit from plastic grass, eg north facing and predominately damp gardens and areas.

Plastic grass? Jesus f*cking christ I thought the idea of a garden was to make you feel more at one with nature…..not pollute it even more.
Sad sad people

Nope, that’s not the reason I have a garden. The grass is going, whether it be paved, gravelled or whatever. I take it you only have grass other than the bricks and mortar of your house?

There’s the issue. It’s probably not as good for insect life either.
Then there’s the issue that you have to be unbelievably lazy not to want have to mow the lawn.

Or maybe due to work commitments, I don’t have time to do it during sociable hours. Maybe an illness has left if very difficult for me to do. But you’d know that already wouldn’t you?

My friends have plastic grass in their first floor garden at the rear of their maisonette in central London as an alternative to just having decking or a patio. To be honest it does look very very good but I can always detect an overwhelming smell of cat piss from it to the extent that last time we visited I kept my kids off it.

Looks like a Prison. Completely and utterly devoid of any soul or character whatsoever. No offence, but that zero-maintenance look is everything thats wrong with many a modern approach to ‘outside-spaces’, and that is just what they are now, basically another room that once ‘done-up’, folk want to be able to just leave. Bad for biodiversity and wildlife, bad for localised flooding and bad for the soul…. IMHO of course 😕

Bregante

It’s things like that that worry me, that and it might just look cheap and tacky

As for insect life, my 3mx3m won’t save or destroy the planet. Hopefully my allotment will help though 🙂

And you’ll get cheap and tacky if you pay for cheap and tacky..

The difference in how the cheap stuff looks is huge.

As for insect life, my 3mx3m won’t save or destroy the planet

A very common view, not alone no, but sadly, you’re not alone in wanting a plastic environment. 🙁

One of my parents neighbours have it in their back garden, it doesn’t look like that real (although no idea where in the price range they paid). Their main reasons for getting it were: it allows her to take here wheelchair on it even if its been raining a lot. It also stops their dog from bringing mud in from the garden. At first the dog wouldn’t walk on it at all – but last time I was visiting it was running around on it – and it appeared no more difficult to retrieve its waste than on dry grass.

I’m not sure why people think plastic grass is an environmental horror story, compared to an artificial manicured lawn:

The downsides seemed to be: Its made from hydrocarbon. But many options will be available using recycled material. It won’t support insect life. Presumably it will, as plenty of creatures like damp dark places where they are protected from birds etc, just not the same insects as grass might, but then a well “maintained” lawn is hardly a paradise for butterfies and bees…

On the other hand, there’s a lot of energy involved in making a lawnmower, and then an ongoing “carbon” cost (whether its petrol or electric – I think you can ignore manual mowers in the likely target market). Say 1300W, for 6 minutes (a very small garden that might be ‘ideal’ for plastic grass). Ten times a year is something like 6.8 kg of CO2 every year – just to have a pretty lawn… …as a bonus once you no longer need a lawnmower in the garage/shed it is easier to get you bikes in/out or fit in another one!

Then what do you do with the grass cuttings? Compost them, because that’s ‘eco friendly’ right? except that composing releases the CO2 consumed by the grass during growth back into the environment – and depending on the scale/type of composting possibly as methane which is much worse for the environment than co2 anyway.

Now for that ‘manicured english lawn look’ you’ll need to water your grass when it is dry (no wonder much of england gets hosepipe bans), feed it using a chemical fertiliser and probably spray on some weed and moss killer too…

With “tiny modern gardens” a wild meadow probably isn’t a practical alternative, but simply covering everything in concrete or tarmac might be.

one of my mates is a landscape gardener and was saying it’s getting very popular. His pearls of wisdom were:

It’s worth spending a few quid extra for a good quality one, as they’re much more realistic with several tones of green in them.

The other thing he said was never have a join so 4meters wide max.
Any joins just stand out and look really awful.

Kayak, you are indeed entitled to your opinion however when I’ve got the BBQ on and a table and a few chairs out it should look less “prison like” anyway I like it, less faff for me and is actually a usable space un-like many gardens. “Bad for local flooding” normally I would agree in the UK as the surface doesn’t delay the rain water by soaking it up but acts as “hard surface” meaning run off enters the drains much faster. Here in Oz and especially the place where I live the grey water is collected and stored in underground tanks to be used to keep the lovely playing fields lush in the summer. The house also has a rain water collection tank fitted as standard (local regulation)and the water collect from the garage roof is used for toilet flushing, granted it’s only a 1000ltr but it’s certainly a start.

Each to their own.

I’m seriously thinking about doing it too.

I’ve got a small area of mossy lawn out the back that is always watterlogged as it gets virtually no sunlight. I’ve already torn up the entire lawn and reseeded it. It lasted a year before the moss just took hold again.

Artificial grass looks like the ideal solution for this bit of the garden. There are plenty of baskets and boxes with real plants in them so I don’t really see how not having a few square metrres of mossy muddy lawn will make a difference

I had some in an old house in London.

The back yard was about 3m x 3m. Nice planting around the perimeter but the yard was simple concrete and other than hanging up washing and bike tinkering it barely got used.

We sprung about £600 for some from asgoodasgrass.co.uk inc.a spongy safety/impact base layer.

It was the best money we spent on the house. The lad, who was about 2 at the time, loved it. it drained very well so was usable very frequently.

Not particularly pleasant to sit on, but not unplesant either. Throw a picnic mat down however and its terrific.

It looked like proper grass too. Blades were about 30mm, differing lengths, colours, a more densly knitted mossy type base. Nice and soft too.

Don’t get me wrong – would have gone for proper natural grass if it were practical, but in that house it wasn’t.

I’d recommend. Money well spent IMO. it was about £25 per sqm plus about £10 for the baselayer. dead easy to fit too.

The cats hated it though!

PM me and I’ll try to dig out some pics.

Col.

I’ve often wondered what a lawn that was only Moss be like. I can see many winning reasons it would be good – natural, soft, green & doesn’t need cutting

Mrs Feet does not agree though

I’ve often wondered what a lawn that was only Moss be like. I can see many winning reasons it would be good – natural, soft, green & doesn’t need cutting

I’m almost there. It looks okay but it always badly waterlogged – to the extant you can’t walk on it, never mind sit on it.

Mow lawn, stand back, fists on hips and admire.

Just what has become of our lives, when a few feet of inch high grass has become too much to handle?
And to me anyway strangely odd that a few MTBers are embracing it.

Off to take my roast dinner tablet 😐

Better than concrete surely? I have no problem with it; I know I’m lazy though.

oldgit – Just what has become of our lives, when a few feet of inch high grass has become too much to handle?
And to me anyway strangely odd that a few MTBers are embracing it.

(1) There are some people who physically can’t cut the grass – it might make sense for them (obviously very few of them are mountain bikers!)

(2) If you get no joy from cutting grass AND/OR your plot requires serious effort to maintain (e.g. drainage, weed and moss treatment etc). Then why bother with it.

(3) Perfect grass maintenance time is surely also very good riding weather – so i’d have thought there was no reason why MTBers were mutually exclusive from fake grass owners.

Point 1 a good one, but point two. Poly some people fought in two world wars you know.

Lazy F8ckers

I demand to know where it will all end.