Artificial Lawn
 

My front lawn is small; perhaps only 500 square feet. In Portland there is usually a 2-3 month period where grass dries out and turns brown. My neighbors, however, water their lawns and have nice looking green grass all year.

I can't be bothered to pull out a hose and water my lawn, as small as it may be. So, I got to thinking that I would install an automatic sprinkler system with as few as 3 heads. This would require installing a water line under my cement walkway, and wiring in power to the control module. The reward for all this work; a green lawn that now requires mowing during the dry months.

On top of all this, I have to weed, fertilize, kill moss, dethatch, aerate, and overseed. I'm no slouch when it comes to hard work, but this seems excessive just to have an attractive lawn.

That's when it hit me; Astroturf! I'm thinking of ripping up my front lawn and replacing with synthetic. The front lawn is south-facing, and only decorative as it's not large enough (or flat enough) for activities.

Does anyone have experience and can recommend this? It will be another matter to convince the fiance too. She wants real grass and says she would be happy to mow it. I like mowing and will keep the grass in my larger backyard, which tends to stay green unlike the front yard.

Any recommended brands or materials?

Astroturf still needs maintenance regularly. Consider grass that doesn't grow too tall instead. I know centipede grass is used in a lot of places. Mulch or gravel is also an alternative.

I too hate bothering with the idea of a yard.

How regular of maintenance are we talking? I was thinking I'd only have to use the leaf blower on it three times a year and that was it.

A lot more than you would think. Almost as much more as real grass.

I agree, lawns are a PITA. At one point I almost considered installing green gravel.

Consider installing Zoysia grass. It tolerates drought well and is insect resistant. It's installed as plugs and is probably not cheap, though.

It's not the watering or the reseeding that's time consuming but constant vigilance in applying pesticide and weed killer when needed. Many times when a lawn becomes brown it's not due to lack of water, but also from insect damage, particularly from sod webworms, aka lawn moths. Removing thatch is also a real chore.

I've found that the best way to have a beautiful lawn is to buy all the necessary materials and don't skimp on application. Also timing of application is everything, and that's usually weather related. It's expensive to maintain a lawn and it takes years to rehabilitate it and eliminate existing deficiencies.

Sometimes I think that for all the time and money I've spent on it I might as well throw dollar bills all over it. That's what makes it green... ;)

I so friggin' hate the idea of dealing with a lawn. I don't have one at the moment (apartment life), but don't want one when I do get a house, because of the time/money spent on trying to fight nature.

No, you aren't fighting nature, you are cultivating nature. It takes time, effort, knowledge, experience and money to grow what is a natural, perennial crop. Farming is a crapshoot. Lawns have all the pitfalls and frustrations that come with growing any other crop.

It may take more money than expected, however... ;)

What is wrong with the idea of a victory garden instead of a grass lawn?

Nothing, if you live in a rural area.

However, if you live in suburbia, once you harvest your edible crop you will be left with a vacant brown patch where your neighbors have lawns. That's why gardens are usually in back yards and front yards have a lawn, for keeping up appearances in the neighborhood...

My location isn't suitable for a garden for reasons pointed out by xyz. Besides, a garden is even more cost and effort, and my whole reason for wanting artificial turf was to reduce effort. It's easier and cheaper to buy produce in the store anyhow. I'll save gardening for retirement unless I follow through on my sailboating the world idea.

From what I've read, artificial lawns require significantly less maintenance. Only occasional sweeping or blowing, and raking is needed.

I might be able to DIY for about $1500, which is sounding better and better to me. The fiance still isn't thrilled by my latest scheme though.

Seed with white clover. Sell your mower.

The artificial turf I 've looked at is quite spendy. Plus over over time I'm not convinced it wont fade from UV sun exposure and/or exposure to other outside natural elements.

Have you considered covering your area with landscape rock? No watering obviously. Once you tear out the old grass/weeds, grade it out, line it with a few layers of landscape plastic (get it at Wal-Mart cheap) so weeds don't eventually grow through, put rock a layer of 3 inches of rock on top and your done. You could do wood chips also but if your on a slope they could get washed away with a good rain.

Over the years my quest for the "perfect lawn" is starting to wear thin on me now. As said here already, its not cheap to have a nice healthy weed free lawn, even a small one. I'm becoming of the mindset now that I'd rather plant something like wild prairie grass and "just let it be" but that won't fly in my suburban neighborhood;)

Not even my dog craps on artificial lawn :D


Finding some decent artificial lawn is not an easy task, neither cheap. I'd rather plant some natural grass with sprinklers and trim it once in a while.

I was thinking in terms of reducing his cost of maintenance and upkeep of a traditional grass lawn. I have a roughly 9,000 sq ft lawn and between organic based fertilizer, weed killer, and water, I spend at least $500-$600 per year. As much as I love a good looking lawn, I'm getting sick of that yearly expense. With landscape rock its pretty much a one time expenditure, pull a few rogue weeds once in a while, but pretty much its set it and forget it.

You will also notice a tremendous increase in spider habitation, and if you're anywhere that scorpions/rattlesnakes can live, you'll find a lot of them too.

EDIT: Minnesota. Never mind!

I received my samples of Pegra (Costco) artificial lawn today. It looks real convincing when looking at it from just a few feet away... still, very spendy and a lot of initial work.

I haven't given up on the idea, but it might be a couple years for me to find a good deal on the turf.

Heck, my dream is to concrete the yard.

Don't get me wrong, I like the look and feel of a nicely kept lawn and shrubs, but in a smallish suburban plot, I just don't see the point when I'm not outside in the yard anyhow.

Just the other day I realized the only time I'm in my yard is when I'm mowing. I don't even mind mowing either, I just don't have time to do it regularly enough to keep up with the Joneses.

Portland area, so nevermind to me too. Rock wouldn't keep up the image well enough in my neighborhood, where people either keep on on yard work, or hire a professional. There are some perfect lawns within a block of my house too.

I would like the look of a well kept lawn with minimal time and money spent.

Nothing prevents you from concreting the yard (assuming you won't forget to get some drains for the rainwater) and then placing the artificial lawn over it for the looks.

If you walk on artificial lawn it will get crushed and look aweful after a while, definitely avoid the stuff for high traffic areas.

The only time my front lawn gets walked on is when I go to mow it.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...Sale/house.jpg

Original post:

You have a big, beautiful house and a spacious, beautiful front lawn.

What's the problem?

Are we being played here?

I wish it still looked that nice! The picture might be 5 years old or more; from before I owned the house. Also, it looks larger from the angle the photo was taken. I estimate it's 500 ft^2.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y26.../HouseYard.jpg

I've used Scotts WeednFeed twice a year, every year, and I get more and more weeds and clover. Moss also invades the lawn, so I attack with moss killer. This leaves brown patches in the lawn for a while, until new moss can take its place. Since this is south-facing, it's just about completely brown this time of year.

The only way I'll be convinced that real grass is better is to see evidence of how it can look decent while costing less over 20 years to maintain.\

It's probably a moot point though. The fiance doesn't like the idea of artificial turf, but she did say it looked very convincing. I've probably got 10 days to get it put in, or loose my chance forever.

Having a lawn is an expensive PITA. But maintaining it is cheaper than the alternatives.

Forget the granular weed killer and fertilizer combo. Buy weed killer in concentrated liquid form and use it according to directions in a sprayer. Don't use high nitrogen fertilizer. Use an organic, low nitro fertilizer like Milorganite instead. Spread peat moss and/or starter fertilizer all over the lawn to improve the soil.

I'll bet that is in the area where the big fence is. Moss grows where there is no sunlight. Brown patches are usually related to insect damage if it is hot and dry, or fungal growth if the area is cool and wet.

It took me decades to finally realize that a lawn is a crop that needs to be "built up", slowly and it literally takes many years to do. I've described it as having to take care of "an unwanted child". :(

Learning to care for a lawn requires knowledge, and it is time consuming and is initially costly in $$$ spent in rehabilitation. I hate doing it. But it is still cheaper in the long run than the alternatives.

Do what we do: embrace the chaos. Have weeds? Just mow them. Have clover? Congratulations, clover is a nitrogen fixer that is improving the quality of your soil even as it grows. The whole "perfect yard" thing is complete BS. We and all our neighbors mow and don't bag (why remove the clippings when nature will break them down into fertilizer?), nobody fertilizes, and nobody uses weed killer. Nobody waters either... watering is unnecessary if the grass mixture in your yard is suitable for your climate. If it's not the correct stuff, you ARE fighting nature.

I would contact your state extension agency (for those that don't know, Extension exists to disseminate agricultural research data gathered by public universities) and ask what they advise for a low maintenance well-adapted lawn. If they're worth the tax dollars they're paid, they should have a solution already, and even some scholarly papers they can point towards. Even if the information wasn't generated by your state agency, as long as it's from a state of similar climate it won't matter.

Before I started to live in apartments, all the houses I lived got lawn in both yards. Me and my dad usually just mowed everything, but we had to remove the clippings or my mom would be complaining (that's all she does anyways). I don't remember to have ever watered lawn, neither when I lived in Manaus (in the Amazon jungle) or in Florianópolis (in the shore), both cities with a humid climate.

I would just not be so sure about contacting the state extension agency, unless there are some folks who crop grass commercially back there.

Well I can't promise anything about your particular extension agency or your local Ag school, but turf research is done at Virginia Tech precisely because of the environmental impact that the pursuit of perfect lawns has on water quality, among other consequences. They do experiments with new grass varieties and test low maintenance or alternative strategies for managing invasive plant growth and lawn health, and then the results are (eventually) added to the literature available through the extension agency of the state. Not all agencies are created equal though. If you do a Google search, you'll usually find documents created by several of the more prolific and organized states on topics related to land care agriculture rather than a document from every agency. Not all states take the "dissemination" part of the typical land grand university charter seriously, but technically those grants were given on the premise that the people would directly benefit from the scholarly agricultural research performed there. I've found extension to offer helpful data on occasion, but your local mileage my vary.

Here is the current state of my lawn.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...m/KIMG0087.jpg

When I do get time to mow, I just use the side discharge of the mower. Mulching sounds like a better option, but my mower is crappy and doesn't have that feature. I don't see why people would take the time to bag and then pay to dispose of the clippings.

It's so small that I don't feel that having grass or anything else is worth the trouble.

I have found the local extension to be very helpful. My parents received a grant that paid for all of the materials needed to plant 400 various trees on the property, and install a quarter mile fence to keep livestock away from a creek. They even have some tools available that may be borrowed whenever a person wants. I've used their Weed Wrench several times to yank Scotch Broom out.

Back here, the pursuit for a "perfect" lawn is more usual in soccer stadiums, altough some random weeds can be found there too :D

So pave it over. It will require no maintenance until the concrete cracks.

Besides, having more pavement available provides additional parking area... ;)

When I left Germany, I had a Stateside girlfriend that liked to tell me how things would be when we were married, and I think the first part is a large contributer to why the second part never happened.

She told me that we would not have grass and I asked "You want our kids to run around and play on gravel?"

Yes.

As I mentioned in http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post339539, we also had this conversation:

She said that she would.

Now, she did not want grass because she had allergies, although she could have just said "We cannot have grass because I am allergic" instead of creating law. I looked into artificial lawns, was surprised how expensive they were, and read that they only lasted 8-10 years, but hey, that is way longer than that relationship lasted!

Or any of my relationships...

I did it for free...
 

Odds are it's not too late in the summer to do what I did, and pick up free high -quality astroturf from a high school football field renovation. Fields all over the northwest are changing over to the longer-staple turf with swept-in rubber granules. My side yard (with two trailers and two project cars) has been carpeted this way for three years now, and I love it! For your front lawn, you might not want hash marks and 10 yard lines, but a good referral to an installer could locate a surplus roll of virgin turf on the cheap.

I also managed to get a piece of the new turf large enough to park my car on top of at shows- really sets off the display!

I had been eyeballing some turf from the Tacoma area on Craigslist. Don't remember how much it was going for, but used might not be a bad way to go. Plus, if I don't like it, then I'll have wasted less money when I go to rip it out.

Yes, Astroturf is better. Install Village green turf .It is suitable for all climatic conditions. Before laying Village green turf, add a 25mm of compost into the first 50 mm of the soil. This will improve the water holding capacity. Just add enough fertilizer to keep it green and active during the cooler months. It needs to be mowed every 7 to 10 days at about 20-25 mm in the warmer months. If it becomes too spongy, cut the lawn right back. It may look brown but will grow back.

Hi redpoint5,

We all of us know that – If you would like to keep your lawn always green and healthy then you must have to maintain it well by watering it regularly, controlling weeds, using an appropriate fertilizer if required and one of the most important ideas is – you must have to choose an appropriate lawn turf which is ready to keep your lawn green, healthy, weed controlling, dense and green in any season.

Here, I would like to refer to choose “Village Green Turf” – I just find out a useful and inspiring source about –

How to grow the perfect lawn? (http[:]//www[.]greenhomeandgarden[.]com[].au/the-secrets-of-growing-the-perfect-lawn/)

It’s a secret – Let's see, It might be helpful to you.

Why not just have a native plant landscape?

I do! Currently have a nice variety of clover, moss and dandelions.

A couple of folks down the street have artificial grass for their front lawn. Easy to tell it's fake when it's sunny. A little harder to tell when it's cloudy and there's debris (e.g. leaves, branches) on it. (It's usually cloudy in OR, right? :) ) At first I thought "Eww, that's tacky." Always had considered it a step closer to having pink plastic flamingos in the yard. But the more I think about it, the more I like it. I'm having a hard time coming up with how it could be "almost as much maintenance as real grass" as brucey claims... seems to me that it'd basically be "set & forget" (just an occasional stint with the blower) especially if it's not gonna be walked on hardly at all.

A bit more detail about how to care for artificial grass here: Artificial Grass Maintenance and Grooming Tips for Dogs, Lawns and General Upkeep

When I think of how much effort & money goes into maintaining a real lawn, I can't help but say "that's it?" when I read the "how to care for fake grass" descriptions. Definitely NOT "almost as much work as real grass".

You just haven't met the right woman yet. "Seek and ye shall find..." (maybe). :)

Be aware that women think differently than men - they just DO. And they tend to change their minds, a LOT. ;)

[http://www.supportinsport.com/questions.html]

The reason that I did not want artificial turf was not the maintenance, but that I would need to replace it every eight or ten years. I wonder how the two compare over time, water and maintenance versus replacement every nine years.

Oh, hey, I just saw your comment about women. I have put up with too much in the past and it did not work out. I fear that now, I am not willing to put up with enough, but I can totally imagine meeting a woman that seems perfect in every way, then she tells me to jump in her big SUV, drives somewhere at 80 MPH, and I call her the devil! :)