Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Sep 23, 2010 1:29 am Hi All, Need some feedback on the pros & cons of artificial grass. Building a new house and thinking of installing artificial grass mainly because the time & money saved in the long run and with water costs going up seems like the option to go with. Has anyone had artificial grass installed? How long is the longevity of the grass before it starts to look worn out? What sort of maintence is required? The only bad thing I have heard is that it gets hot in the hotter weather and becomes unbearable to play, walk or run on, and also you do get weeds coming through. Love some feedback. Thanks Re: Advice on artificial grass 2Sep 23, 2010 1:18 pm Do a little search for it, as there has been quite a bit of chat about it. I was also thinking seriously about installing it, but have walked on it mid summer (here in Perth ... not sure where you are), and it was definitely 'coyote from the road runner jumping up and down' hot. Phew ... I felt we almost had blisters!!! Perhaps that was just the brand that we saw, and maybe others don't get so hot!!! ?? In the end I put in EZ grass, and have been happy with that ... although we do have to water and mow!!! Built the Driftwood with C*ollier Homes Moved in 8 November 2009 Slowly getting organised ..... Re: Advice on artificial grass 3Sep 23, 2010 4:13 pm Horrible stuff hot, nasty to walk on, doesn't look good IMO, an environmental disaster area - takes horrendous amounts of water to produce. And it's expensive. And what do you do when sand and everything blows onto it - vaccuum it? Go for the EZ grass or take a look through the forums here for quite a lot of people's beautiful gardens that don't involve grass. There are also native ground covers (grevillea gin gin gem gets mentioned a lot) that need watering almost never and you can give it a mow a couple of times a year when it starts looking scruffy. Plus you get nice red flowers Re: Advice on artificial grass 5Sep 23, 2010 10:50 pm Oh no! I have burst a blood vessel in my head! I the mean time while I recover in hospital have a look at this from Homeone member Nigel Ruck (and of course a wonderful advocate of Sir Walter) http://www.sirwalter.com.au/webisodes.h ... link&id=39 http://www.sirwalter.com.au/webisodes.h ... link&id=27 A professional through and through I have much to learn Now from a wonderful inspirational man who is a great asset to WA Horticulture and the Jacque Cousteau of WA. Nev is absolutely in touch with what is happening to our rivers and our environment. http://www.palmetto.com.au/video01.html Hang in there Trevor... http://www.palmetto.com.au/video02.html http://www.palmetto.com.au/articles/greenlife.html http://www.palmetto.com.au/turf-faq.html Re: Advice on artificial grass 6Sep 23, 2010 11:13 pm Also recently at a seminar hosted by UWA, I had the opportunity to ask one of the worlds best in Landscaping about why we are seeing so many people choose plastic grass verses and the adoption of lawn alternatives and the production of home grown food. His name is Monty Don and he came to WA to present a series of three seminars for us This question inspired much thought and debate among both the audience and the guest speakers. Essentially it boiled down to one thing. The public have little to no access as to what the alternatives are. They are confused as to what to do when we can't use lawn. We have an affiliation with US style landscaping which heavily involves lawns as features, which to the west coast and mid west Americans especially, represent the great plains of the US. We saw lawns used more along the lines we see today after the end of WWII and have stuck with them for so long since we now know no different. There are better options, there are other ways to use plants with little to no impact environmentally. Another seminar of this humble man is found here... (One can be found here but is a little off topic form this subject. http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2010/ ... 839315.htm ) I would also love to show you more, but will need the permission of another great man in WA and Australian Horticulture, George Lulfitz. He has one of the finest examples I've seen of a better alternative I'll work on it for you http://www.gregsindigenouslandscapes.co ... 0Lawns.htm Re: Advice on artificial grass 7Sep 23, 2010 11:14 pm It takes 1 1/2 bottles of water to produce one bottle of water. How much water is used to produce plastic grass? Re: Advice on artificial grass 9Sep 23, 2010 11:51 pm You want kids to remember the smell of soil and fresh cut grass. Or the heat, the feel of plastic under their feet, the smell of the plastic in the heat. Or the smell of hot plastic lingering as you get out of the car on a hot summer night. Re: Advice on artificial grass 11Sep 24, 2010 12:16 am http://www.health.state.ny.us/environme ... _sheet.htm http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/environme ... _10-07.pdf http://www.epa.gov/nerl/features/tire_crumbs.html http://awalkintheparknyc.blogspot.com/2 ... ed-by.html http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index ... urf_fields http://www.isss-sportsurfacescience.org ... SS_UV.pdf+ http://www.actglobalsports.com/blog/?paged=3 We done our landscaping a year back using Couch, over the recent months I have noticed another type of grass growing with the Couch in a 2x2m radius. I'm thinking the… 0 9237 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair Please help me to answer this question , it will help me a lot as i can go to buy confidently with your recommendation: I want to put synthetic turf in our backyard for… 0 4075 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 3256 |