Considering artificial lawn - Comments?

[GeoffD]

Am I the only one who thinks that having a plastic lawn is ridiculous? There's nothing like walking on nice turf in bare feet on a hot day. It's cool. Not 150F of sun baked plastic.

[unimogken]

My bro in laws fake grass feels like the real thing even when barefoot in the heat.
The only thing you really can't do is pull off a blade and whistle with it between your thumbs.......hehe

[embassy16]

Artificial grass is a good choice for busy people. It is very beautiful and you don't need spend much time on taking care of it.

[SAPJetta]

Wow ... who knew that fake grass would warrant so much spam

[DavidVilla08]

Interesting presentation. I don't doubt it's helpful to me.

[Sizzla]

I got rocks and bushes in my tiny backyard.

I don't want to cut anymore grass in my life.

[ATL_Av8r]

Wow ... who knew that fake grass would warrant so much spam

You're the meat in a spam sandwich now! This thread is breaking records!

[SAPJetta]

Someone sent out the spam signal.

[johniewalker]

And look for a detailed synthetic grass installation guide that gives you step by step detail with pictures and a checklist of what you will need.

[vivaturf]

Artificial Grass is better than real one.

http://www.vivaturf.com

[synthsis]

wow, spammers are back.

[RaveGreenA4]

I tired the natural grass thing about a year an a half ago...I couldnt keep it alive with the lack of sun my grass got and the dog pee so I had my area done with Synthetic grass. I kept my sprinklers in and installed a pressure regulator in so I converted my lines to dips to place some potted trees.

I first concreted in my brick pavers.


Then the guys added a crushed stone and compacted (Can see my drip line where a potted Lime tree will go)


Laid the grass down


Final product


I love that the grass have some yellow weaved into it cause it looks so much like AZ grass. My daughter loves to play in it and be outside more! So far the best benefit is that we have had A LOT LESS BUGS...seemed like crickets always were around with the grass and we have had far less now.
The pet clean up is great...dog poo dries faster which can be cleaned up with a lot less mess and there is no scent from the dog pee.

[woofster]

^ Thanks for sharing the installed photos. I think it looks good. You might as well put a hole at one end and make it a practice putting green.

On a side note, have you guys read about the new demand for painting your lawns these days, in light of the drought? Here's one article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1708636.html

Turf Painting Spreads As Drought Ravages Lawns

AP | By RICK CALLAHAN Posted: 07/27/2012 3:10 am

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — When this summer's drought turned her prized lawn brown, Terri LoPrimo fought back, but not with sprinklers: She had it painted green, making her suddenly lush-appearing yard the envy of her neighborhood.

The Staten Island, N.Y., resident and her husband, Ronnie, hired a local entrepreneur to spruce up their yard by spraying it with a deep-green organic dye. By Monday, the couple's property was aglow with newly green blades of grass and no watering needed to sustain it.

"It looks just like a spring lawn, the way it looks after a rain. It's really gorgeous," said LoPrimo, a 62-year-old retiree.

With two-thirds of the nation covered by a drought that stretches from coast to coast, residents and businesses in normally well-watered areas are catching on to the lawn-painting practice employed for years in the West and Southwest to give luster to faded turf.

LoPrimo paid $125 to green up her roughly 830-square-foot lawn. She said it was worth every penny to keep her home of 33 years graced by an attractive yard.

Neighbors and friends have complimented the LoPrimos on their lawn's appearance, and she said one envious friend asked for the number of their contractor, Joe Perazzo.

Perazzo, who teaches physical education at Brooklyn's High School of Sports Management, began painting lawns during his summer break three years ago. His Staten Island company, Grass Is Greener Lawn Painting, has touched up close to 20 lawns this summer, making it his best year to date.

"I'm booked solid for next week. If you look around, most of the lawns need some TLC," Perazzo said.

He charges 15 cents per square foot to spray on a non-toxic, environmentally friendly turf dye that he said is commonly used on golf courses and athletic fields to give them a lusher appearance.

Perazzo said the dyed lawns will hold their verdant look for a few months, in some cases up to five months.

"It's a night-and-day difference," he said. "People are amazed by how natural it looks."

Kansas City, Mo.-based Missouri Turf Paint Inc. has been selling latex turf paints for more than 40 years. Company president Jon Graves said his primary customers are golf courses looking to keep their greens attractive and athletic fields "getting ready for show time."

But he said he's seen a slight increase this year in calls from people interested in either greening up residential lawns or wanting to get into the lawn-painting business.

"We've had calls primarily from people saying 'Hey I think I'd like to do this for a business,' but we've also had them about houses in foreclosure, homes they want to look a little bit better," for potential buyers, he said.

In the frequently parched Phoenix area, Brian Howland has been painting lawns for about five years as a side business to his full-time job with a sign- and banner-making company.

Howland said he started Arizona Lawn Painting after the foreclosure crisis left scores of Phoenix-area homes empty and their lawns neglected. He charges $200 for up to 3,000 square feet, and more if there are numerous lawn features to paint around.

Some of his customers have been residents fearful that their homeowners' associations will penalize them for letting their lawns fade.

"Usually it's people who don't feel like messing with their yard or it's a rental or a foreclosure or a sale — something where before everything gets going they want it to look nice," he said.

A newer entrant into the lawn-painting business is Tim Birdwell, whose Imperial Painting normally paints Indianapolis-area homes and commercial properties. But this month, Birdwell painted his own desiccated lawn.

His first paying customer was a Meineke muffler shop on the south side of Indianapolis, which, like most of Indiana, is in the midst of an extreme drought.

Last Friday, two of Birdwell's workers sprayed the long strip of brown grass in front of the store with latex paint, creating an oasis of green in a suburban strip mall filled with faded grass.

Store manager Damon Riggles said Birdwell's price for the paint job — about $600 — was worth it because the vibrant-looking grass has attracted customers.

"It looks great," Riggles said. "It gave us some curb appeal and definitely got us some new customers' attention. And that's what we were hoping for."

[O2VW1.8T]

we've got a lot of clay. Only thing that worries me is that in the winter, all the neighbors' grass will be brown and mine will be green, lol. HOA might not like that

Thats my problem i have a really small front yard and the grass always die's get filled with crab grass. 3rd year in a row no luck. The stupid HOA doesn't like fake stuff.

[ccgrass]

Artificial Lawn Grass ought to be your bet as the ideal substitute for natural grass. Invest in a durable once so that you won't have to replace it time to time. Enjoy its long-term benefits such as low maintenance cost, destructive weather, safety for your family and your children.

[HI SPEED]

My landlord almost got divorced after laying astro turf on my house. He was sold on it being maintenance free but weeds still come though it so often that he had to hire a guy to come by every two weeks to pull them.

[SAPJetta]

No weeds have come through mine. Put down a weed blocker backing and it is on a crushed stone base, so there isn't really anywhere for the weeds to grow.

[GeoffD]

Thats my problem i have a really small front yard and the grass always die's get filled with crab grass. 3rd year in a row no luck. The stupid HOA doesn't like fake stuff.

If you overseed in the fall, put down a weed germination preventer like Halts a couple times in late-winter/early spring, and put down broadleaf weed killer in late-spring, you can control the crabgrass.

[O2VW1.8T]

If you overseed in the fall, put down a weed germination preventer like Halts a couple times in late-winter/early spring, and put down broadleaf weed killer in late-spring, you can control the crabgrass.

I will give that a try. thank you

[GeoffD]

I will give that a try. thank you

Scotts has a "by the numbers" system in specialty stores
Pro Step 1 has Halts in it to stop seeds from germinating (late-winter/very early spring)
Pro Step 2 has the broadleaf weed killer in it (late spring)
Pro Step 3 has insect killer in it (early summer)

The big box stores have similar stuff from Scotts
"Turf Builder with Halts" is like Step 1
"Turf Builder Plus 2" is like Step 2

If you don't overseed in the fall, the crabgrass prevention won't do much. You need turf first.

[sunhi]

Artificial grass and artificial turf applications is one of the highlights of modern society in the decoration as well as deployment of sports and especially football field artificial grass due to the characteristics superior to compared with normal grass.

[lorge1989]

I could never get down with fake grass.

But I am impressed on how it looks and the comments of how it feels real oo.

[Mister MK4]

Haha.. fake grass is spammer approved. :thumb:

The rest of us hate it.

[edisonbrize]

I love that the grass have some yellow weaved into it cause it looks so much like AZ grass. What do you think about it?Thank you so much for writing this blog entry I am a big fan of yours now because of this blog entry.

[DUB_MANGv2]

what about dogs with urges to dig? sometimes my boxadors have a habit of scuffing up the yard after doing their business. also do you have to lay a perimeter of something around the fakey grassy or can you just lay a roll down? im going to go get some measurements today to see what kind of #'s im fkin with before i go get all excited. but i need grass and growing it isnt an option.

[SAPJetta]

I'm going to go ahead and take credit (and the trophy) for most spammed thread ever.