For the love of Grass
Us Aussie’s certainly love our grass. Everyone loves the feel of grass beneath their feet in the summer. A connection between us and nature. The sweet smell of cut grass on the weekend. The satisfaction of having the greenest lawn in the street. But what if your grass just doesn’t grow? What if your patch of grass is more like a patch of dirt? What if you’re allergic to grass? What if you are so sick of mowing the dam grass every week in summer, losing precious hours of your weekend, constantly watering, pulling out weeds and spraying against insect attack? For some people, the thought of all that work just isn’t worth it. Enter Artificial Grass.
Artificial grass
Artificial grass, not Astro turf, not the stuff tennis courts are made of, but artificial grass. A solution many people are very interested in exploring but just can’t commit to installing. There is something about artificial grass that just isn’t the same. It seems to go against the grain of us grass loving Australians. But, once installed, your opinion on that could very well change.
Artificial grass today is unlike what I know you’re thinking. Artificial grass today looks very close to real grass with some pretty good benefits. Apart from looking great, below are some of the advantages of considering installing artificial grass:
- Reduced maintenance costs
- Reduced maintenance time
- Perfect green grass all year round
- Water savings
- No pesticides
- No insecticides
- No fertilising
- Ability to capture water to recycle
- Great for shaded areas, roof tops and/or balconies
- Hard wearing
With all things, the positives also come with the negatives:
- Heat (This stuff can get hot!)
- Not good for biodiversity
- Chemicals involved in the manufacturing
- Disposal of old artificial grass into landfill
- Cost of installation
Depending on the application, I see some great uses for artificial grass. There are some massive time and labour savings once installed. For rental properties where garden maintenance is not a high priority for the tenants. For small gardens where the grass is constantly fighting for survival thanks to the onslaught of kids feet everyday. For hard surfaces you want to green up. For areas of deep shade where grass just will not grow. Even for the elderly where regular mowing is not an option. The options are endless.
For me, no matter how good artificial grass gets there is nothing like the real thing. But, from a design perspective, there are definitely applications where this product is suited.
Written by Nick Maso
