Lawn replacement, artificial turf option

Dig here

Contra Costa Times/Susan Hathaway, Correspondent, 7/31/14.  "Removing a lawn?  Check out synthetic turf."

Green all year round

....  "Though scoffing might still be a frequent response today when the topic comes up, the artificial turf industry has quietly reinvented itself and has been winning converts among residential and commercial customers fed up with planting, watering, mowing, edging, feeding

, weeding, aerating, patching and all the other tasks of nurturing a real lawn.

....   More aesthetically pleasing to many than a dry xeriscape of colored rocks, today's startlingly realistic artificial grass has come a long way in both quality and practicality. Many U.S.-made products are nonflammable, lead-free and nontoxic, making them fine for kids and pets. And they can be recycled.

Where am I ? (RLF)

....  While mock grass doesn't require a lot of attention, it's actually low-maintenance, rather than no-maintenance. According to Gabriel Hernandez of the Bay Area installer Better Than Real Artificial Grass, the homeowner with faux turf will need to "remove yard debris (and), depending on foot traffic, brush the blades up. That's pretty much it," he says. "If they have a dog, we advise they rinse off the lawn once a week."  Read article.

Related - Sunset magazine/Maile Meloy (not dated), "Should you fake the lawn?"   Redbeacon Company, "Pros and cons of synthetic grass." O'Dell Engineering/Land Connections for Public Agencies, 11/2010, "Artificial Turf, a pros and cons review." Synthetic Turf Council, "Frequently asked questions."

Note photographs: house from Easy Turf; dog from Artificial lawn information, UK;  frog from ProGreen synthetic grass.

Posted by Kathy Meeh