Anyone got this in their back gardens? If so how easy is it to DIY?
Any tips?
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Did this in my mate's back garden a while ago.
The grass itself is dead easy, like laying a carpet but easier.
The base is everything. Flat, smooth and sandy, but also packed down.
Its worth planning carefully, because even though seams haven't appeared to be an issue, you still don't want to many of them.
You need to cut accurately not generously, since it needs to lie absolute flat not run up against something.
You will need to buy about 5,000 stanley knife blades. But it won't be enough.
Its been down three years now and has been trouble free.
You need to get samples before you buy. The difference grasses vary hugely in price and in appearance.
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Artificial grass? In your garden?? Seriously???
Next you'll be telling me the whole idea of a carefully manicured 'natural' lawn is pointless anyway.
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I know a couple of people that did it. They problems growing the grass, it was always patchy and I think they had drainage problems. As above they vary hugely in quality and cost. Some of them are surprisingly realistic.
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>>Some of them are surprisingly realistic.
What ^he said, except for the cheapo stuff of course.
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>> Anyone got this in their back gardens? If so how easy is it to DIY?
>> Any tips?
1/ don't play football on it, you get really bad carpet burns when you go down.
2/ Dog P*** will take the colour out of it, and dog shiesse sticks to it.
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My dog won't ever pee in our garden, front or back, never mind do a poo. Really weird at times when you know he hasn't been out for a while and he is in the garden but as soon as you get out on to the street he cocks his leg against the street side of my hedge!
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Why would you want plastic "grass"? What is the problem you are trying to solve?
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I know at least one couple who regularly used plastic flowers in their front garden according to which season of the year it was for such displays. Mind you, they did get ragged a lot...:-)
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Problem is round my back we built an extension that runs the full width of the garden.
So if you are in the house looking out there is about 2m length of decking, then 5m of monobloc full width. So no grass, vegetation or anything.
Missus wants some colour in but if I lift all the monobloc then the ground underneath it should be relatively flat so was thinking of just laying the artificial turf and then I get the desired effect without seeding, turfing, cutting weedkilling, strimming etc etc.
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I suppose it depends on what you want but you could make a very nice garden in that space wiht real plants. Wouldn't necessarily go for a lawn in a small garden. Hard landscaping with planting ta to soften the effect is probably the way to go. You could have a lot of fun designing it. You might even find you like gardening!
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Why lift the monoblock, a thin skin of sand on it will make a good base for plastic grass. A few tubs full of plants would provide some colour.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 6 Jul 15 at 23:10
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CGN,
I.Hate.Gardening !!
ON,
That thought had crossed my mind - if I came to do it I would probably order the grass before lifting the blocks in the off hand that they did sit on top. However the drainage through the bricks isn't that great so would maybe be best to put the grass onto the ground directly.
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>> Thought this was an AC type thread....
>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_cannabis
Far from it Lygonos. Do you think I'm mad?
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I thought you might
I hate plastic grass ;-)
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To revert to the OP, a plastic lawn isn't alive, doesn't regenerate and can only get scruffier and filthier with time.
A lawn made of grass is clearly better even when it's got yellow and worn-out bits. Strange but obviously true.
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So do I, along with artificial flowers of any description.
Get some tubs and planters and plant them up Bobby, forget the grass, real or otherwise.
Pat
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Tubs and planters need planting and maintenance and weeding and digging and attract beasties. This needs to be as zero maintenance as a big lump of concrete!
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Get some fake flowers to put in the tubs.
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>> Tubs and planters need planting and maintenance and weeding and digging and attract beasties. This
>> needs to be as zero maintenance as a big lump of concrete!
Go live in a car park.
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I did research about artificial grass sometime in the past.
The cost was too high which put me off.
I heard that companies like Green Thumb or Top Grass can spray something in your lawn every season to assist with the maintenance. A friend of mine used them and the result was impressive.
They will come to treat my lawn in 2 weeks time and will see if grass indeed becomes greener :-)
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We don't need it thank goodness. We are buried in green, and very nice too. It would be sure to be the wrong colour and clash with all the other shades of green.
I wonder what the maintenance spray does? Could it possibly dissolve some of the grot that must accumulate in an outdoor shag carpet equivalent? If it doesn't it must be useless.
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We have used both Green Thumb and now, Lawnmaster. They treat around 4 times a year with weedkiller & feed. (Small lawn so £15/£16 per visit)
The grass here was awful when we bought the house: it IS better now, but still not as I would like it.
We had a scarifying operation carried out late last year, too. (£25).
The difficulty is knowing just how good/bad the lawn would be without the treatment.
Yes - I know that we could DIY, but the storage of the necessary spreader, sprayer and treatment material would be a problem. I will be looking hard at the cost/perceived benefit at the end of this year.
Last edited by: Roger. on Thu 9 Jul 15 at 10:39
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You don't need a sprayer or a spreader for a small lawn. Just by some decent "weed and feed" and apply it by hand. I assume your lawn is fairly small so to get the distribution right mark out the lawn with some canes at 1 square meter intervals and apply by hand. If distribution is say 2 oz per square metre weigh out that amount into a container so you you can measure it my volume.
Two application per year is normally best. One in April and the other at the end of June
Most important thing you can do is to aerate the lawn. Use a garden fork and pull back to lift the turf a little as you go
And don't cut it too short! the cause of most problems.
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What a lot of faff everyone seems to be going to. We have acres of lawn and don't do anything except drive the mower round it whenever it gets too long.
Leave the cuttings and they rot in and feed the grass. Birds, rain and the sun's energy do the rest.
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That's certainly OK for a large area but a small patch of lawn gets a lot more wear and tear and easily gets compacted and needs a bit of pampering. Applying a bit of fertiliser and aerating it pays big dividends and it isn't exactly hard work .
Leaving the cutting on is fine providing you mow it reasonably often is fine but a small lawn with grass cuttings being trod into the nearby house is likely to give rise to complaint!
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Thu 9 Jul 15 at 12:16
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I have Green Thumb come round 4 times a year. However Spring time, with an eye on the weather for some rain, I double dose the front lawn with weed and feed granules and it comes up looking good and is in much visually healthier condition compared to the back lawn.
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Time to resurrect an old thread!
Finally got round to asking for some quotes for the artificial grass.
To recap I have a depth of 4m and width of 7m, most of it is monobloc but part of it is concrete base from the old garage. Missus wants colour in the garden rather than plain blocs and concrete.
Guy came round tonight to give a quote - he immediately said don't lift the block or try and do anything with the concrete. He said that he would recommend just to shutter the 4 sides of it in (one side already has decking running full length), then infill it (didn't say what with) and then lay the turf on top if it.
I am at the advantage that it is 4m wide which is the same as the size that the rolls of turf come in so no need to be doing joins or anything.
His quote was £2000. A quick google seems to suggest I can get decent turf, 7mx4m, for about £4-£500 online but there is a local retailer to me that I will go in and actually see it.
Surely must be worth giving it a try myself? Some ton bags of sand and whatever infill the local retailer suggests?
Have watched some youtube videos, much of the effort seems to be on the cutting and joining but I wont have any of that. And I see that you need to brush sand through it once laid.
Anyone any of the wiser on this since last July when I first raised the question?
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Paint the concrete green, couple of tubs with plants in, gnome or two. Sorted. Fifty quid max.
Less if you get second hand gnomes.
;-)
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Ok, bin the gnomes. Bird bath then. Brightly coloured one.
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Pics of said area posted on an image hosting site would help us to help you, mayhap.
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I'd be guided by what the local retailer suggests. Some fake turf can look quite realistic compared to others which looks like artificial grass.
I reckon it could look quite okay in area you posted pics of, and, as you say, there are plenty of pics showing how to lay it on YouTube.
Here's two hairy-assed geezers carrying out the task in very little time, and the end result looks quite pleasing:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=135xkHv-eMc
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Perhaps what you need is some whispering grass, Bobby:
www.whisperinggrass.co.uk/
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No bald patches...
Is that guaranteed?
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Looks nice though, some of it ... better than grass!
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Down the road from me they've put this stuff on their front and park their Land rover on it.
It's on a slope and over a few months it's developed damn great folds.
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Typical LR reliability issue and iffy build quality
Last edited by: legacylad on Fri 29 Apr 16 at 09:03
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Artificial grass looks artificial what I have seen of it.
Real grass can be hard work but it is real.Birds looking for worms and what not.
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I had some fake turf a few owses back and it looked as real as the real stuff [I chose it carefully]
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Block paving and decking looks real. The green bit looks like a Astroturf. :-)
But it is Astroturf. At least it won't need cutting so that's a positive.
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Artificial Grass - No FM2R
