Artificial turf - anyone have it

Rambling Redhead had it installed in her backyard. She's on instagram and I know she shared about it. She has a dog as well. I'm sure she has some helpful tips.

We have it at our school and I love it. If I had a yard of my own, I would get it.

We have it and I think it looks like astro turf. Dh really likes it and the neighbors like it. A few houses on our block have it, too. I always threaten to open a mini golf course in the front yard. Oh, despite the weed cover it grows weeds. Argh.

We are moving gradually to a lawn of native plants and ground covers that don’t require watering. Our backyard is mostly clover at this point. I love it. Self-fertilizing, doesn’t need regular watering, and it’s softer to walk in than grass. Also dog urine doesn’t cause it to brown and it’s not susceptible to pests. When it flowers, it’s good for pollinators.

To me, this is preferable to putting down fake plastic grass, no matter how nice. I would not want that hot plastic that has to be watered down after the dogs go. Just personal preference.

I pulled all my grass out and planted low-growing rosemary instead.  I am extremely happy with it.    I also put lavender plants as a complementary taller boarder in sections.  The rosemary gets about 12 inches tall, spreads nicely, smells wonderful, and has a very small purple flower on it.  It doesn't really drop or make a mess and it grows so dense that no weeks can grow up through it.  There were a few weeds until it had grown in fully.  It doesn't require much water.  The only maintenance is trimming the edges that go along the walkway about one a month.  

I don't water at all in the winter and only monthly in the summer unless it has been particularly hot.  I  received a letter from the water district telling me my water usage dropped 45% after removing the grass!  That is a larger water reduction than I was anticipating.  If my new house has grass, I will be doing the same thing and replacing it with the rosemary.  Oh, this is just for looks, you don't really walk on it. I  can step into it if I need to retrieve something but it isn't for regular walking.

My front yard has three planting sections.  One on the far side of the driveway, and a larger section on the other side of the driveway that I split into two by building steps from the curb to the front walk.  I added a loose pebble walkway from the driveway to the center steps and a pebble circular section on the opposite side of the steps where I put a cast iron bench for sitting.  My neighbors have all been very complimentary about how it turned out.  Several neighbors have asked me to design something for their yards too.  I redid mine partly for the water savings but more so to release me from the constant maintenance of mowing, weeding, and edging the grass.  I hated doing that.

I wasn't sure how artificial grass would hold up in my front yard.

I am absolutely no help whatsover. We can't remember the brand. Nor can we remember the price, but I will tell you that we use a very pricey landscaper. So, I know we paid more than average. You get what you pay for. It is really nice that dh doesn't have to mow the lawn. It really makes life easy and everyone but me thinks it looks very real. I'm sorry that I can't be more specific. I'll take a look later and see if I can find the invoices. Dh is telecommuting and the files are behind his office chair.

There is a lot of it in my arid So Cal neighborhood. Some looks better than others, all have held up well, but no matter the cost, it looks fake, so it's a hard pass for me. I have dymondia for my lawn. It's a low water ground cover that can be walked on.

We would love to get it in our backyard, but I don't like that it gets hot. With our pups and TX heat, I don't think it would be a good idea for us, but if you don't have dogs, it might not be a big deal.

I don’t like that it creates a barren wasteland for pollinators and wildlife. And it always looks like plastic.

Seriously curious, how do you keep clover from not invading your neighboring yard?

Idk, I kind of think my yard is my business and their yard is up to them? All yards in our neighborhood have a 6 foot privacy fence. For all I know, they’ve got clover back there too. I’ve never peeked over the fence. Maybe they should keep the runners from their St. Augustine grass from invading my nice, soft clover yard. Ha!

We don’t intend to put clover in the front. It will be beds with native trees, shrubs and grasses. There are several homes in the area with yards like this and it looks really nice.

Perhaps others will start using clover, too. I really don’t understand why it’s considered a weed. It’s so much nicer than the nasty St. Augustine grass that is “standard” here.

Our one neighbor is very nice, but VERY particular about their yard and even with the fence I am sure the clover would spread and would not want to do that to him. I don't know what kind of grass we have but we don't water the stuff no matter how hot it (except around the 4th because fireworks) gets and it still stays green. It is actually nice grass, but it is terrible for my allergies. I can't even walk through it without shoes and socks or I get rashes.

I would love a clover yard, it is lovely stuff.

My husband thinks it was about 240sq feet we had done for $3000 CAD.