Anyone Using Artificial Grass

[Isabel964]

I'm thinking of getting artificial grass. My yard doesn't get enough sun. I got a dog trainer out yesterday and he said a lot of his clients were using artifucisl grass very successfully.

He suggested you lay bunnings $19 a meter artificial grass, and Jay it over a foot deep of sand. Said dogs love it.

It would be for a section roughly about 1.5m by 5m. The rest of the yard has garden, rocks, sand, concrete pavers.

[Dewclaws]

Personally I hate it . Can get incredibly smelly and very hot in summer . Plus if you have a dog who digs . or chews then it can get destroyed very easy .

Our backyard is similar to yours , vey much in shade so grass never grows well and turns in to a mud pit after rain .

So we are currently in the process of removing all lawn and going to replace it with fine gravel , plus have raised garden beds . It the raised garden beds we will plant native grasses and plants to keep in low up keep .

[loveyrdog]

It gets EXTREMEMLY HOT try walking on it with bare feet like your poor dog

and it becomes very smelly you can hose it but the urine and poo smells linger

Your dog deserves a dog friendly back yard as they spend most of the time in it

so I hope you can find another solution if you cant have real grass.

[Kajirin]

Usually buffalo grass is shade tolerant - some varieties are good for up to 80% shade. That's if you didn't really want to go down the artificial turf route.

[juice]

I have had mine down for over 9 years now. its the proper stuff, fitted on crusher dust etc, not the cheap stuff from bunnings.

It does get hot in summer, just like concrete does, i just put the sprinkler on it.

I slush it down with chlorine in a watering can every few days too in summer.

But i have another grassed area aswell for them to wee on.

I had re turfed 3 times before i put it down nd this is way better.

[Loving my Oldies]

If people are diligent, like Juice, it can obviously work. But how many people would do that, I wonder?

Personally, I would (and have) go down the track of pavers to make a pathway and plant native grasses.

At SASH in North Ryde (Small Animal Specialist Hospital), a place I have visited many times over the years, they have laid artificial turf. Now obviously it gets a helluva lot more use than the normal home, but OMG, the stench . Frankly, I have to steel myself and cover my nose just to walk the few metres past it. How the staff can go out there, toilet the dogs, and then walk back into the hospital without walking through disinfectant, is beyond belief really. There is a hose there, but with the amount of use the area get, any hosing is virtually useless.

[Cosmolo]

We had our backyard done a few years ago with expensive fake turf, laid professionally over a proper base etc. It is excellent and only needs a spray with diluted eucalyptus oil every now and then in Summer if there has been no rain. It is a large area, has garden beds around three sides where the dogs also toilet and I have a front yard with real grass to use sometimes as well. In saying that I do have 4 dogs so plenty of use on the fake grass.

Mine doesn't get that hot either- but the dogs have a covered deck and the garden beds as well.

For those saying how terrible it is- my yard was becoming dust or mud depending on season prior to the fake turf- one of my dogs hated the mud and one of the others had problems with the dust irritating his eyes. They are both much happier with the fake turf and it's a pretty amazing yard for them now.

[Cosmolo]

This was my yard before

[Cosmolo]

And after

[Podengo]

Looks nice cosmolo - I want artificial grass, looking after real grass is a pain!

[Katdogs]

Like DDD, the fake grass at SASH has put me right off it. The smell is truly awful and I can't believe they convinced Stevie to use it (we stopped at a grass verge a few minutes after picking her up and she took a big long time to wee properly).

But if Juice and Cosmo can get it to work for them then it's worth further investigation!

[juice]

It takes maintenance, just like a lawn does to mow, but its far quicker and easier to sprinkle it over with a chlorine mix and chuck the sprinkler on every now and then.

[Cosmolo]

Juice makes a good point- my living lawn takes much more maintenance than my artificial one.

[Isabel964]

Great replies, thanks for sharing :)