Hi Judy,

I have two words for you - Off-Gassing.

Actually, three - HOT!

I looked at some fake lawns and hey, they look pretty good. However, they smell. No. They Stink. The chemical smell of hot plastic - ew. You know the smell of a new, plastic shower curtain or liner? That's it. I didn't notice the smell while looking at samples, but, here in Tucson it's *hot* outside. I was curious as to the possibility of melting, but not enough to ask since the smell was a deal breaker.

Also, the ones we looked at all were very hot and radiated heat. I was told that all brands are hot. Makes sense since they are plastic. I haven't looked at your "gravel yard" post yet, but I know many people (here) complain about how hot their yard is once they install gravel. If that's an issue for you with the gravel, consider it with the fake lawns too.

Sorry to be such a Negative Nelly, but I hope this info helps :)

Hey amalgamation - This is exactly why I posted the question. All viewpoints are appreciated!

Yes, one of the reasons we don't like the gravel rock is the radiant heat - the other is the, well, ugliness.

I wonder if, besides the heat factor, if the smell would diminish in time, as the smell of the shower curtain would?

Thanks,
Judy

hi judy, there are a couple of houses in our neighborhood that have this fake grass in the front yards. from a distance, they look nice and green, but once you are walking past the yard, you can tell that it is totally fake. although they don't need to be mowed or watered, looks like you would still have to use a leaf blower/yard vac on them to pick up all the debris that can collect on them from other plants in the yard.

kazooie, that's good to know...I am leaning away from the synthetic lawn now...I don't want anything that looks fake...and it doesn't sound easy to keep clean either!

Thanks for your input.

Before you condem all fake grass, I was just at a party with a 7 year old lawn of plastic. we couldn't believe how nice it looked and it wasn't too warm at all on a 90 degree day. We had to look carefully to see it was fake grass!!! I was told it was the only artificial turf used by the NFL and the players love it too. He had recently removed the kid's swing set from part of it and you couldn't tell it had ever been there.

My neighbors have fake grass in both front and back. They paid for mediocre stuff for the front (looks a little putting-green style) and in the back they have the really nice long blade stuff. I haven't noticed the smell and I am there just about every day. I did notice it was hot in summer, but not as hot as rock by any means, and I sat on it for several summer bbq's. It looks really nice both front and back, but part of the reason I have 3000 square feet of grass is that I love the cool, soft feel of it under feet. My neighbor complains that it gets matted sometimes, but it stands back up with a little push-broom action and looks just as good as new. However, she puts her slip-n-slide on the driveway (I know, OUCH!) rather than endure the flood damage of water-play.

Would I use fake grass? Maybe in the front yard where it would always look perfect and never need mowed or grow weeds. But in the back where I like to hang and my kids play barefoot, nothing beats the real thing. :)

I will tell ya this: If you are going to pay someone to mow your lawn rather than doing it yourself, I feel it is worth it to invest in fake grass. Otherwise the cost for the good stuff is so astronomical, it just seems ridiculous. We got an estimate to put it in our backyard that was in excess of $30K. We opted for bermuda. Then our mower broke and we paid someone $50 a week to mow for us for 18 months before my husband went and chose a new mower (which he insisted he do HIMSELF and which he never had time to do). They say that the astro-turf has a 30 year gaurantee, and at my calculations, it would pay for itself in 12 years in just upkeep costs, not to mention water and sweat equity.

Trish

My neighbor put in a mixture of fescue and perennial rye and its beautiful, yeah he has to mow it once in awhile but its the prettiest on the block and he has the fresh green grass to put in his composter.

gemfire

That fescue and perennial rye will croak when summer comes, it only works to overseed winter dormant lawns like bermuda.

I think the best cooling is trees. Just my opinion - grass looks really weird in the desert. And Bermuda... ugh. I've refused to buy houses that had Bermuda.

I love maintaining my lawn as much as I love maintaining my plants! The smell of a freshly mowed lawn is golden and only takes 5 minutes. I know of a couple houses with fake grass. After 10 years, it has started to change in color and weeds do start to grow around the border of it. I use Fox Farm fertilizer just to see how beautiful it can get! With fake grass, it's always the same. Which may not be a bad thing.

We have the real stuff here in Camp Verde. The lawn we have is small 18'Lx12'W (putting green)surounded by gravel/trees/plants/pool
I would not have it any other way. The smell of grass. The soft scape. The color. The touch. The grass is a drought/heat resistant type and we have a small push mower. Don't have to mow in the winter it goes dorment. Everyone thought we were crazy, but now when they see it and smell it they wish they had done the same thing.

Things have changed a lot with synthetic grass. My wife HATES fake stuff, and we have always disliked fake grass. But when we did our new pool, I wanted a european look of grass right up to a small coping. the real stuff would get to muddy, so the landscaper suggested artificial grass. there are many levels now. we love ours- most people don't know it's no real, even when they are on it . it does get way too hot to walk on, but we have a sprinkler system which cools it down very quickly. minimal maintenance- although some spots are slightly matted (it doesn't bother me, but...) there are fluffing machines, I think. it seem to be durably- we've had it for a little over a year. I have 2 dogs who have a "bathroom" area around the side on real grass, but have gone a number of times on the fake stuff, without a problem. the cost was around 2.5-3x what grass would have cost us.

In my opinion, if you install fake grass, it's like saying "I don't know how to grow real grass, so I'll install this plastic stuff to look like the real stuff."

Tiff lawns are not that hard to grow here. There are some basics people need to learn. They're heavy nitrogen feeders in the summer, they need to be cut often and short, and they need to be de-thatched on a regular basis.

Well, I have recently installed a very small (6'X8') piece of artificial turf in my chicken run. Real grass will last about 10 minutes with what chickens do to it. So far so good.The girls love to "grub" in it (it has an open-weave backing so bugs can and do come up if you just lay it over dirt). They have not mistaken it for the real deal and eaten any of it near as I can tell. It is in a shaded area with misters so I haven't noticed a heat issue but judging by the weird "sheen" it has when the sun hits it at just the right angle, I wouldn't want it anywhere else.

I agree with pagancat who suggested trees for shade and green. This is basically the approach I have taken, using a ground covering of quarter-minus and a mix of native, citrus and fruit trees grafted on stock adapted to our desert climate. You might also consider hardy, drought-resistant ground-covers such as wooly thyme which has the added benefits of smelling wonderful when walked on and being useful in the kitchen.

Sunset magazine's website also has some very good pics and ideas on yards with lawn alternatives if you're looking for inspiration. Good luck!

Synthetic lawn has its purpose but be sure to do your research. For play or pet areas remember that it gets hotter than asphalt during the day (150 degrees!) although it does 'cool' off at night. In summer that would be whatever our low temperature is......85? 90? 95?

Salt River Project did some trials a few years ago with various types of artificial grass. Here's a link to the results.

Here is a link that might be useful: Artificial turf research trials by SRP

Is there is a plastic flower section somewhere in GardenWeb?

because we are "older than dirt", we needed to get rid of our
grass because we don't have the energy to take care of it. Our front yard has huge ficus trees and even st. augustine didn't want to grow in the deep shade...
so... we put in quarter minus in sedona red. for our dogs
we purchased a peice of artificial grass from lowes for the back yard which looks okay from a distance. the dogs loved it for their bathroom and soon it stank to high heaven.
we went to the synthetic grass store on cavecreek and bought 15 lbs of zeolite which helps control smells. I wouldn't let kids play on it but the dogs love it. we have two elm trees which should be shading it next year and that will help the heat factor.
and yes.. it is HOT...
it radiates heat... however, its really nice not to have to work
on real grass.
for years we enjoyed a beautiful lawn... those years are gone..
the grass sold at the synthetic grass store is much nicer than what you buy at the big box stores. Its allllll way too expensive.. but so are cars and plane tickets and all sorts of things.. look what we pay for a crown for a tooth... etc etc etc

I have what I term "turf" just as a walk-up to the front door (because it's cooler on bare feet than cement) and on two small patios. I'm not sure what the point would be of artificial lawn in Phoenix - why not just desert landscaping?

I live in CA and am building a new home- our water shortage in Montecito is serious and real grass is not an option. I have 2 large dogs. Will the synthetic grass be too hot for my dogs? Even if I pick up after the dogs daily will the grass smell horrible if I don't rinse it daily? Would something like dymondia be a better choice?

It's plastic with a rubber underlayment. It's going to be hot when the sun hits it and will off-gas for a period of a few weeks after installation. In California, artificial grass is probably more tolerable than in Arizona, where it's routinely 100+ daily for 3-4 months.

Pleased with ours, installed Dec 2013. It's a free-form, triangular shape in full sun between the herb garden and an acacia aleura tree, surrounded by decomposed granite and 1/4" gravel. It's a colorful, textural and cooler accent to our desert landscaping. Our 2 dogs sprinkle the gravel on the grass, an annoyance, and pee on it. We bought high-quality synthetic grass with a porous backing and various lengths of grass. I have to water it down when it does not rain to help the dog urine to percolate down through the sand and clay to the natural dirt. Otherwise, the urine starts to smell. Our son-in-law installed artificial grass in his back yard in 2006 or 2007 where our 2 grandsons and their huge dog play. Theirs gets very hot in the AZ summer sun. Ours, not so much, perhaps because it is a newer design.

I see that this post is 8 years old, but I will add my two cents.

I live in Hemet, CA, just across the mountain from Palm Springs. We tend to be about 10 degrees cooler than Palm Springs in the summer - so still very hot. It's currently July 2 and we've been having temps in the high 90's. It's usually cooler this time of year!

That being said, my parents got the artificial turf in their front yard around 2009. They had to lift and re-stretch it last year, they had a tree die and removed. It still looks gorgeous!

It does get very hot. However newer artificial grass that I've been on in my area does not get as hot. Also, I'm fairly sure they did not spend top dollar since they only walk on it as a shortcut to go get the mail. They still have rock in the front, about 3 feet from grass to sidewalk and jasmine near the driveway. They took out the sprinklers, and now wish they had left them in for those really hot days to cool things down.

I live in a mobile home park that is dominated by concrete. I am thinking of moving and was looking for artificial turf options as a place for my dog to do her business. One site I came across recommended leaving the sprinklers in to cool and wash the dog urine down. Another has a drainage system that can be installed over concrete and is strong enough for cars to drive over it! I'm liking that option! You can find it here: http://www.progreen.com/dog-runs

Regardless of what I do, I think I will want a system that has some sort of sprinkler on it for cooling and easy cleaning and washing away of the urine. It only needs to run for a minute or two and probably only 2x a week, so still within CA Drought guidelines. (Come on everybody, think "RAIN" for California - no matter where you live in the US, you eat our food too!)

For smaller turf areas, say a dog run or a patch of green, synthetic is a great alternative to the real thing. #1 best reason to use synthetic turf = it looks great all year. No brown spots, no watering, no mowing, no fertilizing.

Thanks to all for your comments...it appears to be a topic with opinions on both sides! I like ti for small areas, but my hubby decided to put real grass in - already I am tired of helping him maintain it in the hot Phoenix summer. :(

Love Ours! You get the quality you pay for & the newer type we have had for nearly 2 years works great. The base of it is a matching green mesh, not solid plastic or rubber like older or cheaper versions. We have a large patch in our back yard to add green softness among the rest of the gravel, rock & xeriscape plantings. The grass itself isn't "hot" like concrete & imitates the same heat as the soil underneath real grass. Ours never had a plastic smell, it doesn't come close to "melting" & it looks real. It is installed on a packed red clay base and filled & raked with sand to keep blades separated like real grass. Our dogs pee & poop on the grass & rock, both. During non-raining seasons, I occasionally rinse both with a hose to percolate urine & dissolved solid wastes and dust through the underlying base & soil. Otherwise, the urine lays on top of the dry clay or rock plastic underlining & can smell. We had pea gravel installed over a fabric underlayer in pedestrian areas that allows water to pass through. The City of Mesa, AZ rebated us with $500 for removing the Bermuda grass (BIG water waster that stuck to dogs' coats and was deposited on indoor & patio floors ) that the previous owner left along with rock over plastic (fabric is best).
It never needs mowing & gardener blows debris from rock & artificial grass easily with his regular maintenance. My grandsons play on it; never have mud or puddles with water play because when properly installed, it drains promptly. Weeds do not grow in it. Some HOAs do not allow it in front, probably because early versions did look fake. Our son-in-law installed his in 2006 front & back with HOA permission and it looks natural. No lawnmower in their garage, either. You might want to take another look at the better products! Good luck.

Barbara - what brand did you use please ?

yes, the artificial grass is pretty but if you have several dogs, even small ones, it will soon stink. We purchased the deoderizer from the synthetic grass store and it didn't touch it. We also tried other methods of cleaning it.. simple green, etc.. items that supposedly do not hurt the soil and plants.

It continued to stink... one day gathered it up and hauled it to the dump.

Don't want to walk or sit on something that smells that bad.

bjbaughman

I am enjoying reading all of the comments since I have been wanting artificial grass for some time now. I would like to know if any of you feel that it looks fake because it is always so "flat" almost like it is lying on cement. It seems to me that most real grass, even though also flat, has some slight imperfections in its terrain. Does anyone have artificial grass on a small slope (maybe 1' to 2' high or so) to give the grass some dimension here and there.

Hi Barbara, I want to know what brand you use too! Please help!

Anyone around who can say that this does not look real?? These photos are of my real work and not any photoshop trick.

Let me know if you have any questions about artificial grass. I am a professional artificial grass installer based in Auckland. Check out my website at Eco Lawn. I have videos of us guys doing the product installation so you guys can have the idea as to what all steps are installed in this process. Please feel free to ask any questions that you may have and I would try to answer them.