Artificial Grass and Prince Charles

I came across this old blog post from 2007 talking about Prince Charles using artificial grass on his garage floor to help keep the room temperature high for the special environmentally fuel which he uses
http://blog.artificial-grass.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

Artificial Grass for holiday cottages

We often hear owners of holiday cottages saying just how useful artificial grass can be. Let me give two good examples:

1. Imagine you have a nice cottage in France, available for letting. You have spent a great deal of money making sure it is well fitted out and all is ready to welcome your first guests. But have you cut the lawn? And knowing what the weather can be like has the lawn been watered or is it a dry brown area? So what alternatives do you have? You can hire a guardner, but then comes the worry about how well he does his job and the extra cost every month. So why not use artificial grass maybe mixed in with some rocks, pebbled areas and so on?

2. Do you market your holiday cottage as "Pet Friendly Accommodation"?.
If so you will want to try and minimise the mud and debris brought into the house by the dogs. Rather than have grass outside the back door why not have either a pebbled area or maybe a section of artificial grass. Look at the picture below of Hethpool Mill and see how they have encircled the house with pebbles. It could just as easily have been artificial grass and how much better this is for people bringing dogs to your holiday home.

Hethpool Mill

I hope that these two ideas prompt you to think about some of the opportunities for laying artificial grass.

Shady Gardens and Artificial Grass

Do you live in a City where your garden is overshadowed by large, mature trees? Do you have children who will turn the lawn into a mud bath as they copy their football heroes?

So between the football boots and the moss your garden doesn't stand a chance. Maybe time for artificial grass?

Coldburn Cottage in the Cheviot Hills has a large enclosed garden.
Image courtesy of Byways.

Artificial Grass - dressing with sand

There are two main reasons to add sand to the pile.

Some types of artificial grass require an infill to help the pile to stand proud.

But a more common reason is that it helps to weight down the carpet and this is especially useful over contours, round corners and on slopes.

A fine silica sand is ideal.

Artificial Grass - direction of the pile

When you are laying the artificial grass it is worth checking to see if there is a direction to the pile. Basically the grass will look slightly lighter from one side. Please make sure that the pile always goes the same way and take special care when joining sections side by side.

Artificial Grass on decking

Rather than just cover the decking with a "carpet" of artificial grass it can be a better solution to have the grass cut individually for each board.Effectively a grass insert on the timbers.
For example see here

As decking ages it can discolour and become slippery.Applying artificial grass can brighten up the yard and also make it safer.
However if you decide to lay it as a carpet over decking then it is better to add a soft foam underlay.
You basically have to tack the carpet roll to the decking and especially so at the edges and corners where it might lift if not secured correctly.

However you do need to be aware that some types of artificial grass require a sand infill to help the grass blades to stand proud. This is rarely practical on decking.

Artificial Grass - United Kingdom

Artificial Grass becomes more popular each year. For some people it might be fear of hosepipe bans and bone dry lawns. Other users might have overhanging trees which block the sunlight and won't let natural turf grow at all. Dog owners are also turning to artificial grass as a solution for the dog run.

But the difficulty is that there are so many suppliers, all promoting their own ideas and there is a distinct lack of guidance as to what choices are available.

This blog hopes to address these questions and many more.