When we recently made our way over to Las Vegas for CES and stayed over at our friend's home in the northern reaches of Vegas' suburbs, one of the things we noticed immediately was the lack of lawns in front of all the homes. Due to water restrictions and the insane summer heat, lawns are a pipe dream to maintain, something almost all residents of the Southwest region of states are facing with dwindling water supplies and higher average temps. We prefer xeriscaping as the solution (we wished our state would offer incentives for homeowners to replace their water-thirsty lawns with drought tolerant flora); with Angeleno's love affair with the lawn, we might be seeing more products like SYNLawn, an artificial lawn made of polyethylene monofilament yarn and texturized nylon yarn that looks extremely realistic and is softer than previous faux lawn coverings...
SYNLawn Lawn comes in a variety of options that mimics real grass such as St Augustine grass, Kentucky Blue, Fescue, and Rye; styles are listed as lasting up to 10 years with one line specifically designed for children's playgrounds, SYNPlay Collection, which includes padding. Part of us believes this is a bit unnecessary, since we believe replacing lawns with native plants and other low water use outdoor coverings is the way to go. But perhaps in hot Southwestern cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas, SYNLawn Synthetic Grass would be an ideal option to allow children to grow up with a "grassy" area to play in, allow home owners to have small patches of decorative lawn to enjoy, and reduce water use in the long term in areas such as Los Angeles, where residents are resistant to removing lawns. Our question is whether cleaning dog messes on this material is an easy affair or requires more "hands on" effort (yuck, whether it's real grass or not). If you're interested (we are...we want to feel how real the grass is), you can send away for a sample here.
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Does anyone know how eco-friendly this is? What happens after 10 years -- becomes landfill or more fake grass?
I agree with Scottie. This stuff is "green" insofar as you don't need to water or fertilize it, and it's made from recycled plastics --- BUT, is it itself recyclable? If it isn't, should we really promote something that's so green-washed?
I have no idea how fake lawns stand up to dog messes. Perhaps that depends on what your dog eats? Hopefully it's not lead filled synthetic grass!:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/01/19/in_fake_grass_some_see_real_threat
If you have pets, this stuff stinks to high heaven. Rather than encouraging people to use plastic, why not highlight native plants? (If they do it in Vegas, I don't wanna.)
And lawns do emit carbon dioxide, which is allegedly good for us, right? Why have house plants?
Do I get a free latte w/the 10th posting of this topic?
Plants including lawns emit oxygen and consume CO2, Palmetto, both of which are good things. They also help to cut down on heat as they cool the air when giving off moisture throughout the day. You lose all of that with fake lawns. Whay not spend the money you would spend on fake grass on actual drought-friendly plants to replace the lawn? I don't get why someone would choose faux over real, living breathing plants.
just bonkers. grow what normally grows in that area or learn to like dirt. this is insane.
I have this in front of my house/complex in San Diego! It's funny that I live in a house with fake grass, since I have spent a fair amount of time mocking other fake grass installations in my neighborhood!
But I'm not responsible for it being there - I rent. My landlady got tired of paying to water the grass and to have yard work done and had fake grass put in its place. But, this is high quality fake grass, it is hard to tell it's fake. I pointed the fake grass out to my friends, who were a little disbelieving at first. The yard where it is installed is small, and fenced, and there are no pets, so no pet odor worries.
(The other fake grass alternatives in my neighborhood still deserve mocking, however. One is gravel embedded in concrete and painted green. What? Another was cheap, plastic looking grass, old and ratty, with edging to form golf course/putting green holes, including the little flag. That house went onto the market at some point and the putting green and shabby furnishings were eliminated.)
I think I'd still prefer native, low water plants to fake grass, but it isn't as bad as it sounds. Another bonus, when looking at our neighborhood via Google and other aerial maps, it's the only house with a pretty green lawn. ;-)
*lawns do not emit carbon dioxide. Grass uses carbon to grow, it also sequesters it in the soil. Grass emits oxygen (it uses it too, but it gives off more than it uses). If you burn any plant life it will emit carbon dioxide, as it is what oil is made of
Why does AT keep hocking this junk?
*hawking
erm. fake lawn??? örgs.
Never liked fake plants so fake grass is really not my thing. Although having green around the house is nice, not if it is fake green.
I'd go for native plants like several other people have suggested. Natural and environmentally friendly. And it gives the dog some where to go to the toilet.
Mafan
green laser pointer RULZ
I actually have been wanting to get some free samples of synlawn for awhile now, but not for my lawn.... I really see this making a nice little spot to step/lay on in my home :)
It's made of nylon, so I'm assuming it would be soft. Who wouldn't want a nice little patch of "grass" inside (especially during the winter months)? Would also make a great bath mat (or kitchen mat?), maybe even an interesting springtime or woodsy table runner. I believe I've already seen this stuff in Anthropologie-like window displays, so the possibilities are there....
I have seen/felt this stuff at an upscale facility for dogs, and when used for pets, a special drainage system allows for it to be cleaned thoroughly and hence not stink. I also know that it was outrageously expensive. It looks real, but doesn't feel real. I don't know which brand it was though.
LOL @ Seaside
fake lawns are weird, but that dachshund is ADORABLE!
Put me with the native plant people. As a lover of real plants, this just makes me sad. Not only are we replacing thousands of acres of ecosystems with monocultures of grass... we're replacing them with plastic rugs!
Got kids? Try pea gravel or other kid-friendly mulches. If you really must have the lawn, get a graywater system.
So how much water and how many petrochemicals are used to manufacture this stuff? Does it off-gas?
I'm not a huge lawn fan, but this is pretty bad. Sure, you save water, but what does it do to the soil's ecosystem?
It might be cool to have some inside, tho. I can't imagine it's any more horrid from a sustainability standpoint than carpet.
That's bananas.
I have a home with real grass, if the dachshund would like to come and live with me.
High quality fake grass, while soft and vividly green, gets as hot as concrete under desert sunlight. It is _not_ comfortable to touch on a sunny day. Low-water use vegetation helps to cool the house and patio by evaporative cooling.
Super sweet doxie.
I work in landscape design, and while I support the use of drought-tolerant plants there are a lot of people who just can't get it out of their heads that expanse of green flatness. More and more I see people divided over this, but I do see a practical side to this product if you have kids. I would not recommend this at all for pets.
Kids like to run and play and that often includes falling. Pea gravel (ouch!) and bark chips (splinters) are not great things to fall upon. At a landscape workshop for homeowners I went to recently, the kid issue came up often.
Another topic that came up was that native plants look dry and "messy." I heartily disagree with that, but it does take research to choose plants you can deal with year round as some natives go dormant.
"Why does AT keep hocking this junk?"
Mention and discussion of a product is not necessarily hocking a product, especially since my first inclination is to recommend that water-conserving regions should implement xeriscaping/native plants as a solution before using artificial products. But for people who live in extremely arid areas these sort of products could have uses, whether residential or for public spaces. You're going to see more mention of these sort of products as water rights/limitations in the Southwest becomes more of an issue with population growth. And as you can see in the comments there are a few people who have already installed this type of product, so we think it's good to discuss the pros and cons of something we ourselves have reservations about (not that we have a lawn ourselves!).
i can see how some people can have an aversion to something like this, but there are definitely urban areas that can benefit from this
for example, a concrete lot where you can't grow anything anyway
Cute dachshund alert! Take cover!
I am grossed out by the dog doo thought. At least with real grass and plants, eventually, the residue will kind of self clean...rain, bugs, deterioration. Seems that unless you get out there and scrub up the doo like you would on a carpet, the grass might not be a great place for kids to roll around.
After owning a house in Phoenix for 7 years and receiving HUNDREDS of dollars in fines from my HOA for my grass not being green ENOUGH (Hello, we're in a desert. it's 120 degrees outside. it is a green-based brown), this would be exactly what I would have loved to have had!
the problem with the 'plant low water use plants and landscaping' argument is that, we do. My house had many cacti, palms, bougainvillea (which I hated)... all around, but to replace the front of my house with gravel would not have been native to the ecosystem either. Desert floor is not gravel. It is dirt and weeds and cacti. The synth lawn would at least keep the area cooler (synthetic grass is still going to be cooler than rocks when it's 115 out).
It's really hard to understand why and where something like this would be needed until you have lived in the middle of a desert.
(the question of whether or not people SHOULD be living in a desert area is a whole other topic).
Oh, Yeah... Quail Botanical Gardens in Solana Beach (just north of San Diego) has fake grass installed in this courtyard like area where they hold 'events'. It is a high traffic area -- they had like the wine garden there during their Winter Nights event. They have signage around describing their fake grass and why they have it... I recall it being mostly about high traffic and difficulties keeping real grass alive. I would never have thought it was fake grass, except I read the signs, and then had to check out the grass in more detail.
NNNOOOOOO! Please, people do NOT buy into this. It's madness. The person above who said this stuff is hotter than concrete is correct. It's a nightmare. There are thermal images of NYC and the patches of fake lawn that serve as ball fields are absolutely red hot. Kids have even gotten burned. This is terrible terrible terrible. I work for an architect and we are constantly trying to push academic clients away from this that are keen on replacing the grass in their quads with this. Studies have shown that students don't gravitate to it like they do a lwan. It doesn't feel like a lawn, it's hot and uncomfortable and actually radiates heat. It's being pushed especially hard in arid climates...exactly where we DON'T need more heat. Plus, there is no getting around the fact that it ends up as landfill and that makes me sad.
I live in southern Nevada and have desert landscaping with drought-tolerant plants. Another benefit of live plants is that they still bloom during certain seasons and some (like Rosemary) smell nice. I've thought about the fake grass (even the pricey stuff), but the costs appear to outway the benefits.
Fake lawns are like Toupees: Completely unnecessary, and show the poor judgement of the owner.
Wow- nice to see a robust conversation on an important topic.
First- some clarification- artificial turf- used on sports fields is not the same thing as the SYNLawn being discussed in the posting. The sports products get scorching hot and retain and emit heat because they are filled with ground up rubber tire crumbs- usually black in color- and hence the heat issues.
Synthetic Landscape Grasses invented by SYNLawn are specifically made for landscape and pet applications and do not have that rubber crumb fill- so they do not get as hot and more importantly, do not emanate as much heat.
Dogs in most cases can handle more contact heat that humans- especially some breeds with longer hair or fur. Meanwhile, in most cases, dogs weight is distributed among four legs- not two and so there is less pressure of contact with the product contributing the transfer of heat.
In Southern California for example, we have installed more than 6,000 installations of synthetic landscape grass and we estimate that between 60 and 70% of our customers have dogs. They love it and do not have the basic problems you are describing if they properly care for the product.
The same number or more installations exist in each of the States of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and other places.
We are not just guessing here and people are not just thinking about this- it's a real product.
Many people just assume that a lawn emits oxygen. The actual facts are much more complicated. The amount of oxygen emitted by a lawn is highly dependant on a variety of things like climate, health fo the lawn, temperature, and variety. In some cases, the lawn is not emitting much at all.
What people forget is that lawns are mowed and that's green waste and tertiary pollution.
You can say they shouldn't have them, but we all know that is a message failed for forty years and at best, you can only hope for a small compliance percentage of the public acting in that way.
There's something to be said for kids, dogs, pools and lawns.
We solve a problem that people actually have and in doing so, we take them one step in a direction that even the most extreme advocates of no lawns, sustainable development, or zero carbon impact policies should accept as serious progress.
Moreover, the product does not hit the environment very hard in its manufacturing processes, but to the extent it does, it stays in use for 10 years or in many cases, much lo9nger and that is certainly a durable good and a smart use of the resources. In fact, it's hard to find a product whose small negative manufacturing aspects are so greatly outweighed buy extremely positive benefits!
Anyway, the grass cools off instantly in shade- and it looks and fee3ls incredible. SYNLawn is different- not like the others at all- not aesthetically, or in terms of performance, quality or warranty and if you want to be convinced- ask to see some at a retailer near you. Thanks for all the imput!
www.synlawn.com
We have this on our balcony and I think it looks great but I don't know if I'd have a full lawn?!
FYI - LA does actually encourage homeowners to replace lawns with synthetic grass or drought-resistant landscaping and offers a $1 per sq ft rebate for it. www.ladwp.com
I'm currently looking into the synthetic lawn after seeing it at the Rose bowl flea market - it looked great!
Xeriscaping is fine if you don't want a lawn but what if you have kids and dogs that want to play outside and you can't grow grass? With two kids and two dogs and a shaded back yard that can't grow grass, I was greatful for the alternative. I went with NewGrass artificial grass and it doesn't get hot in the summer either (although that could very well be because of the shade).