4Real Forums: astroturf anyone?

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Topic: astroturf anyone?

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Martha
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Posted: Aug 31 2007 at 8:33am \| IP Logged

we love, love, love our new home
BUT there are lots of shade trees, which means no grass.
fescu (sp!) just does not hold up under 24+ feet trampling it daily! All of the constantly watered always pretty to LOOK at fescu is long dead after just 4 months.

So. A friend told us to use astroturf???
She said this is what her cousin does for the same reasons. Not the whole yard, just the 75% where grass simply is never going to grow.

I know nothing about astroturf.

Thoughts? Expense is always an issue of course? What about with pets? (Hoenstly the dog isn't has bad as the turtles, squirrels, lizzards (or are them salamanders?), and rabbits, but I don't want to get rid of ANY of them!

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Martha
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stefoodie
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Posted: Aug 31 2007 at 8:42am \| IP Logged

LOL! I thought Astroturf was for sports only -- but now that you mention it, it kinda makes sense -- hmmm... maybe dh will go for the cottage garden I'm shooting for if he doesn't have to mow "the lawn"...

Another benefit -- resistance to drought

- all the lawns around us (except the ones with sprinkler systems installed) are brown.

Not sure about the synthetic stuff though -- do you know exactly what it's made of? You can get a sample: AstroLawn

I'm curious to see an application of real lawn-astrolawn together. Maybe your friend's cousin can provide pics?

ETA: there's also Astro-Shield -- that one would give me pause.

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Martha
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Posted: Aug 31 2007 at 9:36am \| IP Logged

doh! I didn't even think of synthetic = mold and such!
eww
I don't want to replace a muddy eyesore with a pretty petri dish!

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Martha
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Donna Marie
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Posted: Aug 31 2007 at 9:51am \| IP Logged

Martha,

I would try and call theGardens Alive! people. They would probably be able to help you out. They helped me out last year after our yard fiasco...loooong story...

Good luck! Let me know if you find something that works.

God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 7dc

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Donna Marie from NJ
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guitarnan
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Posted: Aug 31 2007 at 9:53am \| IP Logged

Don't know where you live; in SoCal, St. Augustine is excellent play grass, although it goes dormant and brown in summer.

What about naturalizing (shrubs/low ground cover) around trees and making a play yard area with recycled rubber shreds or something like that? (We are planning to naturalize part of our yard next month.)

Grass pretty much won't grow under shady trees. It needs sun.

Your other choice is to get rid of some trees...but that's an expensive option.

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Donna Marie
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Posted: Aug 31 2007 at 10:14am \| IP Logged

My dh and I were going to put in a patio under the trees in the back so we could have a cool place to sit when it is hottest in the summer. We are challenging each other. It has to be dirt cheap and attractive. We are attempting to freecyclemost of the parts...it is like a scavenger hunt

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Donna Marie from NJ
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Finding Elegant Simplicity

Martha
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Posted: Aug 31 2007 at 12:11pm \| IP Logged

well we already have a patio area that we plan to screen in ...

We are going to use rubber mulch in the flower beds as soon as we can afford it. Yes, it's expensive, but we won't have to replace it as much as wood mulch, I have considered mulching a "play area", but really we don't work that way around here. It's all play area to us! lol We might consider doing just around the playground equipment, but that still leaves a huge amount of dirt to cover.

We have trimmed the trees off the house and really wouldn't want to do more than that. It's on the south side, so not only would it be expensive to cut them back/down, our energy bill would probably skyrocket.

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Martha
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