Pros: No fert/mowing/watering
Cons: Environmental concerns, toxic potential, fake looking

Would you put in grass or fake grass or something else? We have about a 30x20 space in back and close to that in the front, as well as a small side strip we'd want to do in "something".

Might as well get a fake John Deere.

If you are interested in getting support from GardenWeb for the use of fake grass - to validate your intention of use, I think you're in the wrong place. We enjoy growing things here :-)

Our local high school installed it over their sports fields - which is acceptable, due to it's durability and the utility application. But IMHO, there is NO way I would ever consider installing it over my home grounds . . . for all the obvious reasons.

Dchall, thanks for the input. My lawn is not visible from the street, so I doubt anyone would be offended. Someone down the street from me has one, and it does look really fake. I'm not from here, and we are on SEVERE water restrictions (can only water for 5 minutes 3x a week). I can't imagine things getting worse but sure they will. Where I am from, it rained enough that I never had to water my beautiful, lush, never patchy, never fertilized lawn. I'm a bit spoiled that way. The thought of having "brown lawn" like so many here for half the year is not appealing at all. They actually "go brown" and it's encouraged during the summer. That's why I'm thinking of other alternatives...

fake grass
patio stones with some grass around it
etc...

I'd like to make it sustainable. If a person had asked me 5 years ago about fake grass I would have laughed them off their chair. But living here has changed my perspective. I'd rather water my bamboo, cannas, gardenias, ferns, etc. than waste my water ration of a strip of green.

silversword said:

"Archdiver, I'm not here to get support, just opinions that will hopefully help me make my decision."

It's obvious you're seeking support for using plastic "grass". If those are the only opinions you will accept - than just do it.

With the severe water restrictions you've got (and looking at less water down the road) a fake lawn might make sense. You might be able to keep a green lawn using buffalo grass, but you'd probably want to see if you could get a variance on the watering. It would do better if you watered every other week for 15 minutes than if you water 3x a week for 5 minutes. You could point out that you'd use 1/2 as much water doing that.

I need an area where my kids can run around. I understand planting in desert-scape (as they call it here) and that's great for in garden beds. But desert flora is dangerous for kids and animals, and is only good on the edges. Therefore, a cacti garden is not going to work. We did raised beds throughout most of the yard so we can have controlled drip irrigation and are working on lowering our water usage as much as possible. I have never used pesticides, always organic gardener. And our space for lawn is very very small.

When in Rome...

In the dry areas of my home state there are people who have gravel lawn. Still not good for kids playing...

" . . . Do as the Romans do", since as was implied by others, you will simply blend into the So Cal mainstream plastic society. ;-)

Since absolutely no one will see it unless they drive up our driveway, get out of their car and walk behind our garden gate... It's not really an issue of blending in or doing as the Jones' are with their lawn.

It's sustainability, it's making sure our water bill doesn't hit the roof, and that the kids can play on a nice surface. I think there's a place for this kind of grass, I'm just not sure it's on my front lawn!! But I see people here doing it and a lot more since the water rationing has gone into place this year.

Soooooo being from a very wet location myself, I'm a bit new to this whole "have to feed/water/fertilize/maintain a lawn" sort of thing. My grass always just grew beautifully. Then I'd take my riding mower and my weedwacker and 3 hours later it would be finished. Yes, my lawn was that big.

To mow my lawn area today would take all of 10 minutes. Maybe 15 if I had to put gas and counted taking it out of the garage.

BPGREEN - Thank you for the tips. There really aren't any variances. If someone spots a person watering for longer than the allocated minutes they can turn them in for a $500 fine. Kind of steep. I agree a deep root watering for most plants is more beneficial. But the city still waters at noon, go figure.

I foresee those things changing, so I've been planting native and low water use grasses and this summer, I only watered 5 times (about every other week).

Buffalo grass (or buffalo grass and blue grama) might still stay green for you with your restrictions, but I'd water less often even if I couldn't water deeply.

But the artificial turf may yet be your best choice.

Ouch. I don't know how much lawn area anyone else has but I can't spend 180K plus on that stuff. Maybe I should have priced it elsewhere but at even half that price, it's still too expensive.

BPGreen, what do you mean people thought they'd lose their lawns? It's not good to water in the heat of the day even if a person has all the water they need.

Hardly any lawns on my block are green, they're all brown from the summer (common in San Diego). I think that looks much worse than fake grass.

One thing I'm also concerned with is the fumes/lead issue that has been coming up and the real environmental impact. It's the whole fake Christmas tree v.s. real Christmas tree all over again. I'm on the fence on that one too!!! So far I've just opted to buy a living tree every year, but then there's the problem of doing something with them after the holidays. I can't plant them all!!

Many people around here were convinced that they had to water three times a day every day or the lawns would die. With the watering "restrictions" they cut back to twice a day, but they thought their lawns needed more water than that and that watering "only" twice a day would kill the grass.

First, Synthetic turf has come a LONG way in recent years. Sure, there are still some hoakie looking products out there. But the good stuff (someone already mentioned synlawn above) is REALLY nice stuff. It's soft, holds up to all sorts of traffic and weather, and looks very realistic.

Just a quick summary:

Cons: Very expensive. Looks a little "shiny" on sunny days. But they're getting better at minimizing that.

Pros: Virtually NO maintenance for at least 10 years. Super traffic resistant. Made of green (recycled, low carbon emmission) materials. No watering (Helps conserve water). No fertilizing (helps groundwater / pollution). Always looks like it's "just been cut". Won't get weeds, dog spots, or disease.

It's very nice stuff. If you have a Synlawn Showroom in your area, go check it out in person. I think you'd be impressed.

If you're having a contractor install it - figure about $12-$15 per sq. ft. installed. So a 500 sq. ft. lawn (like you described) would run about $6000 or more, if you went with Synlawn or a comparible product.