Is Artificial Grass As Good As Grass?

Every day our artificial grass sales team deals with enquiries and orders for our artificial grass products. One of the most common questions we are asked is whether artificial grass is as good as grass. So we thought we would dedicate this blog article to the subject and demonstrate how it's not only as good as grass but, in many ways, is much better.

Artificial grass offers a whole range of advantages - here are just a few:

• Saving time that would otherwise be spent on mowing the lawn


• Saving money:
  a) by not having to use pesticides and lawn improvement products
  b) if you're on a water meter, you won't have to water the lawn in hot weather


• Helping the environment:
  a) by using less water in the garden - it has been estimated that in the summer, around 3/4 of the UK's residential water is used on people's lawns
  b) pesticides can be damaging to the environment so best to avoid them
  c) grass cuttings contribute to air pollution - according to Australian scientists, the moment you cut your grass, an antibiotic type gas is released contributing to the hydrocarbons in the surrounding air.
  Read more about "Grass Gas"
  We also have our own page Environmental Benefits Of Artificial Grass
  
• A strong, "all year round green" is offered by artificial grass because, unlike real grass, it does not go yellow and discolour in hot weather, nor does it go brown and muddy after a lot of rain


• Artificial grass is easier to keep clean and maintain where pets are concerned - real grass areas can suffer serious degradation by pets
  

Whatever the application you're considering for your artificial grass - at home for a play area, an artificial lawn, a pathway or as grass carpet around a swimming pool or perhaps in the commercial sector as display grass for an exhibition area - the advantages are considerable. If you don't believe us, read some of our customer testimonials - see our page: "Is Artificial Grass As Good As Grass"

Fake Grass To Astro Turf: Artificial Grass Terminology

Grass is a word we all know. Simple, clear and unequivocal in meaning. As a manufacturer of artificial grass, however, we are very much aware that there is no, one, single accepted term that describes the product we manufacture.

For example, we have some customers who never use the term artificial grass but instead call it fake grass and some who prefer the phrase synthetic grass; there are even people who call it plastic grass or faux grass. As if all of this weren't enough to confuse the issue, there are those who don't even use the word 'grass' but prefer the word turf - hence we find ourselves referring to an artficial turf email request or a telephone call about synthetic turf. There are also people who, in a similar way to using the term hoover for a vaccuum cleaner, use the term astro turf. Already in this one paragraph we have used no less than 8 different sets of terminology - and all to refer to the same thing!

All of this of course is at the consumer end of the spectrum and there's an entirely different set of terms used on the production line such as we have in our artificial grass factory here in the UK. On any given day you will hear a range of terms bandied about amongst our technicians - words that most people will never have heard of - such as creel, collector board, yarn sheet, dtex and fibrillation.

As the only UK artificial grass manufacturer selling direct to consumers, we enjoy a unique position of authority when it comes to understanding and explaining artificial grass terminology. This has enabled us to write our own artificial grass glossary which brings together both everyday and manufacturing terms. Hopefully it will benefit both our customers' understanding of artificial grass and also that of our growing network of distributors. Apart from that you never know, you might get asked at the next local pub quiz what a creel is!

Pesticides - To Use Or Not To Use

A number of recent news articles have touched on the subject of pesticides and the arguments for and against their use in domestic gardens. Everyone wants an attractive garden of course and especially a nice looking lawn but at what price? Moreover, we’re not just talking about the cost of buying pesticide products but the question of potential hazards to human health and the environment.

Two major websites that cover the issue of safety with chemicals and pesticides are:

The Pesticides Safety Directorate official website – a UK Government backed website with lots of guidelines on the subject.

http://www.chem-tox.com/ - a US site with lots of detailed information. “Poison In The Grass” is the heading of one of their alarming reports which covers the hazards and consequences of lawn pesticides (http://www.chem-tox.com/pesticides/pesticidereport.htm).

Whether you believe the reports or not, you must ask yourself:

Do you have time to study all this information, then go into the local garden centre to delve through all the options of what’s available only to then have to commit to trying something out, not knowing the outcome?

Sounds like an awful waste of time and energy particularly when the real lifestyle choice of artificial grass offers a simple and effective solution.