AstroTurf - advice please

[Louisa]

Mr Louisa and I are considering AstroTurf in our failing garden. Despite years of hard work to defeat weeds, we have finally decided that battle has been lost and it would be far easier and more convenient for us to replace the flower beds and grass verges with a nice easy to maintain plastic lawn. Now, are there any landscaping people out there who can offer any advice on this? How much does it cost? Is it expensive to install? How long does it last? Does it need maintenance?

Ideally we would like a AstroTurf option which would be of a good quality and easily confused with the real thing. I don't want obvious plastic grass in my garden. Something easy on foot too.

Happy bank holiday everyone.

Louisa.

[Peckhamrye]

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,1667910

Discussion in the Family bit, hope it helps. I put astroturf down in a small courtyard garden, looked great!

[DulwichFox]

Sorry Lou. Could not resist

Foxy

[Sue]

My heart sinks every time I see Astroturf.

Please leave a little space at least for flowers for the bees and soil/worms/seedheads for the birds :(

Do you really want to sit and look at an artificial lawn?

[Louisa]

Thanks Peckhamrye, I have had a good read. Both those options sound worth investigating.

Sue we have struggled to maintain the garden for some years now and Mr Louisa's health isn't 100%, it is just no longer practical for us to regularly look after a failing lawn as well as maintain flower beds. All the surrounding gardens are in full bloom so I'm pretty sure the wildlife will not suffer.

Louisa.

[FJDGoose]

Astroturf? hate the stuff

[Mick Mac]

There is a Mr Louisa !!!!!!!!! ;)

That's set to become the main topic of this thread - move aside astroturf.

[Louisa]

Mick Mac, if only StraferJack were still walking the halls of the EDF asylum, he would give you the full back story about Mr Louisa. We had many a long PM about the subject. He isn't a figment of my imagination either (though I'm sure *Bob* would love it if he were).

Louisa.

[DulwichFox]

Mick Mac Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> There is a Mr Louisa !!!!!!!!! ;)

>

> That's set to become the main topic of this thread

> - move aside astroturf.

Why.. Louisa has mentioned Mr. Louisa on Many occasions.

Foxy

[Louisa]

Foxy I certainly have! In fact, I was once spotted leaving one nameless pub with him on here about three years ago and a certain beady eyed regular passed comment that it could well have been Louisa (they were right, but I didn't acknowledge the post at the time ;-) ).

Louisa.

[seLondon]

hi Louisa,

did you get astroturf fitted? would you recommend your fitter?

thank you

[Louisa]

Hi selondon,

We put the AstroTurf on hold after doing some research. Am still up for the idea but a word of caution. There are very many different grades and qualities of AstroTurf and if you wish to have the authentic look, it won't come cheap. Even the best quote we had for out relatively small outside space that needed covering, came to in excess of 900 quid. All the usual garden centres and places like B&Q, Homebase will provide a fitting service but it does come to a fair bit more than if you did the work yourself. You could easily save yourself 300/400 quid. But then the complication comes with the sand and soak away underneath.

As a recommendation (and I will be doing this at a later date), the Polhill Garden Centre at Badgers Mount near orpington offer a great service and are very friendly, chatty and full of information to get the best out of any quote you wish to go for. I'll probably head there once we do go for it.

Louisa.

[seLondon]

thank you - this is really helpful