[AlanHo]

We moved into our current house in June 2013 and inherited a rear garden lawn that was mainly moss, clover, meadow grass and chickweed.



In August 2013 I had it dug up and new (so-called high quality) turf laid. I also built a rockery at the end of the garden to give it some height.



In September 2013 the turf seemed to be bedding in nicely – but I had to pull out a few weeds



During 2014 the lawn looked quite healthy and gave no cause for concern.
This continued into 2015 but I had to do battle with some patches of Fusarium fungus and more weeds than you can shake a stick at. I scarified, weeded and fed the lawn spring and autumn and regularly mowed it.
In June 2016 the lawn was again infected with Fusarium fungus and a lot of coarse grasses were evident. Some odd patches of moss were present



A lot of grass died during the winter of 2016 and as spring arrived it was in a sorry state despite my ministrations. It was obvious I was fighting a losing battle and decided to kill it off with RoundUp weed killer and get it dug up, topsoil stripped and replaced with new topsoil and Rolawn turf which is expensive but Wimbledon and lots of stately homes and gardens use nothing else. My health precludes me doing any heavy work so it was a task for a garden contractor. I obtained quotes varying from a minimum of £1,100 and a maximum of £2,350 which was a bit of an eye opener.





I then decided to do some research on artificial grass and obtained quotations for that. These were in the range £1,500 for a crappy 12 mm pile grass and £3,850 for a 50 mm pile grass. The various contractors took me to see some of the lawns they had laid which convinced me that a 40 mm pile “carpet” would be fine and I placed an order for our 56 square metre lawn to be replaced with 40 mm pile artificial grass at a cost of £2,200.

This involved removing the old turf with a motorised turf cutter and the removal of 75 mm of topsoil. The ground was then levelled and given a bashing with a wacker plate. They then added a 75 mm layer of crushed limestone and wackered that level, followed by 30 mm of sand which was again wackered level. Then came a fabric weed membrane followed by laying the grass and pegging it with 300 mm long galvanised spikes around the periphery



I am well pleased with the result. I am now free of mowing, weeding, scarifying, aerating and all the other chores associated with keeping a nice lawn. My cordless Bosch mower, scarifier, fertiliser spreader etc are all now for sale and I am one happy bunny.

[CraigB]

Looks great Alan, you made the right choice to go with Artificial 

[John B]

Well done Alan looks great. Got to find something else to do now with all that spare time. Here is an idea, put some holes in the new lawn and take up golf.

[eye30]

Like how they got the stripes in the lawn.

During heavy rain does the water soak away as it falls or does the water "puddle" then soak away gradually.

Brill

[AlanHo]

We had heavy rain yesterday and saw no puddles. However 2 hours after it stopped raining management went out in her slippers to peg some washing out and the lawn wes quite wet. There are 5 mm dia holes punched in the backing at 100 mm centres in both directions

So - the answer to your question is that it is slower to disperse water than the previous lawn but does not puddle. The advantage for us is that we have a surface water soakaway under the bottom end of the lawn which takes all the rainwater from 3 houses, a flat and 50 yards of the road. During the winter you can't walk on a large part of the lawn because it gets soggy and muddy. In the summer - during a long dry spell it is great - the old lawn stayed green. Now, we can walk on the lawn throughout the year without a problem and I will avoid the consequences of treading mud into the house.

By the way - the installers didn't put the stripes in the lawn - I did.
When first laid there are a lot of loose fibres and bits of artificial grass buried in the pile. When the lawn was wet and you walked on it the bits stuck to your shoes and got carried into the house. On the first dry day after the grass was laid, I used an upright vacuum cleaner with a rotary brush to suck up all the loose stuff and noticed that it moved the direction of the pile. So I went up and down the lawn on opposite directions and you can see the result.  The stripes have lasted 3 days so far.

[Shambles]

Excellent

I've been holding my breath since you first announced your lawn intentions...

Grass Isn't Always Greener

[AlanHo]

Excellent

I've been holding my breath since you first announced your lawn intentions...

Grass Isn't Always Greener

I didn't want you to hold your breath too long so thought I would summarise the saga in a new thread..........

[eye30]

Just thought of a song you can sing to your new lawn to make it feel at home......

Green green grass of home

[Lakes]

Impressive Alan!
I don't know what power your lawn mower was? but here most have stinking petrol powered. noisy too!!

[Dazzler]

Impressive Alan!
I don't know what power your lawn mower was? but here most have stinking petrol powered. noisy too!!

Electric are great for small areas. I had one of the original flymos (must have been 25 years ago) If I had a small garden I would get a rechargeable electric mower now. The cord was the only negative (and a potential hazard)

[AlanHo]

Impressive Alan!
I don't know what power your lawn mower was? but here most have stinking petrol powered. noisy too!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332314834308?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

[Dazzler]

Cheap! I would buy it myself if you lived closer! 

[mickd]

Great stuff Al, now you can relax a bit more,  just don't go getting too technical with the stripes, 👍👍

[Shambles]

You should trust Ameet and let him have them

[John B]

Cheap! I would buy it myself if you lived closer! 

I think that price is only what someone has offered Dazz and that may not have reached the reserve price, unless you have had a secret chat with Alan and know what the reserve is.   

[Dazzler]

Oh, silly me, I only buy fixed price stuff on ebay. 

[AlanHo]

I very much doubt that it will sell - the £75 is not my reserve price which is much higher.  I thought I would give Ebay a try before advertising locally in other media.

I have had all sorts of ridiculous behind the scenes cash offers from Ebay members (all Asians who love a haggle) but have politely told them to get stuffed - including Ameet.

[Shambles]

I very much doubt that it will sell - the £75 is not my reserve price which is much higher

Hmm.. £132 at end of listing and still below reserve price

[The Gonz]

Great move, Alan. Now you can spend the time you would have used on looking after real lawn on getting a job to pay for the extra holidays.

[AlanHo]

I sold the Ebay stuff to the highest bidder for £132 and he is collecting it this evening. I couldn't be arsed to repeat the exercise or waste time advertising it locally and be overwhelmed by haggling chancers.

[John B]

Great, you can put that money towards an industrial vacuum cleaner for the lawn now.

[mickd]

I sold the Ebay stuff to the highest bidder for £132 and he is collecting it this evening. I couldn't be arsed to repeat the exercise or waste time advertising it locally and be overwhelmed by haggling chancers.

Al really?  Such poor English.   

[AlanHo]

I'm a poor Englishman.....

[Dazzler]

I'm a poor Englishman.....

Yeah right .. and I'm virtually homeless! 

[mickd]

I'm a poor Englishman.....

 

[AlanHo]

It never rains but what it pours. A bloody mole has ruined my new grass.

(click to show/hide)

[John B]

Yeh right. Had me going when I saw the title.

[The Gonz]

What's her name and will she come back to remove the doll?