Here’s the short answer. It’s amazing!
I know the first thought that comes to people’s mind when they hear AstroTurf usually involves plastic pink flamingos… And to be fair, that artificial grass still exists! But AstroTurf has come a loooong way, and I might be it’s biggest fan.
When we were in California, we installed artificial grass (that we purchased from Home Depot). And by we installed I mean my husband. We knew we were going to only be there a short time, we didn’t want to spend time on the yard, and the water restrictions were so crazy that we just didn’t want to deal with the hassle. Turns out, it was the best introduction to artificial grass, and a great experience. We loved having a hassle-free yard!
So when we had to decided what to do with our yard – our HOA requires something to be be done – both my husband and I really wanted AstroTurf.
WHY WE COVERED OUR YARD IN ASTROTURF
Minimal Maintenance
I really could have said no maintenance, but we do sweep the grass to put any rocks (or mulch – what we had in California) back into it’s place. And you can spray it with water if you want to clean it. That’s the only maintenance, and really, it’s optional.
Look and Feel
It feels sooo good on your toes! And grass that feels good is a major win in my book. Plus, I love that it just looks like really healthy, green grass. And it will continue to look like that without us having to do anything to it. That’s gold right there. Especially since my husband is about to be very job busy, the last thing we want to do is have to spend a Saturday morning moving and watering and weeding our grass when we could be out doing anything else! The yard is always just ready for us to enjoy.
We when were designing our yard, there were a few things we wanted to incorporate. If you look at the picture above, you can see a pathway / breeze separating the astroturf. The back section of turf is actually the grass we brought from California. It’s not too noticeable in this picture, but if you’re standing in our yard, you can see that it’s different.
We wanted Roxann to have a spot where she could potty as opposed to just going anywhere and everywhere. So we chose to give her our older astroturf and section it off so she knows her potty boundaries. She’s a pretty smart girl and picks up training like going in a certain spot pretty quickly.
My plan is to actually plant two or three boxwood bushes – or something similar – in the pathway, just to break up the sight line. And to hide the poop.
The other area that we really wanted was a spot for a fire pit of some sort, so we put another breeze right off of our patio. The idea is at some point, we’d like to build a rectangular fire pit, or maybe a chiminea on that breeze. Right now, what I don’t love about our current fire pit is that there isn’t anything surrounding it, and those sides get really hot when we have a fire burning in it (naturally). So we’ll see what we come up with; but for now, this is what we have!
Getting the astroturf installed was the biggest step for our yard, but we’re still not “done”. Is anything ever actually d o n e? We’re planning on putting up our patio lights, I want to plant some herbs and flowers in some sort of a vertical planter, get a patio rug and maybe add a grill to the mix (how do we not own a grill?!?). But that’s the fun part to me, so I’ll probably take sometime getting just the right pieces. In my mind, I’m envisioning a fun, bright (shocking?!) southwest vibe, perfect for…. tacos!
Seriously… I LOVE this yard!! I am SO glad we covered our yard in Astroturf! Anyone wanna come over for a margarita?! I might have even put in a few plastic pink flamingos by the time you do!
SOURCES |
If you’re in the Springs and would like to know who install our astroturf, just send me a note!
I’m still trying to track down the type of astroturf we had installed. Currently what I know is that it’s called “wave” and the pieces of grass go in different directions – as opposed to one directional grass. It make blending the seams so much easier and much less noticeable.
The patio set is old, and from Target. And, the table is actually broken (from the move) so we’ll see what happens to it…
