Would You Put Fake Grass In Your Yard Or Garden?

My yard is a big hot mess. There's a beat up gravel driveway that leads to a patch of sandy crab grass.

This is not my ghetto grass yard, though the crab grass is just like mine

I'm ready for a change. Nothing will grow in the crab grass patch, except, uh crab grass. I have some beds on the sides with some stone gravel. The bedding plants are pretty good: Banana trees, Night Blooming Jasmine, bougainvillea, a palm tree, and a huge tree like lantana.
The current (August 2009) Veranda has a story called Botanical Hues Nuances From Nature. Memo to Veranda, please put more photos from the magazine on your web site.



There's a double spread centerfold (page 69) that is just perfect. Instead of the pool pavilion, we have a garage that is never used for cars, so I want to do a center piece of lawn surrounded by gravel paths in front of it.


I saw this HGTV show where the garden makeover was very Frenchy. There were gravel paths around a nice grass lawn in one section, and beautiful stone patios in another section. This is what I have been thinking of doing!



The part with the patch of grass was under some trees, and it was deemed too shady for a good lawn to grow.



So the landscape designer suggested fake grass! Like most of us I associate fake grass with Astro Turf in a stadium, or that bright green indoor outdoor carpet used lovingly by the great old guard suburban housewife, or by a mini golf course owner. Uh, like kind of tacky.


Moi use fake grass when my visions of lavender lined pathways in France or Italy fueled my homegrown garden desires?


And yet the HGTV finished product was so good looking and so charming. And the owner's dogs loved it. So I did some research, and apparently you can just hose off dog pee.



It's pricey though. About $2700. for a 600 square foot patch (which is about what I need).



My yard guy is going to give me a quote on digging up the crab grass, making the gravel edges, and planting a new lawn. He's got a driveway guy too, who is going to give me a price on doing a concrete (or cement - seeeement - as they say here in the South) driveway. I asked for the concrete to have a larger than usual ratio of small rocks mixed in, to sort mimic my dream gravel (or shell) driveway.