Pros and Cons of Making the Switch to Artificial Grass for Your Lawn

The hotter the days get, the more futile it seems to maintain a healthy lawn. No matter how religious you are in watering the grass or fertilizing them, they simply are no match to the powers of the almighty sun. On your part as the homeowner, this scenario can most definitely be frustrating and, not to mention, costly.
Fortunately, there is a viable option in the form of artificial grass, which you can turn to instead for your landscaping needs. Understandably, there are some concerns about making this transition because it seems to take a step down from having natural grass. To help you ascertain how good an option artificial grass truly is, here are some of the pros and cons that you can consider.

Maintenance

With natural grass, you need to prepare the soil to keep it healthy and ideal for grass and plant growth. You’ll need fertilizer as well as chemicals for treatment so that the plants won’t be infested by pests and insects. If the soil is healthy, the grass will grow lush. This means faster overgrowth, which will require mowing, otherwise your lawn is going to end up looking dishevelled and worse for wear. There’s also the matter of weeding; these can easily overtake your garden, which is going to kill off the grass and other plants.
With artificial grass, there is no growth expected because there is no soil needed. Because of this fundamental difference in requirement, you immediately take out the need for all the other tools such as fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides, regular lawn moving and raking, and timely watering, among others. You will, however, still have to hose down the turf if only to make sure there are no stains and odor that can affect your property’s aesthetics.
If you have plants and trees around, it’s also possible that you will still have to blow or rake dried leaves away. Even then, the amount of time you’ll spend cleaning up and maintaining the lawn still wouldn’t be anywhere as near as with natural grass.

Pet and Family-Friendliness

Both kids and pets love playing on the grass. It’s a great way for them to develop their motor skills as well as to familiarize with the different textures and get to know nature better. The soil, however, can be a breeding ground for disease-carrying bacteria, especially if there are other animals that pass through your property in search of food, like worms and bugs. Your pets, meanwhile, can become more vulnerable to contracting ticks and fleas. Even if you use pesticides and insecticides, these can also have ill effects on your kids and pets if they become exposed to it.
With artificial turf, you can rest assured that you’ll be getting nontoxic materials and none of the accompanying pests and insects potentially disease-carrying. Of course, you just have to make sure that you will also be maintaining its cleanliness.

General Safety

One of the more concerns about artificial grass is that it heats up faster than natural grass. As such, it can be prickly on the skin, especially for kids playing on it. The response of artificial grass supporters, however, is that there are plenty of shading mechanisms that can mitigate this heat-up, which is an expected tendency considering that artificial grass is made of materials like polypropylene or nylon. Overhangs, trees forming shade, or other materials can create “cool zones” within the artificial grass zone.
Apart from that, synthetic grass actually provides very good traction, which is ideal for preventing slips and falls, especially with kids running around. Overall therefore, while there may be certain drawbacks to artificial grass, it still delivers on efficiency, safety, and durability, which makes the benefits a lot more relevant in the bigger picture.
You can find out more about artificial grass by getting in touch with professionals who do work with the material. Those in Phoenix, Scottsdale, and other nearby areas can look forward to quality service from experts such as Sunburst Landscaping.
Sources:
10 Significant Pros and Cons of Artificial Grass. NYLN.org.
Should You Fake the Lawn? Sunset.com.