Went to a neighborhood's 'open garden' event and half the yards were just fake grass and pavers

I checked out this local garden tour thing last Saturday thinking I'd see some cool native plants or veggie setups. Nope. At least 6 out of 10 places had replaced their whole lawn with artificial turf and stamped concrete. One guy told me he did it to 'save on watering' but the whole yard was 95 degrees at 10am. What's the point of a backyard if you can't even grow a tomato in it? Anyone else seeing this trend take over where you live?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim_martin7d ago

Does anyone else worry that all this fake grass is just baking the soil underneath and making the whole neighborhood hotter over time? With real plants you get some shade and cooling, but turf just stores heat and radiates it back at you. Seems like we're trading a tiny water bill for a much bigger AC bill and a sad, sterile yard.

wadeyoung7d ago

Yeah I saw a study about this recently... something about artificial turf making surface temps up to 50 degrees hotter than grass in direct sun. @kim_martin you're exactly right about the AC cost tradeoff, nobody thinks about the long term when they're just trying to skip mowing. I think neighborhoods are going to start regretting these decisions once they realize how much all that plastic bakes the whole block.