Artificial Grass – Our Guide

Artificial Grass in Victoria BC Landscaping

Recently the Municipality of Langford has been increasingly installing Artificial Turf on its properties. Not only do they look great but they save them money with cutting and watering. Increasingly, this is becoming a popular landscape addition in Victoria as well.

Advantages

The advantages are truly many.

No longer will you have to worry about fertilizing, aerating, dethatching, cutting, and watering the lawn. No longer will one have to worry about balancing all those things just right to get the perfect look. Not only will your lawn become stress and worry free, it will save you thousands a year from not dealing with all those services, all of which can be a monthly drain on one’s finances.

Many people have noticed in the past few years that with climate change, our summers are becoming increasingly dry. In 2015 for example, most lawns became yellow in the summer months unless one used an exorbitant amount of water. With Artificial Grass, you will be saving hundreds or thousands on your water bill and won’t have to worry about setting up and maintaining and irrigation system.

In our wet winters, we always get reports of muddy lawns, sometimes with the help of dogs digging them up. Unlike gravel, which significantly changes the look and feel of your lawn, Artificial Sod maintains it. Unlike regular reseeding or resodding, which we often hear the pet has just dug up again, Artificial Turf provides a long term solution to your problem.

It’s also great for pets and kids. For one thing they will be less likely to bring in mud with them into the house. But also it gives you a predictable surface to use, which from a safety perspective for children, is superior than a muddy surface where children could slide or fall into harmful objects.

Disadvantage

The main one is cost. It costs about the same as a paver patio, which can be between $20 and $40 per square feet. However, just like a paver patio, it should last for a long time, thus despite the higher initial cost compared to traditional sod, it pays its dividends as time goes by not only because it’s stress free, but also from not needing to maintain it.

Environmental Impact

Sod comes from sod farms, which is arable land that is used to farm monoculture grass. As long as it is profitable, more and more arable land will be utilized this way and not feeding anyone nor be used for wildlife.

What about insects and other life that depend on the organic lawn you have now?

Because it is a monoculture, that is, it is a single type of plant, our existing organic lawns are essentially a desert for most wildlife. Imagine you are a panda who can eat bamboo and you are surrounded by Aspens. Sure it looks green and alive to humans but they are of no use to you as a panda. This is the case for many organisms. As a result there is no real impact going from your average monoculture lawn and an artificial one to the biodiversity of the area.

A large impact it will have is the cutting down of water usage. As mentioned already, with our increasingly dry summers in Victoria, the water required to maintain a nice green lush lawn in summer is becoming increasingly prohibitive. Artificial Turf solves this problem permanently.

Types of Artificial Sod

Not all Artificial Turf are equal.

The type is dependent on factors such as amount of expected foot traffic, the look and feel of the turf itself, and budget. Certain types will be designed for high traffic while others are more sensitive to any foot traffic at all. Some are for really hot summers perhaps in places like Arizona by lowering the temperature of the ground significantly to be more child and pet friendly. Other types are not nearly as drastic in their effects on ground temperature.

Due to their different construction, different types will have different feels. This is obviously going to be very important if not the most important factor in choosing the right one for you.

And of course prices can vary quite a bit depending on the type of Artificial Sod needed.

Ultimately it’s important to go over all this information in detail with your landscaper before any decision is made.

If this is something you are interested in doing with Triton Landscaping here in Victoria, please contact us.