Synthetic Turf a.k.a. Fake Grass

If you live on the East Coast and don't own any dogs you are probably going to think that what I am about to tell you is crazy. It's okay. I thought it was crazy, too. At first.

Michael and I are forking over a very sizeable chunk of change for synthetic turf in our backyard. Actually, the really crazy thing is that 90% of our backyard is either concrete patio or pool. Only a small fraction of one side of our yard is grass... or should I say dirt. So, we are forking over a very sizeable chunk of change for a very small portion of our backyard to be turned into sythentic turf. And I couldn't be more excited about it.

You see, keeping grass growing in the backyard has been nothing short of impossible. Only months after we moved in, our border collie dug up the lovely underground sprinkler system we had going back there. Sprinkler system? you East Coasters are probably wondering. Yes. Sprinkler system. If you live in San Diego you absolutely must have a sprinkler system... if you want to have grass that is.

Even so, we thought we'd manage without it. We did it the old-fashioned way at first... you know... we used a sprinkler that actually connected to a hose and that we had to turn on and off ourselves. But we weren't so great about remembering to turn it on. That coupled with the fact that our dogs are maniacs and run around like crazy and our lovely grass area turned to mud.

Mike re-sodded the area exactly twice. And it turned back to mud exactly twice, mostly when he was on deployment, and I wasn't doing such a spot-on job of keeping up with the yard on my own.

Mike swore that he would not waste another weekend of his life re-sodding our backyard.

I swore that I would not stand for another rainy day with the dogs tracking muddy footprints into the house, nor could I bear to look out at our utterly disgusting muddy pit we had once called grass.

It was quite a predicament indeed.

I set my sights on synthetic turf months ago. In my mind, I figured it would cost about half of what it actually ended up costing. But, really? After I got over the shock of the exorbitant cost for a few square feet of fake grass I realized that it is what I want. More than anything else, I just want to have grass in my backyard. I don't even care if it's fake.

The great things about synthetic turf are: 1. DUH. You don't have to mow it. Ever. Again. A huge plus for people like us who don't enjoy the idea of an afternoon working in the yard. 2. They claim that dogs can't dig it up. They actually have a warranty that covers it incase dogs have super dog digging strength and manage to put a hole in it. Therefore, NO unsightly holes in the backyard. How many dog owners can say that? 3. Did I mention you don't have to mow it? Or pull weeds? Or weedwhack. yes. It is awesome. I cannot wait.

Also? My lovely community offers special rebates for putting in synthetic turf. You see, San Diego County is in this awful water shortage situation and they are really promoting what they deem to be environmentally friendly synthetic turf. Yay!

So there you have it. I'll have to post a picture when it's all finished so you can see how it turns out.