Artificial Grass

It’s safe to say I am a complete gardening failure. If it grows, I’ll probably kill it.

My lovely mum bought me a beautiful rose bush when Elsa was born, all potted up & named after our little ‘Elsa Mary’. It’s been on the verge of death about 4x since then & each time it’s been returned to her to be nurtured back to health….how can I keep a baby alive for nearly 3 years but not a stupid rose bush?

Although I have a huge passion for interiors, it’s not reflected onto exteriors & I have no patience or know-how when it comes to anything garden related. 

I also view grass to be a bit of a pain in that it needs constant maintanance, especially with the particularly warm winter we’ve had & plenty of rain meaning it’s kept growing but been unsuitable for mowing. It got to the point where I was fed up of looking out at brown patches in the summer & an overgrown jungle in the winter.

I first discovered the joys of artificial grass in our old house, where the garden was small but the gravel just wasn’t practical at all & so we decided to invest in laying something that make it more usable but still be maintanance free.

BEFORE –

AFTER –

It was 100% the BEST thing we ever did & we were converted.

I used to regularly hoover it with an old Hetty hoover we had in the shed, much to our neighbours amusement, as well as cleaning it with a bio washing liquid & hot water solution a couple of times a year to get rid of any unwanted dog wee smells that may have lingered.

That’s why when we moved to Baylyn House, we were desperate to do the same thing but didn’t have the time last Spring/Summer due to having a newborn as well as all the other various projects on the house we were doing at the time.

I haven’t really shown our garden on Instagram or over here on the blog due to not being overly happy or proud of it. I’m on a mission to change this & with a little help, become the new ‘Charlie Dimmock’ (except I promise to wear a bra as nobody wants to see these saggy badboys, trust me…).

My first port of call when looking for grass was to find a reputable supplier that was within our limited budget. I found SO many companies that pushed fitting/laying when this would have rocketed the cost up & we knew how simple it is to lay from our previous experience so weren’t afraid of the challenge.

After measuring the area we needed 8m x 9.5m allowing for wastage – a whopping 76m2.

After much searching, I ordered a couple of samples from Tuda Grass at http://www.cheapgrass.co.uk/ who are on Ebay under username @upholstery-diy123. The two I went for were the 28mm ‘Athens‘ & 25mm ‘Oxford‘ at £8.00 & £8.50pm2 & the samples cost 99p each with free P&P.

These arrived the next day, although they had included about 8 other samples from the better ranges which made the two samples I had chosen due to how cheap they were look a bit rubbish in comparison.

We decided that the best one by miles was the 30mm ‘Luxury‘ at £11.00pm2 & although it did work out about £200 more expensive, if you work that out over the 10 year warantee that all Tuda Grass comes with, it was peanuts (& an ‘investment’ which you all know is my favourite word…) at 38p a week.

I placed the order for 2 rolls of 4m x 9.5m which came to £836.00 including free next day delivery.

Also needed was sharp sand (& lots more of it that originally anticipated…), weed barrier membrane & joining tape.

Husband set to work laying it alongside my stepdad who is pretty handy at all things & help from my mum who shouldn’t really have been helping after recovering from surgery but she’s a stubborn one (god knows where I get it from).

Firstly, the decking that ran through the middle which was half rotten & gave the worst splinters ever came up.

Then came the hardest part; taking up the lawn. We had hired a turf cutter at £60 a day to make this job easier which it did, however it definitely didn’t look like the youtube video’s I’d watched of a man pushing it along without a care in the world then simply rolling up the turf into perfect managable sections.

This took ALL day on Saturday & required two strong men to push/pull it along. Maybe the one we hired wasn’t great but it was back breaking work.

On Sunday, with aching joints, they got back to work & started by compacting the ground with an oldschool roller, then shifting the giant mounds of sharp sand. I thought I’d overordered but we soon realised that it didn’t go far & had to make an emergency dash to Wickes last minute. Make sure to lay approx 1 inch.

 

 

After levelling this as much as possible, we popped the weed barrier membrane over the top.

Finally we were on to the actual artificial grass laying which didn’t take long at all. After rolling it out (including butting it together in the middle of the two rolls with joining tape), we cut around the edges then hammered galvanised nails in to secure every 20cm or so.

 

 

 

To finish, sweep play sand in with a stiff brush to lift up the grass fibres.

I’m SO pleased with how it looks. It’s made a massive difference & makes it look a lot bigger (deceptively big garden as it’s very wide). Plus perfect for children & even Mungo approves.

 

 

 

 

In total, this area cost us under £1000 including all materials & hire of the turf cutter, spread out over it’s 10 year guarantee, that’s £8.30 a month! I don’t think is too bad when spread out over the many years of joy it’ll bring me not having to mow it or the amount of scrubbing I’d have to do of muddy grass stained knee’s.

Love, Charlotte x

Please note – this post was in collaberation with Tuda Grass however ‘The Home That Made Me’ will always indicate to readers when a post is a sponsored/collaborative effort. In doing this, I reserve the right to be honest & authentic about the product to be reviewed. All opinions expressed in this blog post are my own & 100% genuine.