The Case for (and Against) a Synthetic Lawn

The Allure of Real Grass

There's something beautiful and comforting about mown grass—whether you're throwing a ball, lying in the shade, or sitting outside on a warm night. Writer Wallace Stegner, who grew up in dry Saskatchewan, first saw a lawn at age 11 in Montana. "I stooped down and touched its cool nap in awe and unbelief. I think I held my breath—I had not known that people anywhere lived with such grace."

The Environmental Cost

Lawns are an environmental nightmare in dry climates. In Los Angeles, millions of gallons of drinkable water are dumped into lawns daily. Gas-powered push mowers emit 11 times more pollution per hour than a car; leaf blowers are just as bad. The carbon footprint is enormous, not to mention the constant noise.

A Personal Experiment

For a while, my husband and I stopped watering our lawn—default xeriscaping. It wasn't pretty: weeds took over, and neighbors stopped picking up after their dogs. Then we visited a landscape designer who watered only eight minutes a week, did her own gardening, and had succulents, drought-tolerant trees, flowering cactus, Mexican beach pebbles—and two stunning green rectangles of perfect lawn. "It's not real," a guest whispered. It looked gorgeously real, but it was plastic: long, smooth blades laid like carpet over prepared ground. She hosed it occasionally; it drained itself. It wasn't cheap, but would pay for itself in eight years, saving water, mowing, fertilizing, and noise.

The Backlash

Friends were horrified: "It's not natural... A house should be surrounded by living things, not plastic." But what grows naturally in Southern California is scratchy stuff that snakes and lizards like—kids won't play on it, and neighbors would complain. We installed the synthetic lawn. First, the installers removed our weedy grass and put down sand, compressed it (loud, but all noise pollution at once). They rolled out the lawn in sheets so cleverly that seams are invisible. It looks like pristine sod. My brother-in-law called, convinced we'd grown perfect grass. My father remains skeptical; he admits it looks beautiful but laughs at the plastic rustle. (If you hose it down, the sound goes away—but then you're not saving water.)

Options and Benefits

Synthetic lawn comes in various lengths (late-summer long, putting-green short, or in between), shades of green, and even underlayer colors. Ours has variegated strands and looks especially real. The best part? No clean water poured into grass, no gasoline burned mowing, no fertilizer running into the sea. People stop and admire it. You don't have to tell anyone it's fake—I always do, like blurting out a dress cost $19. But you can just say thank you.