Real turf or artificial grass? How they compare on use, shade, kids and pets, maintenance and our local water situation, so you can pick the right one for your garden.

It’s one of the questions we’re asked most: real lawn or artificial? Both are good choices for different gardens. Here’s how we’d help you think it through.

How will you use it?

A lawn that’s mostly looked at, as a green setting for borders and a patio, has very different needs from one that takes a paddling pool, a trampoline and two kids every weekend from April to October.

Heavy, year-round use, especially with children or dogs? Artificial grass takes the kind of traffic that would turn a real lawn to mud by November.
Want bees, worms and the smell of cut grass? Nothing replaces the real thing.

Light and shade

This decides it more often than people expect. Real grass needs sun. A lawn under trees, or shaded by the house or a fence for most of the day, will be thin, patchy and mossy no matter what you feed it. In those spots a good artificial lawn looks better all year. In an open, sunny plot, a well-laid real lawn will thrive and is hard to beat.

Kids and pets

Both work, with caveats. Modern artificial grass is designed to drain, so it copes with dogs and rinses clean, and there’s no mud tracked through the house. Real grass is kinder underfoot for children playing but needs recovery time. A small lawn taking constant use will struggle to keep up.

Maintenance

This is the real difference over time:

Real turf costs less to lay, but needs mowing, feeding, the odd bit of repair and watering in dry spells. Many people enjoy that. Some don’t have the time.
Artificial grass costs more up front and is a bigger install job, because the groundwork underneath is critical. After that it’s a quick brush and the occasional rinse. No mowing, no muddy patches, green in February.

Neither is “no maintenance”. It’s a choice between a little every week and more at the start.

Our local water situation

Here in the Thames Valley, hosepipe bans have become a regular summer fixture. A real lawn will brown off in a drought (it recovers, as grass is tougher than it looks). If you want a space that stays green through a dry, restricted summer, that’s a point in favour of artificial grass, alongside drought-friendly planting and permeable paving.

There’s no universally right answer. It depends on your garden, your light, and how you use it.

How we can help

On a free site visit we’ll look at your light, your levels and how you use the space, and tell you what we’d recommend, even if that means real turf is the better bet and the cheaper job. Then you get a clear written estimate, amended until you’re happy.

If you’re weighing up a lawn anywhere around Bracknell, Wokingham, Reading or the Surrey borders, get in touch and we’ll talk it through.