BuzzGrass is proud to announce that some of our products will now have a Polyurethane (PU) backing, rather than a traditional latex backing.
Our grass is backed in the UK at our Maryport factory, which is one of the most technologically-advanced production facilities in Europe, using the same innovative technology as our sister company, SIS Pitches who work with some of the biggest names in sport.
The following products will now have PU backing:
Are sprinklers a waste of water? The truth is that sprinkler irrigation systems are not as efficient at water conservation as they may first appear. The typical water consumption for a residential sprinkler system ranges from 12 to 30 gallons per minute, depending on the sprinkler head’s size and type. Operating the sprinkler for 30 minutes a day, 15 days a month, can lead to a consumption of up to 450 gallons per month.
Inadequate water pressure and strong winds can cause significant water loss due to drift or evaporation.
Understanding your monthly water bill is the first step to determining the costs of watering your lawn. The bill measures your water usage using various standard units of consumption, the most common being centum cubic feet (CCF) and gallons, where 1 CCF equals 748 gallons.
The local water utility employs a range of rate structures to bill its customers, including:
All these rate structures can substantially increase water bills if you regularly water your lawn.
Type of Grass
How the type of grass in your lawn affects your water billTwo types of grass are commonly used for residential lawns – Cool Season grasses and Warm Season grasses. Cool Season grasses can withstand colder temperatures and will go dormant in hot, dry weather. Examples of this type of grass include Ryegrass, Fine and Tall Fescue, Creeping Bentgrass, and Kentucky Bluegrass.
On the other hand, Warm Season grasses thrive in warmer climates, such as the southern regions of the U.S. They experience the most growth during the warmest part of the year. These types of turfgrass often require less water than Cool Season grasses. Examples include Bermuda grass, Zoysia grass, St. Augustine grass, Bahia grass, Buffalo grass, and Centipede grass.
How to Remove with a Truck
You can easily remove infill by tying one end of a rope to the edge of your roll and the other to a car or truck. Drive slowly forward until your turf is unrolled and the infill falls out, and then shake out the remaining infill.
How to Remove Infill With A Forklift
If you have access to a forklift, you can use it to lift a section of your turf roll about four feet off the ground and then hit it with a broom to shake the infill out. You would then repeat this process for the entire length of the roll.
Note: This process is only recommended if you’re skilled in the operation of a forklift. Do not attempt if you are not able to comfortably operate a forklift.
For more detailed instructions on DIY Extraction, check out this article!
Extracted Turf
Like most repurposed turf, extracted turf is sourced from local sports fields. Unlike infilled turf, extracted turf has had the infill professionally removed for a lighter, easier to install product.
Without infill turf is only about half a pound per square foot, making it easier to work with. However, infill is absolutely necessary to the look, performance, and life of your turf. So if you do purchase extracted turf, you’ll still need to buy infill and add it to your turf
Because extracted turf is infill-free, you have the option to buy a higher quality infill than the sand and crumb rubber commonly found in infilled sports turf. High quality infills like ZeoFill can keep your lawn up to 20 °F cooler and also prevent the growth of harmful microbes.
Infill
Infilled turf comes with infill already in it. It’s less expensive than extracted turf and also saves you the cost of purchasing infill. However, infill adds A LOT of weight to the product, which can make transportation and installation more difficult.
Limiting factors for infilled turf include manpower, access to your project site, and your ability to transport heavy loads.
Lucky for you, there are more than a couple ways to remove infill from turf yourself! These DIY extraction methods help you quickly and effectively remove the infill:
While some people believe artificial grass is not suitable for pets, it is actually not the case. In fact, it is safer than natural grass. To understand this better, here are some points to consider.
Durability:
Artificial grass lasts significantly longer than real grass. If your pets like rough play, they will most likely create large holes and patches in your natural grass. With artificial grass, however, no matter how often they rip about the lawn, it will always look immaculate.
Cleanliness:
Synthetic grass, unlike natural grass, does not become muddy in the winter. This means you won’t have to worry about scrubbing muddy paw prints off the floor if your dog runs inside suddenly.
Grass Length:
If you don’t mow your natural lawn too often, the overgrown grass can be frightening to a little animal, but with an artificial lawn, the grass will always be at the proper height. It is also comfy and soft for pets to rest on, creating an enticing outside place for them.
Free of Toxins:
When it comes to animals nibbling on the grass, artificial grass may be safer than natural grass. This is because there is no need to apply fertilizers, pesticides, or weed killers on an artificial lawn to keep it looking great. So you don’t have to be concerned about your pet ingesting something toxic.
One common misconception about synthetic yards is that it is prohibitively costly. However, an artificial lawn may be extremely cost-effective in the long run, even costing less than natural grass.
When you factor in the cost of lawnmowers, grass feed, fertilizers, pesticides, hoses, water usage, strimmers, and re-turfing required to keep a real lawn looking good, artificial grass is far less expensive than real grass over its entire lifespan because it does not require any of the above to keep it looking good.
So, while artificial grass is more expensive to install, the savings in time, effort, and money spent on upkeep might save you several thousand bucks in the long term, indicating that an artificial lawn can be more cost-effective than a genuine lawn.
Eventually even the toughest kids wind down, and camp-out style sleep overs call for tents. You can certainly pitch tents on your artificial lawn, but don’t use traditional stakes. You can anchor the corners with bricks or heavy rocks, but unless it’s windy the tents will stay put on their own – certainly once the kids are snoozing inside.
What’s the best thing about putting your tent on the artificial grass? Comfort like you’d never get in the rough. Instead of rocky, uneven ground no air mattress can fix, your kids will have the same soft, even surface under their beds as they have underfoot when playing on the lawn. (And, parents, if sleeping kids make impressions on the grass overnight, you can simply get out a stiff bristle brush and re-fluff the grass.)
Of course, you could skip the tents and hold your sleep over under the stars. See who can identify the most constellations – or any constellations. If it sprinkles, your campers can always bring their sleeping bags into the living room.
Now that you have an artificial grass lawn, we know you’re spending more time enjoying your yard. Hanging out around the pool, grilling up a storm, perhaps playing bocce or shaving a few strokes off your golf game, if you also added an artificial grass court or green. The kids and the dog are enjoying that fake grass, too, aren’t they?
So why not organize a summer sleep over for your kids, using your artificial lawn as Campout HQ? There’s almost no end to the fun you can have.
Playing around
You’ll want to play some lawn games, of course. Parenting magazine has some fun backyard game ideas for campouts. Or you could play board games on the grass. After dark, hang a white sheet on a wall or the fence and show a movie.
Campfire eats, without the dirt
A backyard fire pit is perfect for at-home campfires. You get the ambiance of a real campout, and you can use the fire pit for cooking, too, if you want. Before you even light it up, run through essential fire safety rules with your campers:
Forest Service Rangers recommend younger children not get within 10 feet of an open fire, but if your fire pit has a screened cover, closer should be OK (but be extra vigilant if you remove the cover to roast marshmallows or for campfire cooking).
No running around the fire.
What food goes best with summer sleep overs? Anything you can set on a grill or in the fire:
For dinner, set up a DIY nacho station loaded with options, and have kids build their creations inside a foil packet.
For breakfast the next morning, make roasted banana splits. Slit the banana skin lengthwise down one side, spread it open gently, fill it with granola or chopped nuts and raisins, add a little brown sugar and butter, and wrap in foil to roast for 10-15 minutes. Break out the spoons and you ready to eat. (Or, to stay with the camping theme, you might want to supply your kids with sporks.)
Roasted marshmallows are a must for any backyard sleep over, especially s’mores. If you’re concerned about gooey mess, you can try making campfire cones instead. But we’re talking kids here, so mess is part of the fun. Try to direct this action away from your artificial lawn, though. Fake grass is easy to wash off should something spill, but hot-off-the-stick roasted marshmallow might melt a spot. (Even that can be fixed, by the way.)
They don’t set out to ruin your yard, they are merely looking for food – mostly in the form of roots and small plants. So they burrow along under the surface where the soil is richest and most likely to hold tasty goodies, munching as they go. Unfortunately, their quest for food causes holes and mounds that are ugly and can easily trip you up.
And all that tunneling underground causes the soil surface to collapse, leaving you sinkholes, too. And those moles and gopher are motivated! A single gopher can create as many as 300 holes a year and move literally tons of soil. No wonder your lawn looks so awful and you feel so defeated.
Artificial turf is an ideal solution
As much as we hate the damage moles and gophers can create, most of us also feel guilty at the thought of using poisons and traps and other cruel means to get rid of them. Replacing your lawn with artificial grass is the kinder, gentler approach – simply causing the rodents to make their homes elsewhere.
It’s the only thing that will work, too.
Converting to artificial grass to eliminate moles and gophers is not a project you want to undertake on your own, for the same reasons you don’t want to purchase artificial turf from a big box store. It takes extensive training and experience to install faux grass properly, so it lives up to your expectations. Quality, professional installation actually involves many steps, including careful ground preparation and multiple layers of different substrates and specially-formulated underlayment and infill products.
However, when you combine top-quality artificial turf and professional installation, you’ll get superior results – the kind that send diggers packing and leave you with greater peace of mind and a greener future.