Artificial Grass front yard

Artificial grass is green, but the similarities to real grass often stop there.

Your front lawn is one of the first things visitors notice as they pull into your driveway. While many people opt for the real thing, synthetic grass offers an alternative to a living lawn. If you're trying to decide whether you should install real sod or synthetic turf in your front yard, several general criteria and factors to consider can help you make an educated choice.

Installation Costs

The price for both artificial turf and real turf vary depending on the type of synthetic or natural grass you're considering, and regional-dependent costs such as the price of grass seed in your area. But you can typically expect to pay anywhere from $4, 000 to $10, 000 per 1, 000 square feet for synthetic grass. On the other hand, it costs approximately $500 to lay 1, 000 square feet of live sod, and approximately $10 to $20 to cover that same area with grass seed.

Cooling Effects

Your front lawn affects more than just your home's appearance. Because it's close to your house, it also plays a role in the temperature of your home. The average front lawn that's made of living grass has a cooling effect on its nearby environment. A synthetic lawn doesn't provide a cooling effect, and its plastic and rubber components can actually increase surrounding temperatures. This makes it hot for anyone on the lawn and may also affect the temperature of your home.

Texture and Feeling

Athletes and other people who come into regular contact with both synthetic and natural grass typically rate real grass as being softer and more comfortable against bare skin compared to the sometimes abrasive texture of fake turf. This may be a key criteria if you plan to regularly use your front lawn for family picnics, yard sports and other activities.

Maintenance Requirements

The typical American adult spends 12 minutes every day keeping his lawn and landscape in top shape. This adds up to dozens of hours every year. If you're considering artificial turf because it may save you time, you are partially correct. Real lawns require a lot of upkeep, including regular mowing, watering, aerating, fertilizing and dethatching. Synthetic turf requires none of this, but it does require brushing to keep the blades upright, as well raking or vacuuming to remove debris, and occasional treatment against bacteria or mold growth on its surface. While specific time comparisons aren't possible due to the variety of both natural and synthetic turf types, neither option is completely maintenance-free.

Environmental Impact

Real, natural grass lawns play a big role in the environment. For example, the average 50-square-foot front lawn releases enough daily oxygen to provide for a family of four, while also capturing dust and debris and absorbing carbon dioxide. Artificial turf can't do any of this, and may even release odors and other substances when exposed to constant sun and heat. But an artificial lawn can also have environmental benefits. For example, it doesn't require watering, which may help you conserve water, and also doesn't need fertilizer or pesticides.

Source: homeguides.sfgate.com

Landscaping Tips

Though your home is your castle, there is no necessity to surround it with a moat. Here are 5 tips that will help you to make your landscaping feel more warm, welcoming and cozy.

1. Put some flowers nearby your entrance. Flowers make any area look more welcoming and attractive, so greeting your guests with Petunia, Snapdragon, Lily-of-the-Nile or some other garden flowers is always a great thing to do. What is more, to add some space between your house and the entrance, you can consider adding a little white fence. It will create an illusion that your front yard is bigger than it actually is. What is more, adding fence will create a great space for planting flowers to add some color and coziness.

2. Add rambling vines to make your yard look absolutely lovely. You can not deny that rambling vines always create romantic and even magical atmosphere. So why not to use this tip while decorating your yard?

3. To hide the unattractive driveway, consider adding some color, texture, and height. You can easily do it by adding various sorts of flowers. To start, create an island of green lawn right in the hub of a drive. Then add a couple of low boxwood hedges with flowers toward the back of your island.

4. If you want your yard to blossom and flourish bust still do not have enough time to maintain it, consider planting low-fuss lilies. Such flowers look absolutely gorgeous and come in the variety of rainbow hues, so you can pick the one you love most. What is more, low-fuss lilies do not care about the sort of soil, they love the sun and welcome hot, they do not afraid of drought. In other words, Crinums is an ideal flower for all those who are looking for low-maintenance solutions.

5. The last tip also touches the low-maintenance aspect. To make your life easier, group plantings into beds and islands. This will help you to avoid mowing and trimming around each individual plant, save a lot of time and even money.