Your artificial grass will look great

It’s that time of year, folks… according to Romantic poet Keats, the ‘season of mellow fruitfulness’.  We have fruit trees in our own garden which, despite its modesty. Stockport suburban size, counts as an “orchard” (Did you know that anything over six trees is actually an orchard?) We have had the plums, and the pears… even a couple of cherries.  And now the last of the apples is ready to be picked and then the seasonal work of the trees is done.  And we all know what happens then…

…Yes, the leaves are now turning that burnt and rusty colour.  And seen through the bright light and blue sky of a crisp autumnal day, they can look rather gorgeous.  Over the other side of the pond, where Autumn is known as Fall, is there any pleasure better known to man than kicking through the thick layer of leaves in New York’s Central Park?  Certainly, for the children, it can be a great thrill to pick up piles of freshly dropped leaves and launch them into the air, creating a rain cascade of falling foliage.

But the falling leaves can also cause problems, especially when added to the wet weather that’s so typical of this time of year.  It’s a natural cocktail that is certainly not the best combination for our gardens; the rain and foliage form a kind of organic mulch.  And after an atypically dry and sunny early September, the rains are definitely now with us, much more typical for the time of year, especially in Cheshire.

Rain on artificial grass

The rains can create havoc.   Even in the north we can get rather used to extended periods of dry – dare we say it, sunny – summer weather, so that when the wet weather returns, it can take us all by surprise.  Suddenly the back door of the house is no longer thrust wide open all day.  The lawn – once the preserve of the children and their summer games – begins to adopt its Narnia-esque hue.  Then the leaves fall and ruin the uniform green of the lawn so that suddenly our lush and lovely back gardens look… messy.  And once the lawn starts to mulch up, when the children do go out, they then come back in with muddy boots and shoes, dragging the garden back through the house with them.

At least… that’s how it goes with natural lawns.  With artificial grass, however, it’s a totally different matter.  You see when our artificial surfaces are constructed, the grass bed is perforated with holes… rather like aerating a conventional lawn.  These holes are engineered to cope with the drainage needed for average rainfall and snowstorms, although in extreme rain showers, some rain will also run straight from the top of the surface, just as it would with a natural lawn.  However, independent testing has confirmed, to our delight, the porosity of our artificial grass to the BS7044 standard.

You may argue that a natural surface is also able to drain, which of course, to a certain extent, it is.  But you will often find puddles forming after heavy rainfall, due to the inconsistency of the surface.  Artificial grass, meanwhile, is completely porous, so that the rainwater will drain straight through these many, precise, drainage holes.  Further, the water will then be absorbed into the infill of the grass.  Built from sand and rubber, this acts as a kind of lawn underlay, if you will, which absorbs all of the water before ultimately letting it drain through.

So, even in the winter months, with an artificial surface, you are always more likely to have a lawn that resembles a billiards table… rather than a battlefield!