Curious if only us old folks are clued into the term Astroturf. "If a cow can't eat it, I don't want to play on it."

Can't help otherwise.

It won't grow well under the deck. Kidding.

It'll be fine. Make sure you have a drainage course and positive drainage so you don't get an accumulation of moisture.

When asked if he preferred grass or Astroturf, Tug McGraw replied "I don't know; I never smoked Astroturf"

Not long afterwards, it killed him, and several other Phillies and Mets players (apparently, although they were all pretty identical - Astroturf-carpeted gigantic cement toilets - The Vet and Shea Stadium had a higher cancer rate than Riverfront, Three Rivers or Busch)

Don't fuck with it

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I want to replace my lawn with it so I never have to mow again or get evil looks from neighbors when half my grass is brown come August.

Break the paradigm that space between your house and your sidewalk needs to be an evenly manicured patch of grass

It's your property, do what you want with it

If you want to furrow corn rows, go ahead

I have a wild bramble of raspberries in my front yard. I used to get the "Flowers & shrubs in the front; fruits & vegetables in the back" bullshit

Then they realized that behind my brambles, I had 12' high rose bushes, so this dude must be doing something right

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I'll replace my grass with turf, but only after some genius develops a way to make it look more like real grass. Not 100% uniform length and color in the spring and summer. (Just a few random off color blades of grass with the blades being plus or minus 1/16-inch from a 1.5-inch "standard".) It needs to somehow turn a little less vibrant green in the fall. Definitely not green in January and February, and then gradually magically coming back to green starting in March. And no visible seams.

Until then, it's mow, edge, fertilize, weed, water, grub killer, and pray.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

My mantra is "It might not all be grass, it might not all be green, but every now and then - it's all the same height"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Yeah, its the "crumb rubber" they're worried about. Made from recycled tires. Contains all kinds of toxins. Shitload of it on a turf field where I work. Old stuff too. Scary.

I know this was a talking point bu I thought they had performed health and environmental risk assessments on the crumb rubber and found no increased risk compared to playing on natural surfaces. I could have sworn there was a solid review of lit for this.

From what I know, it should work for your setup.

A few years ago, I had the idea of doing this for a front lawn on a house we bought. Based on the square footage it turned to be cost-prohibitive and more costly than putting down sod and going w/traditional grass. We didn't calculate savings on maintenance as wife wasn't on board at all. So that ended there.


In our current home and area, a neighbor on the block owns a company that does this... They do this for school fields, rec centers etc.... The technology is much more advanced than the "concrete turf" of years ago, that caused turf-toe injuries etc. These days it's aesthetically pleasant and works for sports. I did learn that unlike natural grass, the contaminants tend to stay longer. Think of all the sweat, spillage, snot rockets and other grossness that occurs... So the maintenance involves vacuuming and cleaning that up w/specialized equipment, usually at end of season. Neighbor shared that it can be really gross.

But for your under-deck installation it should be fine. With some regular cleaning as it's not really maintenance free.

Go for it.

I used to be in the flooring business and we sold a astroturf for all sorts of situations. Some of it is very realistic looking and there is a reason many NFL stadiums have it.

Aside from that, my niece and her husband did their whole backyard in it this year. I thought they were crazy but I have to say it looks pretty good.

Interesting on the clean up!

A lot of the dog agility shows have moved into indoor soccer venues in the summer as the soccer kids play outside. So hundreds of dogs and people running and jumping on it too.

Our dog doesn’t do well on it so we try to avoid those shows (she is more distracted by the smells on indoor turf that in an indoor horse arena - which tells you something!) she also tends to slip running on turf- lots of people pour coke or hairspray on their dog’s paws to make them stickier to run on turf.

Another former Phillie passed away over the weekend - David West [drafted by the Mets and played his rookie year in Shea]

And yes I forgot Olympic in MTL, and Royals Stadium in KC which claimed Gary Carter, Bobby Murcer, Dan Quisenberry, as well as KC manager Dick Howser.

If you ask "Those were multi-purpose stadiums; how come no NFL players have gotten sick?" the thinking seems to be that only 8 NFL games would be played at home during the year vs 81 MLB games, PLUS football is played in colder weather, while heating up the Astroturf in Summer may have released the cancer-causing toxins

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

"Better things for better living through... chemistry " becomes the "the miracles of science"

Thank you DuPont.

I still think Dick Allen said it best. Old school worked for so long and then we got new and different but maybe not so better.

Monsanto, actually

Trust me, I know a thing or two about Monsanto

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I am sure both petrochemical powerhouses each contributed to our better living through science. But that was the DuPont advertising slogan from 1935-1982. Care to tell us how Monsanto made life better for you?

Since you asked ...

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=5717353#p5717353

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

How can you even think of apologizing for your granddad’s decision to go with the lease agreements with Disneyland? That place has made hundreds of thousands of people so happy. And the Disney princesses are considered f*cking delightful by a lot of people.

Love you RandMart. :)

Slight hijack, but I feel that way as well. I always feel wasteful turning up my sprinklers as summer progresses just to keep the lawn green. Which then also means I have to mow more often as well. Lately I've been looking at getting some landscaping done to cut down on the amount of grass and do something more 'natural.' Wildflowers, bushes and gardens take a lot less water and if done well can look pretty good. Have been considering clovers as well to have that green look and an area for my kid to run around and play. From what I had read it's better for bees and other pollinators as well. This subreddit has a lot of neat pics to look through.

Some of my favorite ones:






Clover lawn:

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Matt

I long ago gave up on trying to "cultivate" lawn, especially in the back yard

My front yard is pretty much a patch of violets while the back is nearly completely feral; I have no neighbors behind me [we back up to a chainlink barrier around a mostly dried-up retention pond] and fences on but sides, so no one needs to see nor give a fuck

When I do cut the back - which isn't often - i like to say "it might not all be green; it might not all be grass; but it's all the same height"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Turf will work and would withstand the weather.

If it were up to me, though, I'd prefer textured/stained concrete, stone, or brick -- whatever works best for the location. I don't think the price difference would be significant, and it would be less likely to loop cheap or tacky.

Love you too, Jane

Let's not forget all the other Disney Properties which bring people joy: Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, they own The Simpsons now

Interestingly enough, one of my cousins is Head of International Film & TV at Amazon [manages a lot of Asian & South Asian content], the other owns a post-production shop who cuts a lot of trailers for Disney - she won a bunch of awards for her company's work on WandaVision

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin