Drought-hit California turning to fake grass
SYNTHETIC SOLUTION Although purists object to artificial turf or ‘frass’, it finds purchase as way to save water in parched Golden State
Christopher Knight makes no apologies: he likes a green lawn. But he also wants to do his part to conserve water.
The solution? Fake grass.
“It feels totally different,” Knight, 57, marvelled recently, stepping barefoot on to a deceptively lifelike expanse of newly installed plastic turf. “Frankly, I’m not really sure why more people haven’t started doing it.”
After four blistering years of drought in California, more people are doing it. The fake grass business is booming, much to the chagrin of some environmentalists and live-grass purists.
Comprehensive numbers are hard to come by, but the makers and installers of synthetic turf say they are experiencing an unprecedented spike in residential business in California. From middle-class families who don’t want to forfeit the patchof-green part of the American Dream megawattto celebrities who are mortified by TV coverage of their sprawling water-hog lawns, homeowners across the Golden State are ripping up sod and replacing it with plastic.
“Everything is in California right now,” said David Barbera, president of Georgia-based Artificial Turf Supply, which opened a warehouse and a sales office in southern California last year. “We have doubled the size of our business in the past 12 months.”
The benefits of fake grass are hard to deny. Live grass guzzles some 2,200 litres per square metre annually, making the all-American lawn increasingly untenable in an era of skyrocketing water rates and excessive-use penalties. Over the past two months, since governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency and decreed that water use be cut by 25% this year, synthetic turf companies report an avalanche of interest.
In many parts of the state, the trend is being fuelled by cash rebates of up to $40 per square metre for installing low-water (or no-water) landscaping. The vast majority of rebate-takers go the more natural – and cheaper – route of shrubs and succulents, officials said. But a growing numberof homeownersarerejecting spiky deer grass and scratchy sagebrush and paying more than $100 per square metre to luxuriate in plastic’s convincing lushness.
“For people who want to play with their children – soccer,
Today’s artificial turf is the descendant of AstroTurf, which was developed in the mid-1960s by chemical giant Monsanto
Originally called ChemGrass, it was rechristened after gaining fame in the newly erected Houston Astrodome, where the trials of maintaining indoor natural grass had compelled crews to paint the dead outfield green
Since then, the product has travelled a bumpy road to sporting-field prominence, waxing and waning in accordance with technological improvements and controversies over toxicity or injuries. The $1bn-a-year industry began expanding into the residential market in the 1990s. baseball, Frisbee – they can’t do that in a front yard with cactus. You’re going to get a needle in the rump,” said Ara Najarian, mayor of the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, who has emerged as something of a synthetic turf champion. To be sure, fake grass – known as “frass” in some quarters – has its critics. Santa Monica, for instance, will not approve rebates for homeowners who install plastic. Sacramento and Glendale have long banned the installation of artificial turf in front lawns, as have some The governor passed mandatory water conservation restrictions this April in a massive effort to cut water usage. California is experiencing the worst drought in its history, and according experts the state only has about one year of water left in storage. On May 5, the state water board crafted mandatory conservation regulations requiring cities and water retailers save 8% to 36% by February 13 or face $10,000 fines. With the nine-month emergency measure in effect since May18, some say the days of apathy are over, replaced by a rabid conservation response from homeowners and business owners alike.
homeowner associations, which view the product as tacky.
Najarian has been waging a spirited campaign to get his city’s ban overturned. “I’ve always been a firm believer that we need to give families the option,” he said. But Peter Fuad, president of the Northwest Glendale Homeowners Association, adamantly defends the ban.
“You can’t be assured people won’t buy the cheapest Home Depot special,” Fuad fretted during a recent city council meeting. “Are you going to allow red, white
and blue turf ?” Synthetic turf advocates dismiss such fears. Today’s fake grass, they say, is nothing like the preternaturally green stuff that used to carpet the local miniature golf course. The venerable Hollywood Bowl, one of the nation’s most iconic amphitheatres, recently made the switch. Mark Ladd, the venue’s assistant director of operations, notes that the fake greenery looks authentic: the height and colour of the blades are varied, with a few brown ones thrown in to emulate dead thatch. GNS