I am thinking of Astro Turf put in my garden. There are some questions I would like to ask.

1) I have four dogs-how hard wearing-does it hold the smells-does it fade in colour.

2) How does one clean the turf.

3) What depth of grass is the best to get-seems to be short-medium-long

We know about all groundwork needed-as we realize that if this was not done properly there would not be much point in laying the turf.

I have been to a garden that has it down, and yes, it looks fine-however they have 3 children and not 4 dogs.

thanks

It might be worth sending a PM to chaumsong. She has had it down for quite a few years now and has several dogs - I am sure she would give you some information :-)

I've replied by pm to the OP, but will answer your questions here too for anyone else interested :-)

1) I have four dogs-how hard wearing-does it hold the smells-does it fade in colour.

Mine has a borzoi, 2 collies and a silken endlessly playing/digging and going to the loo on it. The girls race round playing tag on it and it still looks exactly the same as when I put it down 4 or 5 years ago. Yes, it does smell if not hosed down with bleach or disinfectant.

2) How does one clean the turf.

Poos just sit on top and are easily picked up, I hose mine down every few days in the summer either with bleach (straight from the bottle held over the water stream) or disinfectant and that does the trick and the grass has never changed colour. In the winter it can go weeks without being hosed and doesn't smell.

3) What depth of grass is the best to get-seems to be short-medium-long

I think that depends on how you wan tit to look. Mine is 35mm.

This is the stuff I have, apart from being incredibly heavy to install it's absolutely brilliant.

> I hose mine down every few days in the summer either with bleach (straight from the bottle held over the water stream) or disinfectant

Would it be a fair point that you would need to consider where the run off is going to go ie not on a downward slope towards your neighbours prized begonias.

Fair point :-)

My garden is designed to ensure that borzoi pee doesn't get into the neighbours gardens, it all slopes down to a drain in the middle and I have plastic sheeting stapled to the fence all the way round.

See here

Good point about run off we have a drain in one part of the garden.

I saw some in Homebase today, 3 different grades priced from £23 m2 to £40 m2.

About a month ago I had NAM grass laid. I had done a lot of research and artificial grass seems very robust with dogs. I have 4 Goldens, one Cavalier and a constant stream of "lodgers". It is guaranteed not to fade with u/v, I left a sample in bleach water & it didn't fade and I disinfect it weekly ( well, that's the intention) with Trigene which is a parvocide, anti bacterial, anti fungal, anti viral.There are many artificial grasses to choose from and it is down to personal choice but I wouldn't go for a very long pile. Mine was about £20 per sq.m. I can't believe the transformation to my garden.  Go for it!