The thing with gardening is that a gardener's work is never done €" gardens are living things which are constantly changing. Gardener's try to keep up with changes in their garden, and seem to be constantly be fighting an uphill battle to keep lawns moist, dry, short or weed-free. Gardens are demanding, so it's no surprise there are a number of innovative ways of helping gardeners achieve luscious, green gardens with minimal maintenance costs. Artificial turf is one of these, and is proving a popular alternative to real grass lawns for many time-poor homeowners.

Artificial grass is an attractive proposition for any gardener €" the opportunity to have a luscious green lawn in all seasons with minimal maintenance costs. Real grass lawns can require a lot of upkeep to ensure they look great, including watering, trimming, de-weeding and even cleaning. Maintaining a beautiful lawn in the winter months, while it can be hard to mow the grass regularly enough in the summertime when it grows quickly.

Artificial turf was first popularly used as surfaces for sports such as hockey, football and tennis. The reason that it has proved popular in this instance is not simply because it saves groundskeepers time and money on maintenance; artificial grass can offer an even more robust and even surface for sporting competitions, surfaces which do not degrade after experiencing unfavourable weather conditions or the powerful friction involved in many of these sports. Real grass pitches can become dry and dusty or wet and muddy, as a result of game play or weather conditions, so it's easy to see why a consistent playing surface appeals to groundskeepers, managers, players and fans.

Artificial turf is now a popular choice for residential property, and not only in terms of lawns. Artificial grass has been used inventively in a number of places where real grass could not live. This includes being installed vertically on walls, on rooftops, for swimming pool surrounds and even instead of carpets inside a property. Garden designers like artificial grass because it looks great instantly, is versatile, hard-wearing and does not create a mountain of maintenance work for property owners. It has even been used inside Irish bars by cutting edge interior designers who realised its potential.

It would not be correct to say that artificial grass lawns require no maintenance whatsoever, even though it is substantially less than is required by the real thing. Artificial lawns need to be cleaned or swept periodically, to ensure that weeds do not grow. This is especially important if you have children and animals playing on the lawn. The initial spend on artificial grass might seem steep, but think of all the water, electricity and time you can save.