Historically, residents of Wild Dunes were not permitted to install artificial turf on their property. Only the hotel/resort areas were able to utilize it, that is, until last month when the board decided to allow residents the same privilege.
Bryan Vogt, President of ProGreen Charleston, chalks the previous turf prohibition in Wild Dunes to people simply lacking information and background on the product.
“My initial thought is that folks just didn’t understand the benefits of installing artificial turf in residential settings,” said Vogt, including that their webpage has an abundance of information to educate the public on synthetic grass.
The ProGreen website lists the Key Benefits of Residential Artificial Turf as:
- Saves time and money (and your back) on maintenance
- Lower water consumption, which helps the environment (businesses can even earn LEED credits for installing artificial turf)
- Allows for your entire lawn to look pristine – even the areas that are historically mud pits
- Pet friendly, allowing you to pick up pet waste easily and for pet urine to easily drain greens
Since turf doesn’t require as much maintenance as natural grass, it completely eliminates the use of gas powered lawn mowers.
“There is also no need for fertilizers and other grass upkeep products that go into the ground and then eventually pollute our national waterways with chemicals. In that aspect, environmental harm is greatly reduced,” added Vogt.
Turf also drastically lowers water consumption being that it doesn’t need irrigation systems that its natural counterpart typically uses. Artificial turf also assists with drainage issues in residential areas.
“Turf drains extremely well. We put it over a granite rock base so water is able to penetrate through the turf and go directly into the ground,” explained Vogt. “Part of our service is to come in, and regrade so that there is proper drainage once we put the turf down.”
With better drainage, there are less puddles and mud in yards with turf which eliminates breeding grounds for mosquitoes as well as other critters that reside in natural grass.
Despite having so many benefits, there are still inevitable concerns from people regarding the installation of synthetic grass in lawns.
“It’s common knowledge that one of the main issues with artificial turf is how hot it gets when sitting in the sun all day,” acknowledges the ProGreen website. However, the same paragraph also offers a solution.
Known as “Cool Play,” this infill developed by engineers at ProGreen is an organic combination of cork and coconut fibers that retains moisture from the air to provide much cooler surface temperatures.
Vogt encourages people to visit their website at www.progreen.com to read their blogs and forums for more information.
“I think it's important for people to do their research and ask questions to get a better understanding of what our turf does,” remarked Vogt. “It's not for every setting, I would say, but it does solve a lot of issues that we come across here in the lowcountry.”
