LAKEWOOD RANCH - Imagine never having to mow your lawn, never having to fertilize it, and what if your grass never needed a drop of water? It's a reality for a Lakewood Ranch homeowner. A lawn that's green in more ways than one.
Lush, green grass surrounds the beautiful back yard pool of the home and it will look this way no matter how much rain we get, 365 days of the year. It's synthetic grass, a product called Forever Lawn. Homes in the Lakewood Ranch neighborhood called The Lake Club are required to use zoysia grass. But the home's Canadian owners wanted something better than zoysia.
Mark Miller is the CEO of Westwater Construction, the company that built the home. "It's a very good grass and it's drought tolerant. However, it tends to look brown in the winter, so this particular client is here during the winter only, so now when they're here in their house, they have a perfect yard," says Miller.
Synthetic grass is definitely a luxury; it's expensive. For this home, which features a large lot and a putting green in the back, the grass costs around $60,000. Obviously the price needs to come down before it's viable for most homeowners. But it could make sense in smaller applications. Miller hopes to use it in courtyard areas around the pool in future projects. "It's not cheap, but if you factor in, we probably saved 4-5 thousand dollars in irrigation because we didn't have to irrigate the yard and over time, without lawn maintenance, the fertilizer, it's kind of a trade off."
You can't argue with how it looks and just imagine, no mowing, ever.
For more information on the Forever Lawn products:
http://www.foreverlawn.com/For information on Westwater Construction:
http://www.westwaterconstruction.com/
