Landscape contractor Wade Petrini of Scotts Valley pounds a final
stake Tuesday into the recycled polyethlene "grass" in front of Scotts
Valley Water District's reclamation plant office.
Most people still cringe when someone mentions Astroturf, the plastic
grass from the 1970s.
Wade Petrini, however, winces when he sees vast housing developments
with big lawns of real grass.
Ask him about Astroturf, and he smiles.
"Astroturf was the mother concept," he said. "There were water
restrictions then, and they saw the need for a lawn substitute that
didn't need water."
Astroturf had largely commercial applications, such as in sports
stadiums. At the time, homeowners turned up their noses at the idea of
a fake-looking "lawn."
But artificial lawns have changed, said Petrini, a landscape
contractor and owner of Artificial Lawns Direct of Scotts Valley,
which installs Pregra artificial grass.
Because of technological advances, an artificial lawn can be so
real-looking that it fools the casual observer, Petrini said.
A close-up shows the more realistic look of today's artificial turf
compared with the original Astroturf of the 1970s. Lucjan
Now made of mostly recycled polyethylene — tested and found "safe" by
the Synthetic Turf Council — it has other advantages, too, he said.
An artificial lawn saves on water, lawn-mower gas, insecticides and
weed killers, as well as discouraging gophers and being kid friendly
and durable enough to be used in dog runs, he said.
Grass stains become a thing of the past, as well, he said.
Petrini said increased demand has knocked down the cost.
"Five years ago, we charged about $13 a square foot," he said. "I've
become a factory-direct dealer, and now I charge $7 to $7.50 a square
foot."
He said business has quadrupled in the past two years, a jump he
attributes to the cut in water use and the product's low maintenance
level.
Typically, he said, his crew will replace a damaged lawn with
artificial grass and install a drip watering system for remaining
plantings in a yard. In a recent project, a garden's water demand
dropped from 2,000 gallons a month to 85, he said.