Artificial grass for children: soft, safe and easy to clean

A lawn for children has different priorities from a lawn for looking at. It needs to be soft to fall on, dense enough not to flatten under a trampoline or a paddling pool, quick to clean after mud, juice and the dog, and safe on the days it is hot. This guide covers what to look for, which of our ranges suit a play lawn, what to put underneath a swing, and the three things parents ask us most.

The short answer

For most families, Dan 38mm at £8.99 per square metre: soft, dense for its price, and short enough that grass cuttings, crumbs and mud brush straight out. If the lawn is also a football pitch, Val 38mm or Jers 30mm spring back better after being trampled. Under a swing or climbing frame, add a shockpad underlay. Avoid the very short 18mm, which is hard to fall on, and the longest 45mm, which holds more mess.

What matters for a play lawn

• Softness. Medium pile, 35mm to 40mm, with a C-shaped or W-shaped fibre. It cushions a fall and does not scratch bare knees the way a stiff short pile does.
• Recovery. Children run the same routes and stand in the same spots. A fibre that springs back keeps the goalmouth from becoming a flat patch. Val and Jers are our best for this; Dan is close.
• Drainage. Paddling pools, water pistols, wet feet. All our grasses are latex-backed with drainage holes, so a play lawn drains as fast as any other, provided the sub-base beneath it does too.
• Cleaning. A shorter pile releases debris more easily. 38mm is the sweet spot: long enough to feel like grass, short enough to brush clean in minutes. See how to clean artificial grass.
• No mud, no mowing, no chemicals. The reasons parents buy it. No feed, no weedkiller, no mower left in the shed for small hands to find.

Our ranges for children, ranked

1. Dan 38mm, £8.99. The all-rounder. Soft, dense, easy to clean, and cheap enough to cover the whole garden rather than a patch.
2. Val 38mm, £11. The C-shaped fibre stands back up after football, trampolines and garden furniture. The choice for a lawn that gets hammered.
3. Jers 30mm, £11. Dense and short. For a small garden or a nursery run where the lawn is a floor rather than a lawn.
4. Cali 40mm, £13.50. Softer and lusher than Dan, still easy to keep; for a family garden that also has to look good.
5. Ens 38mm, £13.50. As Dan but with a richer colour, if the lawn is on show as well as in use.

Lux, Aris and Orf are all fine with children; they simply cost more for looks a five-year-old will not notice.

Under swings, slides and climbing frames

Artificial grass on a compacted sub-base is firmer than a real lawn, so a fall from height lands harder. Under any equipment a child can climb, lay our shockpad underlay between the sub-base and the grass. It is a 15m by 1m roll at £42, the same foam pad nurseries and schools use, and it takes the impact out of a fall without changing how the grass looks or drains. Two or three rolls cover the area under a swing set. Lay it edge to edge, tape the joins, and lay the grass over it exactly as you would over sand.

Heat

Artificial grass gets warmer than real grass in direct sun; on the hottest days of a British summer a dark, dense pile can be too warm for bare feet at midday. It cools in seconds with a hose or a sprinkler, and children rarely mind being sprayed. Lighter greens run cooler than very dark ones, and a lawn with some afternoon shade rarely has the problem at all. The problems guide covers heat and the other things that go wrong.

Three questions parents ask

• Is it safe? Our grasses are polyethylene and polypropylene, the same plastics as toys and food containers, with no lead or heavy-metal pigments. They carry no sharp edges and do not shed.
• What about the dog as well? Dan is our top pick for dogs too, so one lawn serves both. The dogs guide covers the routine.
• Will a trampoline ruin it? The legs flatten a ring of pile. Move the trampoline a foot every few weeks and brush the ring up; a recovering fibre like Val makes the marks disappear. Put pads under the legs on any grass.

Ordering

Measure the shorter side of the lawn to pick a 2m, 4m or 5m roll width (the roll widths guide explains), and two measurements into the calculator give the delivered price. Order free samples of Dan and Val first and let the children choose the one they like to sit on. Free delivery over £190, with you in 2 to 4 working days.