Wyoming Residence Takes Grief Out of Grass with a New Meaning to 'Home Turf'

Times Leader - Northern Pennsylvania
AstroLawn®: www.astrolawn.com
Written by Jon Fox
June 27, 2005

Want a lawn that's always mowed and always green, in times of drought and in dead of winter?

If you're nodding your head in eager approval, Dolores Burgio has one word for you.

Plastic.

Her Susquehanna Avenue yard - tree lawn and all - is covered in a synthetic grass from the same people who converted the Houston Astrodome into an evergreen arena in 1965, forever adding the word 'AstroTurf®' to the American lexicon.

The product was retooled a bit to become AstroLawn® in the mid 1990s, and Burgio is unabashedly enthusiastic about the space-age stuff that rendered her mower obsolete.

"I wouldn't part with this for all the money in the world," the 72-year-old said from the steps of her brick ranch-style home.

She was surveying the postage stamp lawn as the afternoon sun glinted off the expanse of plastic perfection.

It used to be shinier, she said, sort of like an artificial Christmas tree. But in the two years since the faux lawn was installed, some of that unnatural luster has faded.

For 45 years, lawn-mowing duties always fell to her. "I always cut the grass. My husband was in business, and I was here raising the family."

Then two years ago, Burgio suffered an aortic aneurysm that led to open-heart surgery.

Jeffrey Aponte, her son-in-law, decided to do something to make caring for the yard easier.

"He said 'Ma, I'm tired of watching you mow the lawn and work so hard,' "

After searching for a solution, Aponte discovered the plastic lawn that comes in 15 foot rolls. He ordered AstroLawn® and installed it himself. It seemed like the perfect way to give an exacting gardener a zero-maintenance lawn.

"She's a very meticulous type of housekeeper and yardkeeper," Aponte said. "From flowers to gravel it has to be right or it's not right."

Now white gravel flowerbeds with plants situated precisely 11 inches apart are edged by the green, grasslike carpeting with a surprisingly cushy grasslike feel.

The price might dissuade the typical suburbanite longing to be freed from the lawnmower for a little more leisure time on the weekends.

The whole installation cost $7,000, Burgio said,

The product has enjoyed success in the American Southwest, where concerns of water conservation make a drought-proof lawn a desirable commodity, said Andy Belles, manager of the AstroLawn® division of Textile Management Associates.

It also has gained some purchase in zoos and aviaries.

"Birds love to perch on AstroTurf® surfaces," Belles said.

There weren't any birds roosting on Burgio's lawn, not even a pair of plastic pink flamingoes. But the lawn has become a bit of a spectacle, Burgio said.

"I have a lot of people who come and like to see the grass. They're amazed," she said. "You know it stays green, even in the winter."

After more than 40 years of wrestling with her lawn, Burgio is enjoying her bit of better living through the miracle of modern chemistry.

"I don't have to water it. I don't have to weed it. I don't have to edge it."