My garden has two major drawbacks. Firstly, a good part of it is taken up by a steep grassy slope, perfect for sledging if only it snowed here (when global warming truly takes its grip though, we’ll be ready!) and secondly, it has a stretch of very ugly parking slabs right next to the front door.

I have tried – lamely – to convince people they’re really grass by painting them green, Hong Kong ‘park’ style, but let’s face it, I’m not fooling anyone (see pic above).

After two years of living with – and laughing about – this, I have finally decided to do something about it.

My options of radical improvement were somewhat limited: a lot of it is shaded by the overhanging roof, so I can’t plant grass seed as not enough sun will reach it to make it grow; I could deck it, but the whole thing will look a bit odd, like a raised stage…so I bought: (take a deep, un-eco friendly breath) astro turf.

It cost $89 per meter (it’s on a 2m wide roll) from good old Far East Flora and actually looks quite realistic, only let down by the fact that my real grass now looks pretty patchy and awful by comparison.

The perfect picnic rug/play area/sitting spot as the rest of the garden always seems too muddy or damp to sit comfortably on, I just wish I’d done it sooner.

Far East Flora’s Queensway branch is, I think, the most user friendly one and also happens to be about 5 minutes drive from my house. The $89 astro bought from there was miles better looking that their more expensive astro turf which is also sold by the roll.  Extra points awarded for mine even having a sort of dried mossy base…