NewGrass is excited to be featured in an upcoming magazine supplement to four Northern California newspapers offering water-saving suggestions for landscaping in a time of ongoing drought.

One suggestion for water-wise landscaping offered by Gold Country Media reporter Jonathan Brines is to replace “real lawn with a polyethylene turf.” Brines then focuses on NewGrass artificial lawn, which has blades of 100 percent polyethylene.

Brines points out that NewGrass Rye and Fescue products “mimic natural grass thatching” and that it “feels real, will never need to be watered, holds up in the heat or cold and is totally recyclable. The pad is 90-percent-soy based which is natural and supports farmers.”

Brines interviewed NewGrass CEO Greg Goehner for the article after learning about the five-year-old company during an online search, reviewing its website and watching a video of an episode of Bob Vila, the nationally syndicated TV home renovation and improvement show, that featured a NewGrass installation.

NewGrass is sold and installed internationally only through a network of qualified, properly licensed representatives, such as NewGrass Landscape & Design, which serves the same communities as does Gold Country Media.

Homes will be included in four newspapers that Gold Country Media publishes and distributes in the Sacramento area – specifically Roseville, Granite Bay, El Dorado Hills and Folsom. The magazine is scheduled for publication the week of June 17.

The article notes that three years of drought in Northern California have forced cities such as Folsom and Roseville, which depend on water from Folsom Lake, to impose 20-percent conservation reductions on their residents.

Some cities, including Sacramento, have imposed fines and now restrict watering to certain days of the week. Other cities, such as Roseville, offer rebates for removing and replacing water-thirsty sod grass and plants that are not drought-tolerant. Roseville’s Cash for Grass program pays homeowners $1 for every square foot of lawn they convert to water-smart landscaping, including artificial grass.

Sadly, Brines also notes that despite the reported impacts of global warming, ongoing drought conditions and increasing water demands from a growing population, Californians have an addiction to water.

NewGrass is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year and is proud to continue helping set high standards in the synthetic grass industry.

“It’s important to NewGrass that the artificial grass industry grows responsibly and that consumers can expect professionalism from dealers and installers no matter where they live or do business,” said NewGrass President Greg Goehner.

“This is going to be especially important as more cities impose water restrictions and more of them offer rebates for synthetic lawn use, and a lot of fly-by-night companies will try to take advantage of consumers as a result,” Goehner said.

NewGrass is sold and installed internationally only through a network of qualified, properly licensed representatives. All NewGrass representatives are properly licensed, insured and bonded, based on the regulatory or legal entities where they do business, Goehner said.

California, for example, requires any contractor doing an artificial grass installation totaling $500 or more to be state-licensed. (The $500 cost includes the grass, labor and installation materials.) NewGrass Landscape & Design holds California Contractors License # 924382, for example.

The fake grass industry, like most home improvement or service industries, does not have agreed standards, or national or state guidelines that industry participants must meet or adhere to. But just as consumers evaluate a landscaper or carpenter before hiring them, they should also follow some good common-sense guidelines when it comes to hiring a synthetic lawn company, Goehner said.

The Association of Synthetic Grass Installers lists six benchmarks that any professional installer should meet. “NewGrass stands firmly behind these criteria,” Goehner said. According to the ASGI’s advice, a reputable synthetic grass company or installer should:

1. Provide proof of any required licenses, insurance and bonds.
2. Prove their experience with your type of project and site conditions.
3. Be on the job site before, during and after the installation is done, whether they do the work themselves or hire a sub-contractor to do it, and they should handle all unexpected changes or modifications promptly.
4. Provide you a complete and easy-to-understand set of all necessary documents, including change orders, in a timely manner.
5. Be trained professionals who know their products and their installation systems using best-business practices and be able to provide several customer referrals.
6. Be courteous, communicate clearly from start to finish, and give you a finished project that meets or exceeds your expectations.

Fueled by continually rising water rates, water-use restrictions and concerns about drought, homeowners and businesses up and down Colorado’s Front Range are turning to NewGrass artificial grass for naturally appealing, water-wise lawn landscaping.

“Year after year people pour money and time into their lawns, and every year our water rates go up, and we get water restrictions, and then we have a dry year, and all of that money and all of that time they’ve invested in that lawn is gone, wasted,” said Bart Stoneback, owner of Mile High Synthetic Turf, Colorado’s authorized NewGrass distributor.

Water rates in metropolitan Denver have increased an average of 40 percent a year the past three years, Stoneback said. In Denver, water restrictions meanwhile prohibit lawn watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and limit watering during other times to three days a week.

The newly redesigned and refocused Mile High Marketplace, formerly Mile High Flea Market, in Henderson, has opted for 5,000 square feet of NewGrass Premium Rye in its new farmer’s market.

NewGrass will also be the playing surface for the bocce ball courts the Marketplace is installing for its upcoming Italian Festival, and the facility plans to install up to 10,000 square feet of NewGrass as landscaping around its special events area, Stoneback said.

At least a dozen backyards from Erie to Boulder to Castle Rock now enjoy NewGrass artificial turf. So does a balcony deck outside an apartment on Blake Street in “LoDo,” the historic and rejuvenated Lower Downtown neighborhood.

“People are just tired of trying to keep their turf grass alive here in Colorado,” Stoneback said.

NewGrass is also increasingly being installed for dog runs along the Front Range, Stoneback said. They average between 300 and 500 square feet.

“People go with synthetic grass for their dogs because it eliminated all of the problems that go with having a place for your dogs to live or play,” Stoneback said. “Sure, you need to wash down NewGrass to avoid odors. But dog droppings are easily scooped up and urine and drain right through. You don’t have dead grass or yellow spots from the urine. You don’t have mud holes or dirt tracked into your house. And it will last for years.”