Lazy Landscaping: Pre-Fab Lawns

July 3, 2008— -- If summertime yard work has you exhausted, take a lesson in leisure from Jason Mitnick.

"We'll see if I can even remember how to use [a lawnmower]," said Mitnick, of Lyndhurst, N.J.

"I think that's it," he said, starting his mower for the first time in seven years. Yet his yard seems absolutely perfect -- lush and green.

"I mean, no maintenance," he said proudly. "I mean, you'd drive by, you'd think, Wow, that's a great lawn, and keep going. No idea that it's not real."

Nope, no fescue, bermuda or bluegrass here. Mitnick's lawn is plastic -- a pre-fab paradise.

Gone, it seems, are the days of tacky astro-turf. To look at Mitnick's backyard from a distance, every last blade of fake grass seems pretty much like the real deal.

"Well, it's nice and green, fresh, beautiful, soft; it's wonderful," said Nicole Yennarelli, describing her lawn.

And the neighbors don't seem to mind.

"They say, if you don't mind the pun, that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence," said Tom Haberther. "And it's true."

It is the ultimate in lazy landscaping. While the neighbors are out mowing, pulling weeds, watering the lawn, Mitnick is hanging out in his hammock.

The only thing that disturbs him is the noise created by other people's mowers.

That, and the neighbors' "cursing about having to take care of their lawns," he said. "I mean, other than that, it would be a perfect world."

The truth is, Mitnick's world is perfect right now. He actually sells the fake grass, and business is up 50 percent from a year ago, which Mitnick attributes in part to the poor economy.

"Well, like I said, a lot of people are working a lot longer, a lot harder, you know both the husband and wife are working and really don't have much time to take care of a lawn. Their weekends become precious; their free time to be together becomes precious to themselves. So now, you know, you can enjoy the yard without having to take care of it half the day."