Sick of dead yard, Bluffs woman installs synthetic grass

Theresa Gallo's yard came with a warranty. That's one of the ways her lawn is unusual. It also requires no mowing and very little maintenance. She waters it once a week, but that's to keep active the odor-eating crystals embedded into the lawn's fibers.

In April, after several years of fighting a literally uphill battle against a challenging yard, Gallo bought a synthetic lawn. It wasn't cheap — she said she paid about $30,000 to have the artificial turf installed — but so far, she couldn't be happier. And if something goes wrong, if her lawn fades or tears at a seam, she's covered by that 10-year warranty. In any case, she doesn't have to worry about her grass dying, because it will never grow.

“I'm very pleased,” she said.

Gallo's home sits high on a hillside in a Council Bluffs neighborhood with a remarkable view of downtown Omaha. She lives there with her son, Cole, and their two large dogs, a golden retriever named Chloe and a white German shepherd called Piper.

It's been home for eight years, and in that time Gallo has experienced a perfect storm of lawn management problems. The house sits on a significant slope with low nutrient soil, she said, creating runoff and erosion issues, and it takes a beating from the sun.

And the dogs were killing it, she said.

Though the problem was limited to the front yard — the house backs up to a wooded area — it presented an annual source of frustration and wasted money.

“I've had lawn care services come,” Gallo said. “I've resodded the front lawn twice, and we were getting ready to resod for a third time.”

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