An upset son has taken to social media to complain a new homeowner has replaced his mother’s garden with artificial green grass.
Ben Withers submitted pictures of his family’s old home to the popular gardening account Sh*tlawns, which showcases “the hideous trend of plastic lawns” on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Ben’s parents sold their home in Lancashire in 2021 which had a well-cared-for garden filled with numerous plants, flowers, crops and trees.
It has now been turned into a weekend Airbnb where the grass has been replaced with artificial turf and trees have been replaced with bare concrete.
Ben wrote alongside the pictures: “Parents buy new build, Mum creates garden, parents sell house, buyers do this…”
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People were quickly horrified by the change and took to social media to share their thoughts, with one upset commentator describing the new garden as looking like “a prison yard.”
One user said: “I cannot express just how beautiful your mum’s garden was. It’s like a real-life example of how to garden for nature. Absolutely shocking that the new buyers levelled it for plastic.”
Another person wrote: “Good Lord that’s one of the most depressing things I’ve seen in a long time. Thousands of pounds worth of plants destroyed.”
Someone else commented: “Oh, that’s hideous! What a beautiful wildlife garden that was.”
Other people expressed their grievances about how the local wildlife may have been affected by the change.
One woman said: “That’s so sad. Imagine the wildlife lost – all that hard work and people see it as improving? Bizarre.”
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However, the new homeowner has defended himself and stated there was no way for him to take care of the garden as it had become a “jungle.”
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the new homeowner said: “People have said: ‘What have you done’ and ‘what’s happened to the garden.’
“My next-door neighbour said it took her years to create and she spent hours on it. But it had become a bit of a jungle in the end, as she hadn’t done a lot of work in the last few months.
“I felt I had no choice as it was a full-time job. It was stunning mind and she must have been an expert gardener.”
The homeowner added: “The artificial grass is a lot easier to deal with especially as I rent it out at the weekend to Airbnb customers.
‘It’s not finished yet and there’s a bit more to do but I have an office there now.”
