Gainey Ranch, one of the most admired communities in metro Phoenix, has chosen NewGrass® to determine whether the tony subdivision will use synthetic grass to solve some of its nettlesome landscaping challenges.

The community is considering synthetic lawns partly in response to the ongoing drought in the Southwest. But more directly, it needs to meet the frustration of being unable to grow and maintain natural grass under the large, mature shade trees that populate the community.
“We want to know if this is a viable alternative for heavily shaded areas in our community where we can’t grow turf grass,” said Scott Williams, director of maintenance for the Gainey Ranch Community Association.

“We want to maintain the lush look of our natural landscaping throughout Gainey Ranch, and that’s getting much more difficult in areas where we have these beautiful, huge canopy shade trees of Palo Verde, Mesquite and Ironwood,” said Scott Williams, director of maintenance for the Gainey Ranch Community Association.

Gainey Ranch comprises 19 distinct neighborhoods with more than 1,000 homes nestled along the fairways of award-winning Gainey Ranch Golf Club. Properties range from condos to lush estates. Prices currently range from the upper $300,000’s to more than $3 million. The community is also home to one of the top-rated health and fitness centers in Metro Phoenix.
The community has had NewGrass® installed two public areas that get a lot of drive-by traffic. The Gainey Ranch maintenance department has had no luck maintaining natural turf grass in either area, Williams said.

STC (Synthetic Turf Company) of Scottsdale installed NewGrass Rye in one of the test areas and NewGrass Fescue in the other.

“We want to know from homeowners what they think of it … does it fit the surrounding landscape and does it fit in with the community’s feel,” Williams said. “And of course we’re looking at how it holds up.”

So far, his office has received “lots of positive phone calls” about the installations, Williams said.
The community has no covenants against synthetic lawns. But any installation of synthetic lawn requires the approval of the association’s architectural committee, and artificial grass has never been installed in a Gainey Ranch front yard or common area, Williams said.

The architectural committee’s evaluation of NewGrass® is part of an ongoing assessment of its landscape and design plan as the community matures, Williams said.