Here’s how to make your yard safer and cooler the next summer

Our yard should be unthreatening and encouraging spaces throughout the year, including in the summer months.

But the choices we make about the design and maintenance of the garden, for example, whether to have an artificial turf or real grass on the lawn, can have sedate consequences. Children, elderly people and pets are particularly susceptible to burns from contact with artificial turf on a heated day.

Watering the lawn or planting a shaded tree can also dramatically change how heated your yard is in the summer. Ultimately, these factors will affect how much time you and your family spend outside.

No matter where you live in the world, it’s never too behind schedule to find out how to make your yard safer and cooler the next summer.

A case against artificial turf

Artificial turf or synthetic grass, commonly used in sports fields, has become popular in private external spaces such as the yard.

People may think that it is cheaper and easier to maintain than a real turf. Perhaps they like the idea of ​​saving water and the appearance of the lawn without problems and fertilization.

But this type of plastic surface becomes Very hot On a sunlit day.

We wanted to find out how heated artificial turf can get in a pit in the summer.

That is why we set up an experiment to compare the artificial turf temperature, droughty natural turf and waterwood natural turf in Melbourne. We took Surface temperature measurements Still for 51 days in the summer of 2023–24.

The study was part of the project Demonstrating the benefits of green space in residential properties. The project received funds from Horticulture Innovation Australia, a non-profit corporation owner. This financing partly came from three aquatic organs.

Feeling

In adults, irreversible burns occur when the skin is in contact with the surface by 48 ° C or warmer for ten minutes.

The temperature needed to cause skin burns in children is about 2 ° C lower because their skin is thinner and more sensitive.

Contact skin burns Due to the high surface temperature of the artificial turf, it was identified as a health threat.

IN Our latest researchThe artificial turf reached a heated 72 ° C, which is enough to cause irreversible skin burns in just ten seconds. In contrast, the real turf has never been heated enough to cause such burns (maximum temperature of 39 ° C).

During our experiment, the artificial turf was heated enough to cause adults to irreversible skin burns for almost four hours a day. While adults can go away from the heat before they slept, sensitive people, such as children and the elderly, as well as pets, are the most threatened because they may not be able to leave.

We also carried out measurements in real courtyards on a heated sunlit summer day. We compared the risk of skin burns on four different surfaces: artificial turf, litter, wood and real pitch. The only surface that was not heated enough to cause skin burns in adults was a real turf.

Why should I water the lawn?

Grass and other plants release water vapor from tiny holes in the leaves in the atmosphere. This process Helps the plant to keep the leaf temperature on a heated day, but it is also cools the air Around the leaves.

This is A good idea for watering the lawn Throughout the summer for two reasons:

1. A well -cleaned lawn is healthier, remains green for longer and has more leaves to free water vapor (“interruption”).

2. More water is available evaporateadding to the cooling effect.

If you are worried about the waste of drinking water on the lawn, you can install rainwater tank or domestic water recycling plant. Access to alternative water sources will become more and more crucial when the world warms up and the climate dries.

What about shadow?

The most effective way for you to feel cooler in your yard is to provide the right shade. This reduces the amount of solar energy that strikes the body or earth, heating the surface and heating the surrounding air.

A single tree can lower thermal stress level From extreme to moderate. It can be a difference between the desire to spend time outside on a heated day and completely avoiding the yard.

Even tiny trees can still make you feel colder if they provide some shade.

However, too bulky, the canopy of the tree canopy can prevent airflow – So it’s a elated medium. Air flow is necessary to move the heat from the yard and chilly the body down.

Taking all the above funds will ensure safety and a chilly yard throughout the summer. This will allow you and your family to spend more time in the yard, chilly the house and improve the quality of life.