The "Grass" Is Greener: Guests are loving Jack and Jill Hill's New Surface

By C.J. Hirschfield


A week ago, Children’s Fairyland became much greener, and our guests are loving it.

We recently covered three popular areas of the park with what our landscape supervisor Jackie Salas refers to as “a sustainable alternative to regular sod,” also known as artificial turf. But this isn’t your father’s AstroTurf: It had my team so happy that employees made “grass angels” on it (like snow angels, but, like, on the turf). Happy families are now picnicking on it, toddlers are taking their shoes off and running on it, and we’ll soon be holding a sit-down fundraising dinner for 300 on it.

There's new turf on Jack & Jill Hill!

If you’re unfamiliar with artificial turf, here’s a little science and history. Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. Artificial turf first gained substantial attention in 1966, when it was installed in the year-old Houston Astrodome sports stadium. Although it’s still most often used for sports that were originally played on grass, it’s now also used on residential and commercial properties. Contemporary systems feature longer fibers and infills that are mixtures of sand and granules of recycled rubber. Our turf is nontoxic and safe for kids and animals—an important advantage.

Fairyland first used artificial turf seven years ago, when we created our hugely popular Jack and Jill Hill, where kids can grab pieces of cardboard and slide down. The area where we built the hill used to be a beaten-up grass patch that would stay soggy for a good part of the year. Now it’s a popular attraction with dozens of kids playing on and around it any given time.

Recently we started looking at a couple of other locations where grass just wasn’t working because of high traffic. The footprints of 220,000 people a year are fatal to grass: Compaction caused by foot traffic prevents oxygen in the root system from transporting nutrients to the blades. In this oxygen-deprived environment, fungi and bacteria can grow, outcompeting the grass and rotting the roots. Jackie says there’s a good reason why grumpy old men yell at kids to get off their lawn.

A fresh new look for Old West Junction 

Our Old West Junction and Merry Meadow are two areas where foot traffic had defeated real grass. It just couldn’t grow. The grassy area of the Junction had become “a giant mud pit,” says Jackie. The Meadow is used for many of our popular events, including our annual Turn the Page! celebration of children’s book authors and illustrators; our major gala fundraising event of the year; and our annual puppet fair. Real grass stood no chance against the onslaught.

Children’s Fairyland uses bay-friendly techniques in our eight acres of gardens, and Jackie feels good about the fact that the artificial turf represents an efficient use of resources—requiring very little water, no aeration or fertilizer, and no maintenance of irrigation heads. Its permeability makes it a more environmentally friendly solution than other options, such as concrete or paving.

The Merry Meadow looks merrier now 

High-quality artificial grass is not cheap. Thankfully, we have a number of wonderful donors who stepped up to make this major project happen.

Make no mistake: Fairyland remains committed to having acres of natural gardens that foster children’s appreciation for plant life and nature. And our Teddy Bear Picnic Area is still planted in real grass where children can run, roll and play.

The early reviews of our new turf have been unanimously favorable. Guests praise its beauty, vividness, and natural-looking texture. One of our Instagram followers was even inspired to suggest that we install a putting green on the Old West Junction “sod.” We’re not sure how golf would fit within the cowpoke theme. But we look forward to lots of imaginative play there—and throughout our continually revived storybook park.

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C.J. Hirschfield has served for 17 years as executive director of Children’s Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation’s oldest storybook theme park.