May I join this question, please, Weedpatch? I'm interested to know the answer myself. Here, the summers are SO hot and dry and long, lawns of any sort are almost impossible to maintain with any degree of success - they end up being a mix of clover, couch grass, weeds of all sorts, with great dry, dead patches by the middle of July, and complete annihilation by the end of August. They do recover with Autumn rains, and by April are green again, but it's rarely with decent grass. Many, many people here use "Astro turf" in their gardens, but only in small areas. It's used on football pitches, too, I believe. It certainly, at least from a distance, looks quite good and realistic and, much to my embarrassment, OH and I were discussing only yesterday whether we should consider laying some. Having some knowledgeable information wold be good.

I have a friend in N Wales who has a very large artificial lawn. She has only had it laid this year, but so far is very pleased with it. She has three re-homed greyhounds who totally ruined the real lawn, hence the artificial one. It looks beautiful, but does need sweeping if stuff falls on it!
I shall post a photo in another "question", headed "artificial lawn"