EZ-Straw Grass Seed Germination and Erosion Control Blanket - 4ft. x 50ft. (200 sq. ft.)

I'm using this to help with some erosion and patchy grass on the side of my house. The straw is not as dense as pictured, but it has worked well for me. I put down some dirt to correct the grade on the side of my house, planted some Bermuda grass seed, and then laid this product on top. You do have to be careful when unrolling it and I did purchase a box of garden staples to keep it more firmly in place. About a week later, after diligent watering, my grass is sprouting! I don't think you're supposed to remove this product, as some other reviewers have attempted, but allow the grass to grow over it. I'm happy with it so far and recommend it for anyone trying to grow grass on a slight hill.

A little difficult to get unrolled, but works like a charm. In case it's not clear, this is literally a plastic netting with straw woven/sandwiched in between. I used this to hold down a mulch and seed mixture on a hilly portion of my backyard, and it worked great. It rained several times, but didn't wash away the seed and mulch that I'd laid, and now grass is growing nicely. I'd recommend using this for seeding hilly portions of a yard if you have the same problem of having your seed washed downhill when it rains.I would, however, strongly recommend that you purchase some steel garden staples to hold it down - the 14 wooden stakes that come with each blanket are fat and leave divots behind.

I ordered two of these mats. First one was great, full of straw and laid down nicely. The second one was largely missing straw and was pretty challenging to put down for whatever reason. Please see the photos to see how different the two were. Quality control issues for me, which isn't great considering the price of this stuff. Quite disappointed and wouldn't recommend.

This really works! We threw down some grass seed in a hard to grow area subject to wash outs and put the mat down. It wasn't hard to unroll, you just have to be careful. It works best if you have 2 people working in the unroll process and take it slowly. We even cut it in 3 places to cover 3 areas. It does come with wooden stakes, but I recommend buying extras especially if you plan on cutting this mat, for the other areas. The grass is growing and the straw inhibits the birds and rabbits from eating the seed. We've had no problems with this mat at all.

Biggest issue with it is that it is very hard to remove the netting once seedlings start to sprout... which kind of defeats the whole point of the product. If you leave it in place, I highly doubt the netting will degrade in the next 3 years... which would make tasks like raking or cutting the lawn potentially a pain. Because of this, we decided to remove the netting after the seeds germinated and got to about a height of 2 inches. It took my wife and I an hour to slowly work the netting up without hurting (or hurting as little as possible as its almost unavoidable) the new grass sprouts. Specifically, the netting is made from a material that reminds me of fake spider web used for Halloween decorations... and because of this, the netting likes to snag and tangle on the grass sprouts as the threads fray. I used this product thinking I could leave it in place as it states it is biodegradable... but from what it looked like to me, it was as biodegradable as an old tee shirt (I am sure the netting would biodegrade eventually... just like a tee shirt would degrade eventually)Other cons:Didn't have enough stakes (had to make my own)Bought this product and then saw a similar product at home depot the day after I installed it for half the costPros:The grass seed I used did grow and wind / water did not remove the seedHave not noticed any weeds yet... so straw seemed to be pest seed freeAll in all... didn't like it and would go another route in the future.

Very easy to use after finding the end of the roll. Put this down in May 2022 in Kansas after putting in new septic tank lines and these worked great in helping to get grass seed started. Did have to stake as we went due to wind but the wooden stakes are easy to pull to line up the germination mat.

This product price is reasonable, and grass came up very nice. The problem is that after 3years, there are still a lot of mesh that has not degraded. This has hindered more growth and now there are many bald spots. The only way to get rid of the mesh is pulling it out. Very tedious. This is NOT biodegradable. Also, if you don’t paint the end of the wooden stakes you will have a hard time finding them later unless you trip over them.

This product works as stated. Take your time cutting to open the roll up to prevent cutting any of the actual mesh and then it rolls out easily and has the right amount of straw coverage for the ground to breathe in my book. I would say the people complaining about not rolling out didn't know how to cut it correctly and just started cutting away. Take your time and you will have great results.