Visit the companies and ask if you can have addresses of real customers to see how it looks in real life with other landscaping after X number of years. I have seen plenty of them done around here and the quality really varies. It looks a lot better if it is disguised with landscaping around it like bordered by a hedge, bushes, grasses, flowers etc. and you can go low water on all of that. It typically looks SUPER lame around a tree. I have yet to see that done well. Keep in mind all of the other landscaping around it. If you have messy trees and such you’re going to be out there raking or blowing that stuff when you would have just run the lawn mower over it. Unless you don’t mind all of the stuff on your grass. (Actually it looks a heck of a lot more real when leaves have blown on it.)
