Ground covering options with pine trees

[Adam2]

We have a couple of large areas of garden to plan - previously these were turfed but that turned to mainly moss and needles due to the shading from 3-4 nearby large pine trees. We're thinking of options for the garden and figure we either try a more suitable natural lawn or artificial grass. I tried to knock up a pic in powerpoint - poor man's design tool! At the bottom there are some more trees (red hexagons) creating additional garden shade and the fencing on the left (as viewed) is about 2m high and we'd like to plant the bottom left 1/2 of this area with bamboo & trees for privacy (yes I know need the right bamboo or decent containment but this seems a good option for this area).

 

A few questions:

Are pine needles going to be a complete nightmare with artificial grass in terms of removal?

Is it worth trying again with real grass - though I guess even then the needle removal is going to be a a big chore

Is artificial grass OK with dogs that may go to the loo on it? Hopefully they will listen to instructions but can't be certain ?

We won't use the grass areas much for sitting out as we have some large terraces further up.

 

We need to decide now as we'll lose machine access when we start the foundations

 

[Temp]

I have a friend with pine trees in his garden. Personally i'd just leave the areas under the trees to develop a natural forrest floor look (eg poor grass and pine needles!) on that side of the garden.

 

Could consider planting narrow borders at the bottom of the gabions to break them up a bit. That might also avoid the need to use a strimmer where the grass meets the gabion (avoids strimmer line breaking).