- EXCLUSIVE: Jack Bannister’s lawn in Clitheroe has been blasted online
- Mr Bannister removed thriving garden and replaced it with fake grass
- He defended move and said garden was overgrown when he moved in
A new homeowner has defended ripping up a family’s ‘beautiful’ garden after critics slammed him for laying down strips of fake grass.
Jack Bannister, 34, bought the three-bed home in Clitheroe, Lancs, for just over £200,000 in 2021.
He then pulled out all the previous owner Sam Withers’ carefully grown flowers, trees and plants.
Mr Bannister replaced the manicured lawn with strips of mismatched artificial turf leading to outrage on a garden account on on X, formerly known as Twitter, after Sam’s son Ben shared a picture of the garden in its former glory.
He posted: ‘Parents buy newbuild, Mum creates garden, parents sell the house, buyers do this…’
Critics quickly compared the ‘depressing’ new garden to ‘a prison yard’ and called the landscaping makeover a ‘disgrace’.
Jack Bannister was blasted online after ripping up the ‘beautiful’ garden of his house’s previous owner and replacing it with artificial grass (pictured)
Mr Bannister replaced the manicured lawn and flowers with strips of mismatched artificial turf
One user wrote: ‘That’s heartbreaking, so many would love a garden like the original and the work and love that had gone into creating it by the original owners has been destroyed by whatever that wildlife disaster is.’
Another said: ‘I cannot express just how beautiful your mum’s garden was. Its like a real life example of how to garden for nature. Absolutely shocking that the new buyers levelled it for plastic.’
One angry gardener wrote: ‘Good Lord that’s the one of the most depressing things I’ve seen in a long time. Thousands of pounds worth of plants destroyed.’
One woman compared the new back garden to a prison adding: ‘They took Eden and made Hell’.
But Mr Bannister has defended his choice and said he had to give the green space a face lift because it had turned into a ‘jungle’.
He told MailOnline: ‘People have said: “What have you done” and “what’s happened to the garden”.
‘My next door neighbour said it took her years to create and she spent hours on it.
‘But it had become a bit of a jungle in the end, as she hadn’t done a lot of work in the last few months.
‘I felt I had no choice as it was a full-time job. It was stunning mind and she must have been an expert gardener.
People slammed Mr Bannister’s ‘depressing’ revamp on a gardening account on X
Mr Bannister said the previous owner’s garden (pictured) was ‘stunning’ and said she must have been an ‘expert gardener’
Mr Bannister said he laid the artificial lawn (pictured) because it was ‘easier to deal with’
Mr Bannister’s back garden, which boasts stunning views of nearby hills, now has an office with plans for a barbecue area.
The IT consultant rents out his home for £119-a-night on Airbnb and spent £15,000 refurbishing the back garden.
Plants and trees were also ripped out of the front garden which is now bare concrete.
He said: ‘The artificial grass is a lot easier to deal with especially as I rent it out at the weekend to Airbnb customers.
‘It’s not finished yet and there’s a bit more to do but I have an office there now.’
Neighbour Sam Smith, 47, said: ‘It’s a real shame – it was a beautiful garden which has been torn up.
‘But then a lot of people are doing that with artificial grass as it is a lot easier.’
