Here's a riddle for you. My mother may be the most famous unknown person in the country. She has the ear of hundreds of thousands of people every day in buildings across the country – mainly shoppers but also tourists, apartment dwellers and even the Prime Minister. Who is she?

You can have until the end of this blog to work it out.

Anyway, my mother also happens to be seriously green-fingered, and a garden purist, so imagine her horror when my wife and I announced that, as part of the garden makeover, we'd be getting artificial grass. The shame!

Although our old lawn was a scruffy swampish eyesore, available for light useage approximately 2 per cent of the year, I admit I wasn't completely convinced by the fake grass myself – after all, isn't it a bit naff? What would the neighbours say?

It didn't get a lot better as the landscapers, in between hosing themselves down topless, Diet Coke style, rolled the fake grass out across the back of the house – making it very obvious that this was a big green plastic carpet.

Three months on and I'm not ashamed to admit it – I'm in love with our fake grass. Head over heels, in fact (an action which, incidentally, is easy and clean on our new lawn). I love how soft it is, I love how it gets warm in the sun, I love how it never gets dirty, I love how it looks relentlessly green and cheerful from our kitchen window, whatever the weather.

Though the aesthetics and maintenance were a consideration, the big reason for the change is a little terror who is very nearly three years old (as I write, I realise that sounds like I'm describing some sort of mischievous terrier – I actually mean my son), and he loves it just as much as me. Without exaggeration, the three of us have used the garden more in the last three months than we would have in three years in its previous guise. Every night it's a family picnic, obstacle course, football pitch, race track, even just somewhere to lie and making shapes from clouds.

The garden has been transformed into my favourite room in the house, so most of all, I love what a difference it's made to our family and our home.

Take it from me – the grass really is greener (sorry).

And it even got a grudging approval from my mother, Jane Burke – voice of the lifts in the Houses of Parliament and many others across the country.

Tom Burke, Savills Lettings Cheshire

Further information

'Sorry, Mum – I love my fake grass' is part of our new series, A Savills Love Story, prompted by Savills new advertising campaign.

We invite you to submit your own Savills Love Story. What made you fall for your home? Was it love at first sight or more of a slow burn? Do you have a 'type' or is your approach to house-buying more pragmatic? Or tell us about your fantasy home – the magical place you've always wanted to live, perhaps inspired by a novel or a fleeting glimpse in a magazine? We will donate £50 to YoungMinds for every story we publish on Savills UK Blog. We'll also make a donation for every story submitted for consideration.