We have real grass at the center of the pavement in our pool area. It was a big headache during the rainy season and whenever my kids are swimming because the soil will become muddy once wet. I decided on removing the grass and make it a full pavement but my wife saw a picture that looks like our design in the pool area and they said that they used artificial turf on it. We contacted an installer and they really did a great job! The installation only took 2 days and it looks no different from the real grass we had. I'll consider using artificial grass on my projects in the future.