New dog = lawn is suffering... Badly! Any advice?

[DIYNotIan]

Hi all

Within two and a half weeks of getting our second dog, the lawn has gone from green and healthy looking to this:

Untitled

• DIYNotIan
• 8 Nov 2014
• 1

Untitled

• DIYNotIan
• 8 Nov 2014
• 1

Untitled

• DIYNotIan
• 8 Nov 2014
• 1

With the rest of autumn and a long, wet winter ahead, is there anything I can do to slow down the wear on the lawn?

We are putting garden furniture over the worse bits, and will continue to rotate it around to give patches of lawn a "break" from being trampled on.

Last week I forked the lawn to aerate it.

I didn't know if I can put sand down or anything to help toughen things up and prevent the garden turning into a total mud bath.

Any help or any advice of any sort hugely appreciated.

Cheers

Max

 

[big-all]

it wont grow now till next year is stops growing at around 10 degrees ground temperature
so keerp them off the grass or live with the consiquences i am afraid

 

[DIYNotIan]

Hmmm.... That's pretty much what I thought regarding re-growth.

And unfortunately keeping them off is not going to be possible.

I just wasn't sure if there was anything that could be done to slow down the wear, or stop it getting so muddy.

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[big-all]

is it for toilet or excercise reasons

 

[DIYNotIan]

Exercise. They like to chase each other around. Plus we (the humans!) are now out there a lot more. So there is just so much more traffic....

 

[big-all]

really not sure what to suggest as plastic parking grids may not be paw freindly and quite an expensive solution really
perhaps reseed with more durable type off grass seed

 

[DIYNotIan]

OK, but presuambly wait until spring for that?

Many thanks once again for the help.

 

[big-all]

yes although you may find a hardy grass that will grow when its a bit colder but will tend to be courser

 

[DIYNotIan]

Coarse is no problem at all... Anything to stop it looking like a scrum training field.

I'll look into hardier grass types that can be sown now.

Cheers mate

 

[Deleted2797112]

Unless you can keep the dogs off the area you're re-seeding until it's very well established, you'll be wasting your time and money.

 

[DIYNotIan]

I'll look into hardier grass types that can be sown now.

Unless you can keep the dogs off the area you're re-seeding until it's very well established, you'll be wasting your time and money.

Hmmm, maybe not then. Perhaps it's just a case of accepting a mud bath this winter, then treating the lawn as best I can, re-sowing, aerating, etc etc next spring and trying to establish a much tougher hardier lawn.

 

[leeco]

Do what Im doing in my garden (look in my thread below at my little lawn area in my patio)

Dogs only **** and crap on that little square.

 

[DIYNotIan]

Hi leeco

Couldn't see a thread, but would certainty be interested in seeing what you've done if you could provide a link.

We were ridiculously lucky with the first dog. She was a rescue from Romania. She has never to this day gone in the house. Within a week or two of having her, she must have decided to consider the garden part of the house as she has only VERY rarely gone in the garden. And that's for both types of toileting. Especially crapping though - after the first couple of weeks of having her she has never crapped in the garden. So that's coming on 18 months.

The new one... She tends to try to go on walks, but her stomach is still settling. The last couple of days she has started to go on some gravel we have. So perhaps armed with your approach we might be able to train her to always go there.

All that being said, I really think it is the traffic on the awn that is causing the problem. But stopping toileting will no doubt help too.

Cheers

 

[DIYNotIan]

Also, I just wanted to add....

I am not opposed to "alternative lawns". I seem to remember sometime ago seeing on Countryfile (or some such programme) a feature about people who have different types of grass, and even alternatives to grass, as their "lawns".

Any ideas along those lines would certainly be of interest, especially if it was something we could do over Autumn/Winter (although I'm doubting that's a possibility).

Cheers