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I just discovered this site and love it. So much good advice! Thanks!
We have 2 large dogs and our backyard looks like a war zone..... we have pathways made of screenings to reduce the amount of grass we have (or should I say had) and a portion of our yard we converted to strictly mulched area.... however, our yard is muddy most of the time... our dogs paws are constantly tracking in screenings/mud. Please help with some ideas to maintain a nice yard and reduce the mess/stirred up yard from our dogs...
I have found a few great landscaping ideas for our dogs yard and am happy to send or post photos if you like. Our Great Pyrenees Luna is a digger and she was the inspiration behind us doing more paving stones and natural round gravel beds. We tried cedar mulch but she loved to dig it it so the answer was dog safe plants, perennials and hanging baskets, using landscape fabric, then mulch and a layer of larger river rock on top. Any of our gravel is now pea gravel which is easier for puppy dogs to lay on and safer for the floors of our home if it does make it in. What surprised us was how much both of our dogs (the older dog is a cocker poodle Bootsy ) enjoy the new flat stone areas and we feel comfortable the the plants we chose were non toxic but also for some reason they do not bother them. We are however only half way done and the rest of our yard is still a digging zone so would love to know what we can do for a doggy washroom area. Some told us sand is not good as it is home to fleas?
we have two dogs and my concern was the same, how to keep my yard looking great and my dogs' paws clean. We built a dog run on the side of our house and put down artificial grass so that their paws stay nice and clean. Now, our dogs do not go in the rest of the yard without being supervised, my yard stays green and their paws stay clean.
Hi, Barb: Well. Sounds like you have quite a battle on your hands! This is a little difficult to answer because we don't know where you are, how big your yard is, whether you're near neighbors susceptible to plant invasion, why your yard is muddy (drainage, we assume), what your sun/shade is like, and so forth. If it were us, we would do a test on a part of the lawn to try out clover as a ground cover. Level and amend the soil so that it is 1:1:1 topsoil:sand:clay; doesn't have to be too deep--4 to 5 inches is fine, scratch it into whatever is already there. Then try white clover mixed with a tough grass seed (ask at a nursery), 1:3 clover:grass. Try consulting with your county/state extension service on this, too, as they might have more localized advice. Most of all, don't be afraid to experiment. Fence off a couple of test areas at a time if you can. You can win!
Hillsides are challenging! Choose low-care, drought-tolerant perennial ground-covering plants. Select plants that will self-sow or spread by stolons. Some examples are feverfew, penstemons, species bulbs, creeping phlox, creeping sedum, thyme. The first year you can mulch around the new plants. Coarse wood chip mulch holds soil in place and suppresses weeds until the plants fill in.
I am looking for ways to landscape a yard that is on the side of a hill and too steep to grow and cut grass. Any ideas on how I can landscape the hillside?
I have the same issue, curving hill. Hope they give you an answer so I can follow it also!!
Hi Keast,
Thanks for your question. Native ground covers are your best bet. They will spread and don't need much care. See our answer to the "hill" question above for suggestions on varieties to try.