i have just moved house and need to do something very quickly with half of the garden that has a lawn.  it is very wet where i live, never stops raining and in the last 5 days since moving in the dogs have turned the lawn into a muddy mess!  i was planning to flag it but dont know if i can do this in the rain so was thinking of just taking the grass up and laying gravel or anything that stops the dogs sinking in several inches of mud and dragging it into the house everytime they go outside.  any thoughts on a gravel run or can anyone suggest an alternative quick fix to my back yard bog?!
kelly

I have half gravel and half lawn (lawn?? mud!!) and it works for me. Make sure you lay a ground sheet first or else weeds will come through.
But the dog prefers to do it's deed on the gravel not the grass(mud lol).

To be technical, you need a semi permiable membrane, lets the water thru but only 95% of the weeds thru, and anything lets those thru!!!!!!!! LOL If you use plastic, the water sits on it!!!! Dont use 'sharp' gravel as it will hurt the dogs feet. The best if you can get it is 14mm 'flat' gravel that sits where it is meant to, and doesnt move. easy to walk on.
Only thing is, you may need to top up every so often, as when you pick up the business a few bits of gravel come with it!!!!!!!! Take it from somone who knows LMAO
HTH a bit
Lea :)

lmao Lea, well you knew what i meant!! and as for a few bits of gravel, my bin men refuse to take my wheelie bin most weeks as it weighs more than the required weight :D
Also be ready for bits of gravel being brought in off their feet :)

LMAO also mygirl!!!!!!!! Luckily, considering the dog I have had for <OMG over a month eeeeeekkkkkk, >I donnot have gravel in this house. But he does have feet like sponges!!!!!!!
Lea :)

What dog do you have lea?
When my dog was teething she very often brought in gravel and clunked on it during corrie!!

I have a Rottweiler cross(more Rottie than anything else) that I have had since she was 7 weeks,and is now pushing 7, and an American cocker spaniel. Its the cocker that has feet like sponges!!!!!!!!! LMAO I have only had him since the 1st Nov and he is 2 years old.
Lea :)

thanks for that folks, am off to order a load of gravel.  any one any ideas on how i work out how much i need?  the lawn, or mud wrestling pit is about 35ft x 15ft ish. 
cheers,
kelly

1 ton/10 square meters @ 3" deep.
Roughly your area is about 55 square meters. I would guesstemate, as long as the ground is level before hand, you should get about 4 ton, this will make it about 2" deep, and easy to walk on. Re Pea gravel, this gets kicked about and trodden into the house on shoes, ok if in an area well out of the way of people walking on it, or dogs playing mad things on it, and shooting from here to next door neighbours garden and behond!!!!!!!!
As I have said. Try and get flat gravel. Go to several different builders merchants. Around here we have 4 different ones, and they each stock different types of gravel.
HTH
Lea :)

hi lea,
thats really helpful, thanks a lot! :),
cheers,
kelly

could i get away with laying the membrane straight over the grass?  or do i have to dig out all the grass first, then lay the membrane and then the gravel??
kelly

If you have a 'lip' to keep the gravel in, or you plan to put an edging around , even a bit of 4"x2" then you can lay the membrane straight over the lawn. The membrane will kill the grass, and the majority of the time, the lawn will be flatter than what you could make it by taking the grass off!!!!!!!!
If there is nothing to keep the gravel in, then it would be a good idea to scrape around the edges to create a 'lip' to stop the gravel moving.
Does that make sense?????
Lea :)

hi lea,
yes that makes sense,
thanks again,
kelly

I've got a small low wall of stones and railway sleepers around mine so the dogs have to step over to get out of the gravel patch.  It stops the gravel being dragged out around the run.
Lara x

Thats a good idea Lara, although, due to EU regul;ations, you will not be able to get railway sleepers for much longer. You will just be able to get the unrustique looking alternative :( Good for me, as lifting 56 of them, one person on each end, and only 4 people doing it, They are not the easiest of things to do LMAO!!!I felt my muscles for days after that!!!!!!!!
Lea :)

I've got an area in my dog run with gravel in.  I use the really small pea gravel.  A cat litter tray scoop can pick up the dogs mess and let any excess gravel shake back through.  Having said that I usually just put a sh*te bag over my hand and pick it up that way.  It's clean and easy with the gravel but like mentioned before you need to put a weed blocking sheet down first or the mud will just seep through.  I don't find that the gravel moves much around the run at all - it's great :)
Lara x

How do you all clean gravel? Think large pebbles would be good for feet but slabs are easier to clean. The other thing with gravel do the youngsters not eat it.

Can't edit my post but when I say clean I did not mean just pick up poo, what about pee and vomit that will need washing off then a rinse with a disinfectant. Will the ground not become waterlogged and smelly.

You can just hose the gravel down. The ground underneath should be able to cope with the water that is needed to hose down every so often,if ever. As the urine will soak thru the gravel. It should be the same as on grass, and you dont tend to hose down the grass, apart from in the summer to water it!!!!!!!!!!! And it doesnt get smelly. As long as you pick the poo up, all should be ok.(sorry for the stunted reply.)
Lea :)

Supose it depends what type of soil type you have mine would not cope with the daily hose down the water would just lay there and the soil would become puddled.

I have gravel for the dogs and it is actually far better than grass to keep clean. Just pick up the poop and hose down where needed - I spray with Bac2nature which disinfects and deals with any odour. But the gravel seems to allow stuff to drain away better whereas when I had grass it held the smell - not to mention the mud! I replenish with a ton of gravel (over an area about 30x15) once a year as it does get picked up but it works really well.

Janet

Agree grass is not any good, except for a small patch for the dogs to graze, but if you are on clay type soil you can't wash down every day unless you have some sort of drainage to direct the water to.

For a temporary 'quick fix' you could try bark chips - environmentally friendly, recyclable and readily available so you can chang it if it gets too soiled.  The right grade/type won't have splinters.  A friend of mine used it successfully.

Even straw (changed or added to frequently) is better than mud, cheap and readily available!  I have used it to mulch shrub areas of my garden where my Springers (4) galloped around for years - great - no mud, but it can blow about a bit in the winter.

However I really would try to get some paving flags down quickly - you can always do a temp. job just placing them on the earth and re-do it in Spring.

In my own runs I use Hexagine flooring its plastic squares that lock together to form a solid floor this then sits ontop of corrugated sheeting.The plastic top floor is slated that allows urine to drain freely and solids can be collected in the normal way.If the dog/dogs tread the solids into the slats it can be easily hosed away via the corrugated sheeting this then can be collected by a sand trap or by guttering etc.This system works very well and is portable no need to lay concrete.