HI, We have 3 Labs and a small garden which I have already divided into *ours* and *theirs.* Ours has the deck area, pond and raised beds etc. However *theirs* is the very small lawn which is waterlogged and muddy. They only go on it to use as a toilet and I am constantly wiping 12 muddy paws.

I am considering putting a membrane over it and either putting down rounded gravel or pet safe wood/bark chippings. I would prefer the latter as in the summer it gets very hot and very bright out there and I think wood may be cooler and easier on the eye. (Don't want concrete or flagstones, have an area of that next to the lawn by the back door.)

Anyone done this? What is it like to live with?

:)

PS Dogs don't like going on the muddy lawn, they hop around it to go to the loo and then get off as quick as they can. Get them out on a muddy walk and they are straight into the puddles....

I have the same thing an area of mud (used to be grass - always been to small to be a lawn) it to is used only as a toilet by the dogs and at the moment and with them being bitches there is just no chance of it recovering unless I keep them off all together.

I considered  gravel/stones and chippings but the difficulty of trying to clean up after them. Makes me think I need a "solid" substance like block paving/slabs.

I will be interested to see the replies.

Karen   

How about the type of surface often seen in picnic areas? Like a brick surface with inch or so grassed gaps between the bricks? You can mow the grass but the hard brick surface prevents the dog's paws sinking in. After all, it will withstand the passage of cars!

Regards, John

We no longer have a lawn, and the remaining muddy mess is driving me mad! We've decided to go down the gravel route, and it's being delivered on Friday! I just hope it's going to be OK - there just didn't seem to be any alternative....I'll let you know how we get on. At the moment OH has dug a soakaway in the furthest, wettest corner, which will be filled with gravel. We'll put down a semi-permeable membrane, then cover all the used-to-be lawn with the remaining gravel. I hope the labs will be happy with it!!

My problem with gravel is walking on it:( and clearing up the mess from gravel.

We have gravel and I find clearing up the mess is no problem if you use a shavings fork (One that you would use to muck the horses stable out with) as the gravel falls through leaving the mess on the fork :-)

We have shrubs out front and block paving,Spice spends time out there only when I am present cleaning the car or gardening,she usually lies by the garage wall and watches the world go by.

In the back,which is small by most standards,we have a deck path and deck area which we can hose easily and the rest is shrubby with large sized bark.Spice is happy to lay on the bark but has never, since being a tiny puppy, 'used' the garden for anything other than a wee which we can wash/dilute with the hose,any other 'business' she does, is always out on her woodland walk daily and is bagged and disposed of in a doggie bin.

My son's dog will use our garden, so we have the hose out more often, when she is around but so far it has worked really well not having any grass to worry about.

The decked area provides plenty of seating for the sunnier days and Spice is quite happy to lounge on there or to curl up under my tree fern to sleep in the summertime.

It's easy to maintain and I would not go back to grass unless I owned several acres of land :D :D
Jacqueline :)

Can't be worse than walking on mud!! Or rather sinking or sliding....:( :( :(  The last time I remember this amount of mud was on a very wet camping holiday in Wales...but at least that was only for a few days. This has become progressively worse throughout the autumn/winter.

Good point I don't bother walking on the mud so I suspect anything would be better.

I would prefer not to walk on the mud but I can't avoid it as I have to clear up the dogs' mess! Only for a few more days, though!(not that the dogs will stop pooing - but we'll have the gravel....lol) I just hope it works or I really don't know what we'll do. Despair?

Whats a lawn? :D

Have to be careful with gravel in our garden - Meg likes to eat it - makes a nice accompniment to shrubs!

If I were to use gravel it would be a rounder type so nicer for the dogs feet, but I still really prefer the idea of bark chippings. Does anyone have this?

John, your idea sounds nice and we would still have the grass. Just wondering how expensive and how much work it would be though.

Can't work out why it's so muddy, we've been here 15 years and this is the first year it's been a problem. Perhaps it's because I made the lawn smaller?

Had to google image a shavings fork as I had no idea what that was.  That's BIG ... how big a poo do your dogs do chapelrose? ;) :D

We use a childrens shaving fork - one that the little ones use to muck out their ponies ;-)

our friends put their whole front garden into forest bark so they could do agility all year without the grass turning into mud and becoming too slippy. Its really good and the dogs can run about on it no bother at all and it is a huge area they did [50ft square]  They need to top up the bark every now and again as it settles but they buy it from the saw mill by the trailer load and the sawmill delivers it by tractor and it is very cheap. Hope this helps.

It helps a lot! Just what I wanted to hear in fact! *thumbs up* Thanks.

(But will still bear in mind the pea gravel.)

:)

glad it helps also its not as dirty to run about on as i thought it would be and the dogs are really quite clean afterwards and it is so much kinder to their feet than gravel.

We did this with pea gravel (decided against bark as we thought it might be be difficult to clean properly). It was great - actually quite easy to clear up - just scooped with a shovel and shook any loose gravel back - easy also to hose down and we used Bac-to-Nature a few times a week to keep it smelling fresh. After about a year we needed to patch up a few bits of gravel in their "favourite" spots (!) but that was easy enough to do. The dogs were fine with it - played on it as well (though not at the same time) so it can't have hurt their feet - though you need the round pea shingle not the sharp stuff.

We have now moved to another place and the lawn is already dying. We are planning to go for gravel again.

Good luck
Janet

Hmm Interesting thanks.

I will just have to see if the pup decides to dig it up.

Lawn I used to have one somewhere back in August i think it was a lawn well it certainly was green, now all ive got is a large mud bath which is getting worse as the days go on, so come the summer hopefully it will be flagged as i cant stand another winter with dirty paws tramping through my house and having beach towels down doesnt quiet look right but they save the carpets a little.

Me too Polly!!!!.  There was definetly a lawn there last summer.  Mine is too big to pave or put gravel on (and too costly) so have now resorted to putting hay over the really bad mud patches in the hope!!! that it will help to reseed the lawn in time for the summer.

We have a mixture of gravel and paving stones.

It works very well although we often have to replenish the gravel as you do tend to pick up alot of gravel when you are doing poo patrol.

Lucy
xx

We got rid of our grass too!  We've now got a mixture of decking, slabs and stones that aren't gravel but more like round smooth pebbles.  When the boys tear around on the stones it tends to make them pile up in certain areas, but it's easily raked back into position :)  It's true about the poo picking up the stones though!  Fortunately our two tend to reserve their poos for when they are out walking, so it's not too much of a problem.

Lesley

my dogs have concrete, and my kids have the grass have stock fencing divide the garden. works very well

Our new lawn which was laid last year now looks like a farmers feild. Our young Lab (Annie,aged 1) being young does her `duties on it.our Older Lab (Sadie,aged 5) will not do anything on the grass she will hold it till she goes out on her walk....

                       Andy.

Am I a lone voice in the wilderness? I have four active dogs and a lawn as well ... :o

So what is your secret JG? I would love to be able to keep the lawn but after only two months it is showing signs of distress from our lot. Main problem here is not mud but burnt patches on the lawn... if there is grass our girls will use it!

Janet

I don't do anything to it! We're on pretty claggy soil, so rotten drainage, the bitches pee on it, then the dogs pee over the top of theirs; they all go galloping around and churn it up a bit but it comes back all right. The brown urine burns go green again (greener than before because of the nitrogen in the wee) within a few weeks ...

You must have very good drainage where you are JG, mine is usally fine, but this year OMG :-(

No, I'm with you JG! :D  Against all the odds, my lawn has remained (more or less) intact also!  In the dog's "toilet zone" (a fenced off area ) I have gravel down-easy to keep clean and not too bad to clear up any mess.  The dogs know that area is for doing their business in and the rest of the garden is for rampaging in. :)

I have got photos of our garden when we first moved in - UNDER WATER!!! We then realised why all the other gardens in out road were patioed. I have had patio, wood bark and gravel all at different times and found gravel to be the best. It is easier to clean up poo, especially after runny ones coz you can scoop up a bit of gravel too, whereas on patio you then have to wash it afterwards.

Bark is ok but the membranes never keep the weeds out and after a while it looks messy and you have to keep weeding it. I would love a big garden covered in grass, but it's not gonna happen so I have resigned myself to gravel. There is a patio area at the end for us to sit on in the summer, but the dogs are supposed to empty on the gravelled area. (If someone could just let the dogs know, I would be forever grateful :p )

I think it really depends on the size of your garden. Mine is tiny so I had to go for what was practicle rather than what I wanted. If you don't have enough space to fence of a bit then you have no choice but to re-christen the garden -

(spooky out-of-space voice) "The Dog's Toilet" 

Good luck! :-)

The grass we do have left is patches of yellow,the borders arnt much better,as annie can dig for england,only the other day she went into the garden,i went out to see what she was up to,all i could see was her head on level with the soil.
Sheila.

We switched to bark three years ago  and wouldn't have anything else now.

No more muddy pawprints across the floor. Each autumn  I move the bark from the dog's area and spread it around the bushes replacing it with fresh. We seem to get enough rain to prevent any smell!

I couldn't use gravel as one of my bitches had arthritis and  walking on gravel hurt her.