My friend Kelly has just been moved into a new house.  Unfortunately it looks as if the previous occupants had a dog and never cleaned up after him in the garden.  :-(

She's been out there and picked up as much of the mess as she can however there is a lot more that seems to be (its hard to describe) almost part of the lawn which is proving impossible to clear up, either the grass is tangled up in it or is growing out of it.  :yuk:

Now, being in the habit of cleaning up after Glazby everyday I've never come across this problem but does anyone have any tips as to how she can rid her garden of the mess without having to have the whole lawn ripped up and relaid??

She was really looking forward to using her garden!!

Any advice would be much appreciated.  :-)

Does she have children?  Is it a council or housing association property?  If she has kids, this could be a serious health risk :(

How long is the grass? If it's long could she borrow a strimmer? i have an area that my lawnmower doesn't reach and my dogs started using the area with long grass, naturally ;) I used a strimmer to get the grass down and then used a shovel and fork to pick everything up. Messy :)

Hi, she doesn't have any kids and the property is a private rented house.  She's spoken to her rental agency who have said that as she inspected the property before moving in she should have said something before signing her contract about the mess.  Unfortunately she only ever looked at the garden through the patio doors and couldn't see the mess from there.  They've said that they can get someone to clear it up for her but they don't appear to be in much of a rush to get it sorted out and she's more keen to get out there and sort it out herself rather than having to wait the weeks that she's been advised it will take to get someone round to do it for her.

I went over at the weekend with my strimmer and we cleared the poo from the top layer of grass and then strimmed the grass down (with poo flying everywhere - please don't ask me to re-live that moment, it wasn't pleasant)  :-(  :-(

When we got the grass strimmed down we could then see that a lot of the poo that was left is, as I say kind of seeped into the lawn itself.  We tried with a trowel to pick bits up but were almost digging underneath it to get it up and ended up with holes in the lawn from the digging.

Maybe she'll have to wait for the agency to get the professionals in though I don't know what they can do what we can't.  Its pretty horrible out there and the poor dog that was made to go out there and wander round in its own mess  :-(

I don't know why people can't do it everyday - its a 2 minute job a day and then you don't get into a state like this  :-(

would using a pressure washer on the lawn help?
I'd imagine if its been there awhile its dried and been trampled in, the force of the water would help loosen things up and then any bits could be picked up.
I know it doesnt sound nice but it does help.
I had a similar problem when we had bad snow and as fast as the dogs were pooing the snow covered it up, so by the time it thawed a cpl of weeks later it was all trod in. in desparation i used the pressure washer, just in short sharp bursts. :-)

Oooh thanks janeandkai - anything is worth a try so we'll have a go with that....just got to find someone who owns a pressure washer that we can borrow now!!  ;-)

I woudn't use a pressure washer on it they tend to turn everything to spray and it gets in the air for you to breathe in Try putting a grass mower over it (strimmers don't get right down)  and then try an ordinary garden rake and see how much you can get out if it that way, then try to water whatever's left away with a hose, you can get spray attachments which give you a choice which spray type to use ;)

Hope this helps

Ahhh - okay then, thanks!!  ;-)  The problem we are having is that the grass is already as short as we can get it but the poo that is left isn't hard - its soft and raking just won't move it, we just end up with poo all over the rake and smeared over the grass.  :-(

Kelly is debating whether or not it is beyond help and may need to have the whole lawn area taken up and new turf relayed.  :-(

>>I woudn't use a pressure washer on it  they tend to turn everything to spray

which is why i said short sharp bursts :D :D

A pressure washer would also wash the soil away from the roots of the grass :(   I'd go with the rake idea.

oh well ... it worked for me and my lawn was ok afterwards :-)

A powered scarifier ? even an ordinary hosepipe with a gun on the end it would at least  loosen up the poop ! My dogs mainly do on the tarmaced area which I clean up asap & any poop on the lawn is cleaned up as soon as it is done

same here Moonmaiden - me and OH have a little routine going, one of us cooks dinner and the other scoops the poop every evening.  Done on a daily basis it takes us about 2 minutes!!

My poor friend doesn't even own a dog bless her and she's got this lovely task to do!!

I will try with the hose to try and loosen the poop as raking is not going to work - as I say, we tried this and the rake just ends up covered in poo as its all soft and not very rakeable (if there is such a word)!!  ;-)

How many dogs did they have? or was it one ginormouse one?  the smell must be lovely- not!!