What to do with the back yard

[jenn D]

Sooooo the backyard from dog play and traffic isn't doing so well. And now that we have 12 paws instead of 8 I suspect it will only get worse. I'm sure I'm not the only person here who struggles with wanting a decent backyard but also wanting your doodles to have outdoor playtime. So I'm asking for suggestions. We have 1/3 of an acre. Our yard is split into an upper and lower level. The lower level can only be accessed by gates and it has grass, my gardens and my kiddos swingset. The dogs only get access there when we are all outside and the kids are playing.
The upper level comes off the house. We have a big patio,planters and then what *was*, grass. This is where the dogs go out to potty and romp. They've dug there, they've run there and peed there, so the grass is now gone or warn down to dirt with dead straw stuff on top that the doodles always bring in on their "hypoallergenic" coats.lol!
So what to do with this area? My mom thinks we should get artificial turf on top, make sure a portion is always in the shade because we live in New Mexico and summers are hot and make a potty area as well. We could also go back to grass. Unfortunately with water restrictions and the drought here in the southwest constant watering is expensive and not really the environmentally right thing to do. I have to water alot with their peeing on grass because all 3 boys turn the grass yellow horribly.
We plan to keep the bottom half of are yard the way it is with grass, etc.
So what do i do with the top Part? Any thoughts or suggestions? Brainstorming ideas anyone? For now, lets not worry about cost, but please take into account we live in the desert which gets very hot and water is not plentiful. The top area I am talking about is around 500 square feet or so.

I can post a picture if it is helpful, just let me know.

I really just want tobe able to enjoy my backyard WITH the doodles.

Thanks guys. :)

[Brittney & Cally]

I like the turf top idea. In the long run I would think it would be more efficient because you will not always have to water it and replace it with like you would with grass. You could always hose it down a little to cool it off if it is hot. But I would think you would save on water since you do not have to constantly water it to keep it alive! PLUS no mud! I think I may be talking myself into wanting to do part of my yard with turf as well haha, although I have 5 acres and two dogs so not necessary

[F, Calla & Luca]

We have had discussions on this sort of thing in the garden group. I don't like artificial turf because it is artificial, and gets very hot. I know there have been debates about whether athletes suffer more knee injuries due to it and I wonder if this might be true for dogs, with their claws acting like cleats, too. Some people have put in artificial turf and love it though. Places like High Country Gardens have special low maintenance , xeric turf seeds and plugs you might look into. The situation climate wise in NJ is totally different . But dog wise I share your pain. I plan once again to do a ton of seeding in the spring and hope for the best. I know with two dogs, no chemicals and mother nature my lawn will never be perfect . I will be happy with fair to good. 

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

The better artificial turf looms very real, but it can be pricy! But probably cost effective in the long run. When we were house hunting, we looked at a house, whose backyard was done with the artificial turf. We never even realized until we actually got there. From a distance it looked very real. LOL.... Some landscaper must have tried to actually now it, because there was one mow line about 6 feet long.
We have 5 acres, but only the area surrounding the house is grassed. We are slowly pulling it out and installing succulent and dry beds.

[Sally S Miles]

I'm glad you can't hear me giggling - this sound so familiar! Except for the watering part - I'll send you some, I'm in the mossy Pacific NW. :)  Lots of rainfall, but we often get watering limit requests in summer.  Our upper area is fenced and gated into a small play area and a larger one, the lower area is wild as is the other pare of our lot - blackberies instead of play for kids (now that my kids don't show up to clear it anymore).  So we had grass, then the dry straw stuff that sticks, but now mud is not so bad because it dries fast and then falls off.  sigh...  We don't get enough sun to grow much grass, I spent a lot of time letting groundcover take over so I didn't have to mow such large areas -  I'd love to have them romp in grass, but  couldn't possibly seed for months yet - artificial turf has been investigated off and on, but I'm so anti plastic... I'm thoroughly stumped. So I'm following this to see what comes up.

[Robin and Libby Louise]

I wonder if the dogs would have to get used to doing their business on the artificial stuff?  Some dogs are VERY particular!  LOL.  Or would you leave part of the upper area w/o the artifical stuff so they would have a "real" potty place?

[jenn D]

Probably leave a spot for pottying without turf

[Chels*Claud*Midas]

I turfed a section of my yard and that's where Midas goes out to pee pee and to play on muddy days.. it was the best thing I have EVER done.. no more muddy paws! and its amazing!! highly recommend it!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Fescue grass worked well for me until JD tested positive for fescue on his allergy tests. :)

I have resodded my yard 4 times in 8 years. Now, I have river rock or pea gravel where I can, and bare patches of dirt along with sad looking grass in the areas where I can't. I've pretty much resigned myself to that. You can tell where JD takes off and lands during a good game of fetch just by looking at my grass. 

I looked into artificial turf but the cost was ridiculous and the grass area of my yard gets full sun all afternoon, which would make it too hot for JD to use it at all. 

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Roo and Tigger had an artificial turf dog area in our old house and also have one in our current home. K-9 Adventures where they stay occasionally when we are away also uses artificial turf as do many of Southern California's shelters We live outside LA and it gets very hot here.  I have never had any problems with it being too hot to potty on.  For me it is the ideal surface, stays green, does not wear, cleans easily.  Upkeep is minimum.

Actually when we moved here last August I had two must haves - a laundry room and a dog turf area.  Mind you the kitchen could use updating and as could the bathrooms. The home we left had brand new kitchen and baths, so that tells you how much I like the dog turf. We did the dog turf years before we updated the kitchen by my choice.

It is fairly expensive, but lasts a long time, the replacement cost of the actual green stuff is much less than the initial outlay as the digging and sand and gravel etc are already done.  Our previous dog run was ten years old and not anywhere close to needing "grass" replacement.

If you do put one in find out what is used locally for dogs - It is "Easy Turf" here in southern CA.  Also make sure you have a hose bib close to hose down the area if one of your dogs gets a case of the runs and to keep the urine smell down in the dry hot weather hosing once a month with a dilute Clorox solution works well and has no ill effect on the grass.

[Lynda Kamrath]

I checked and you are in New Mexico - in a  great area if I may say so myself.  My suggestion is NATIVES.  We had a lawn put in for my SILs wedding and the area beautifully landscaped, but when the wedding was over we decided we did not want to deal with grass, so we did all natural areas and planted lots of natives.  If they do well, we plant more.  Right now there is a drought in California, so it is pretty much like a desert also.  I have planter boxes in several areas around our house and a quarter acre fenced around the house.  We have about an acre all together and lots of little areas.  Take a look at the photos on my page and you can kind of get the idea.  We don't worry at all about the landscaping because if something does not work, we put in something else.  Native plants are wonderful.

[Lynette Main]

I'm going to use stone one mine. I have four Doodles and the part of the yard off the deck is awful. I think if I use stone and flagstone there it won't be such a mudhole in the spring.I'll have to do if fast though!!!

[Joyce (Casey & Cody's mom)]

I, too, am right there with you.  When we had just the 4 dachshunds, my mother's little fluff ball, and my daughter's hound, we had "run" tracks around the yard where they race up and down the fence line "playing with" the dogs in the yard behind us. Now however, with the addition of 2 doodles, we have a mud pit in the backyard. Since our backdoor has a doggie door leading to the deck and steps off the deck leading to the backyard, we constantly have a totally muddy floor in the sunroom when it rains.  Thankfully, we do have fences that block the doorways off of the sunroom, so they are confined there until we intentionally let them out of the sunroom. On rainy days, they unfortunately are confined to the sunroom. (not a terrible place to be confined - it is 16 x 33, has a couch, all of their crates, and tons of toys  - - their own indoor kennel.)  However, my backyard is a total mess. There is NO grass left - just mud and holes.  Even what used to be a great azalea bed and a rose garden are now goners.  They have pulled up, chewed up and totally destroyed 6 azalea plants and most of the rose bushes!  I, too was thinking about artificial turf - but my fear is that they will pull it up and chew it up.  When we had our azalea bed put down, they laid a cloth, put garden soil on top of that, then planted the azaleas through the cloth. It was supposed to control the weeds. On top of everything else, they put a heavy layer of mulch.  Well, the doodles have dug down and gotten ahold of the cloth and pulled it up in long strips. Then they play tug-of-war with it and tear it into tiny pieces.  You can just imagine what it all looks like!  Hence my fear that they would do the same thing with expensive turf.  We have also considered putting turf on the steps and on the deck so that at least it would wipe their feet off before coming into the house.