Safe Lawn Care for puppies

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

Apologies if this doesn't belong in this group, but I am curious to discuss safe lawn care. Since we got Rippley and well before, I stopped treating the lawn altogether in order to safeguard a new puppy. But now he is five months and crabgrass and weeds are taking over! I don't want to look like a delinquent neighbor, and there is too much to pour boiling water over every culprit (boy, that happened quickly...) How do people safely take care of their property while caring for their pups as well? TIA!

[F, Calla & Luca]

We have info in the garden group. But basically weed killers are unsafe for pups and all wildlife including people. I pull out some major culprits, mow and live with the weeds. As long as the weeds are kept short and are green it's OK. I do overseed with good grass seed spring and fall.

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

I'll check the garden group, thx!

[Lynda Kamrath]

You will learn to deal with it in your own special way.  Mine was to take out all grass (after my SILs wedding in our yard) and we have natives, other plants of our choosing, and landscaping sculptures to take the place of the grass.  Benefit?  No mowing and we just weedwack a few times a year.  Our major problem is a neighborhood dog who jumps over our gate and loves to roll in our flowers and wrestle with our dogs.  No pesticides or herbicides at all in our yard.  There are plenty of them around our agricultural area, but not in our yard or garden areas.  Saves on watering also.  Grass takes a lot of water as evidenced by the golf courses also in our area.  It saves water and saves work to just get rid of the grass.

[Barb @ Gemstone Labradoodles]

I have a bee friendly yard.

[Rae]

We use white vinegar to kill the weeds we just can't stand anymore! If applied early on a sunny day the weed is dead in hours. It doesn't work as well as things like round up but it's completely safe for our fur-kids so that's the important thing. We buy it at Costco (2 gals for under $4) pour it in the pump sprayer and take a walk around the yard. The place will smell like salad but our pups are safe and the weeds will soon be gone!