Hi Archie, I have just put on a post mentioning this very thing. Although we were prepared for the garden never to be the same, we can't believe the damage! George and Maia tear around the garden, brake suddenly, then have a play fight, then start all over again. It rained solidly for the first 4 weeks we had them and the garden is like a bog when it rains. G & M are mostly white and come in absolutely filthy.

We are planning to fence off a bit of the garden for them and lay down bark in the meantime. It will still give them space to stretch their legs and do their business and hopefully this will keep us all happy.

Christianne

 

Hi Archie, there was a thread on gardening ages ago, here's what I wrote, I've got a grass!! It's not the best but it survives, somehow, despite 7 hounds and their daily antics...

....between October and April pretend it's not there, really, there's better things to think about, in April go online and buy grass seed, the biggest bag you can, if it has a toxic waste symbol on it then thats the bag for you, look for words like 'durable' 'grows in all conditions' 'plutonium' etc...when the bag arrives walk half heartedly round the area with a pitch fork sticking it into the ground whenever you feel the need.

Now we're ready to 'garden' open the bag and very energetically sprinkle the whole lot over the area, ignore ALL instructions on the bag particularly the ones about maximum and minimum coverage. Leave the area for a couple of days and if by some sheer fluke it doesn't rain in the preeceeding 3 days get hose and wellies out and give it a damn good soaking.

We now go into the 'growing' phase...buy x number of cheap footballs from your local sports shop. 1 for every dog in the house and one for the grass...place the grass's football in the shortest area of grass....now sit back and enjoy nature...at some point during the summer you'll realise you can't see the grass's football cos the grass is too long, time to cut! Big, red and petrol driven is my prefered choice, ask nicely and your local garage will soup it up for you..now cut the grass with the big red mean machine on it's highest setting then repeat at shortest setting when your blisters have disapeared.

Repeat the 'growing' phase till September......easy really....

cheers

Dave

My garden also resembles a poughed field, but I find it has removed all the moss which was originally there, so it's not all bad.

I'm waiting till April to try Dave's grass seed technique

If anyone has any links to buy seed online please post them as I don't normally buy gardening stuff so no idea where is best.

 

Keera is the same picking things up although usually its from inside to outside.

Normally its carol's pink fluffy slippers.  Although on one occasion it was a pair of pants sitting in the laundry basket waiting to be washed - only noticed them in the middle of the muck in the garden as they were brightly coloured ...

 

That'll teach them to play outside behind my back.

Archie

My garden is the same looked like a ploughed field, so rather than replace the grass I used wood chip and planted pots and dotted them around the garden.

I am nearly as passionate about my garden as I am my dogs. Unfortunately the dogs won the battle with the lawn. The whole lot is paved with flower beds with huge logs (like telegraph poles) in front of the beds. The dogs have learned not to go on these areas and the patio is broken up with pots and a huge raised pond. I don't even miss the grass although the dogs did at first need it to toilet. They soon got over it.

Em, Tig and Chad XX

Landess, all is not lost. Tell Steve that you can get big ride-on vacuums aimed at the equestrian market that suck jobbies up a big pipe! I'm sure they would work for canine excrement on slabs as well...