How To Keep Your Lawn Healthy (With Pets Around)
Most people with lawn care knowledge have no problem keeping their lawns looking perfectly healthy. And if they don’t have lawn care knowledge, they outsource this task to lawn care experts who do have it.
But keeping your lawn healthy when you have pets like dogs can be an entirely different story. Animals love the outdoors, and your lawn can sometimes pay the ultimate price. Before you end up with a muddy, messy, and entirely destroyed patch of grass, consider doing some of the following things. Your lawns (and pets) might just thank you for it.
Grow Hardy Lawn
If your lawn is currently so destroyed that you’re thinking about growing new lawn from scratch, take the opportunity to research the hardiest lawn options. The stronger your lawn, the better its chances of survival might be.
Of course, there’s no such thing as an entirely pet-tolerant lawn, but some grass types are more suitable than others. Talk to your local lawn care expert about varieties designed for high-traffic areas, such as ryegrass and turf fescue blends, which are often chosen for backyards, driveways, playgrounds, and other high-use areas.
Aerate Your Lawn
Our sweet furry friends love doing zoomies. They sprint around the yard without a care in the world, letting out all their pent-up energy. It’s fun for them, and it’s fun for us, but it’s not so fun for your lawn.
Over time, their antics can result in the soil underneath your grass becoming compact, stopping the grass roots from getting all the nutrients they need. To combat this problem and ensure your grass roots get air, water, and nutrients, dedicate time to lawn aeration.
Lawn aeration involves piercing small holes across your entire lawn. You can purchase manual or motorised lawn aeration tools for the job or even footwear so that you can simply walk on your lawn and create the necessary holes. Aeration can be temporarily unsightly, but it might be the difference between a happy lawn and a sad one.
Exercise Your Pets Elsewhere
If it seems like your lawn is never getting a chance to bounce back from your pet’s outdoor antics, give it a much-needed break by exercising them elsewhere. Rather than throwing a ball in your backyard, take them to a local dog park to interact with other dogs or walk them around your nearby dog-friendly parks and walking tracks.
Exercising your dogs elsewhere is not only beneficial for them to be able to explore new areas, but it might also mean your lawn isn’t subjected to the same daily wear and tear that’s contributing to its untimely failure.
Create a Designated Pet Area
Your dog realistically might not need your entire yard to do their business. If you exercise them elsewhere, you might see the value in creating a designated pet area and making the rest of your lawn off-limits.
In this area, you can set up a toileting space, a dog run where they can relax and enjoy their own company, and even a pet-friendly sandbox if they typically enjoy digging up your lawn. While they’ll be able to enjoy their outside time, you’ll also benefit from a pet-free area where your lawn has a chance to survive and thrive.
Rinse Urine
Nitrogen and salts in urine can damage your lawn, but your pet has gotta go when they’ve gotta go! Rather than letting the nitrogen kill off your grass and create unsightly dead patches, supervise their toileting time and water down where they’ve urinated with a watering can or hose.
The less nitrogen concentrated in one area, the less harmful it can be to your lawn. Alternatively, you might like to try the many different dog products on the market, like Dog Rocks, designed to filter out impurities in water that would typically pass through the urine and damage your grass.
Train Out Bad Habits
You might think you need to put up with your dog digging holes in the grass or pulling out your prized plants, but you don’t have to. With the right training programme in place to suit your dog’s needs and temperament, you might be able to replace their bad habits with new, better ones.
At a minimum, you might be able to switch their focus from digging a hole in your grass to digging one in a pet-friendly sandpit instead.
Ask Your Local Lawn Care Expert For Advice
As much as we love our pets, it can sometimes seem like we can’t have pets and nice lawns. Quite the opposite might be true. Take the above actions and talk to your local lawn care expert for advice. You might be surprised at how a proactive approach to lawn care might be all it takes to have your lawn back in tip-top shape.