Lawn Protection

Cedrus

Hi All,
After eleven years of living with two tiny dogs we have adopted a young lurcher and he is destroying the back garden. It's not his fault at all he's just way bigger and more energetic than a miniature Dachshund. The wet weather and sodden ground obviously don't help.
So, I'm looking for advice and experience. The standard choice is to concrete the garden but I don't like that option for several reasons.

• We don't have great drainage here so I am reluctant to dis-improve it with an impermeable layer.
• Keeping it clean is a career in itself.
• The mess and inconvenience of having a builder in with a minidigger, dumper and the concreting itself.
• I like having a garden and don't want a yard.

Has anybody used or even seen mesh reinforcement like this?
It looks a lot easier than concrete, we get to keep our drainage and our garden and have no slimy floor to clean. On the other hand, I have no idea if it's safe for the boisterous boy, will he get his claws caught in it, , will he he chew it and choke, or will he be poisoned?

Knine

That looks awful. I simply have a dog run on a smaller concrete area for the dogs. I still have my lovely garden. However this weather has it ruined regardless of having dogs

ganmo

By trafficking they mean driving on

Cedrus

Knine wrote: »

That looks awful. I simply have a dog run on a smaller concrete area for the dogs. I still have my lovely garden. However this weather has it ruined regardless of having dogs

Thanks for the comment but our garden is not big enough to have a separate area for a dog cage, if we split the space we have he would end up with kennel tail (i.e. bleeding). Do you just think it looks awful or do you have experience of using it?

Cedrus

ganmo wrote: »

By trafficking they mean driving on

Thank you for your comments. After viewing about 20 suppliers sites and speaking english as my mother tongue for over fifty years, I can assure you that "traffic" includes vehicular and pedestrian, human and animal.

bertsmom

Hi Op. I know what you mean about the lawn going to sh1t with dogs. I used to have two (spaniels) but one little boy passed away two years ago.
I live in a semi detached house with a small garden. It's the usual type if you can picture it where there's double doors off the kitchen and just outside the doors theirs a patio for table and chairs and then the rest is grass and flower beds.
After the first year I was desperate to find a solution to the mud bath the garden had become and for me the prettiest and most cost effective solution was to put up a simple waist high picket fence with a gate all along the edge where the patio met with the garden grass that allowed access to the garden that we left open during most of the summer and dry times in the winter. It looked lovely with potted herbs all growing in pots affixed to it and it really worked brilliantly because they could go to the toilet outside etc in awful weather but the garden wasn't ruined and their paws weren't totally filthy from the mudbath.
From looking at that mesh tho I would say you may end up with vet bills if the lurcher took off running and a nail or his toe/paw got stuck. Best of luck lurchers are gorgeous dogs with such soulful eyes.

Cedrus

bertsmom wrote: »

..................... the prettiest and most cost effective solution was to put up a simple waist high picket fence with a gate all along the edge where the patio met with the garden grass that allowed access to the garden that we left open during most of the summer and dry times in the winter..................................................

Thank you bertsmom! That was the plan for our previous dog who never go to move house with us, but for some reason we forgot about it completely this week.

We have a similar setup with a patio across the full width of the garden with high walls and gates on either side of the house.

I've already made a trip to B&Q and a temporary fence will be up by the weekend with a permanent solution in the pipeline. She who must be obeyed want's wrought iron.

Doctors room ghost

Whatever damage the dogs do you should see what hens will do.little feathered bastid bulldozers is what they are with jcb buckets for feet and with an endless appetite for destruction. If you go the concrete route you can have my hens.you won’t need a mini digger when them fukrs are finished.
Get a few hens for the kids they said.be grand they said

frash

I've a Golden Retriever & the grass is ruined.

I currently have builders in who are going to wreck the grass even further.

I contacted this company for a grass seed that would almost be like the rough of a golf fairway & they suggested mix #3
http://seeddirect.ie/index.php/lawn-seed.html

Will try to remember to update this thread in a few months with how it's going.

tk123

God our grass lasted less than a year then we paved . Then last year I got it processionally done and the dogs LOVE to sit out on the stones. OP they have that mesh stuff but more like a heavier version of it in St Annes park to protect the grass where the stalls are at the market every week. If you're anywhere near it you could suss it out

Cherry Blossom

Do you have to take it up to cut the grass or can you cut it with the mesh down.

tk123

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

Do you have to take it up to cut the grass or can you cut it with the mesh down.

The one in St Annes has the grass growing up through the mesh. The mesh is at ground level if that makes sense - it's not on top of the grass

Graces7

I know this would not work for dogs, but when I had a good garden I got fed up of seeing one of my cats see the newly seeded carrot bed as a toilet. ( 14 years on he still does this) So I tried gently laying chicken wire loosely over the beds. Works great as they hate it . Plants will happily grow through it,

Blessed here with an empty, rough field so dog can dig all she likes..

Graces7

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

Whatever damage the dogs do you should see what hens will do.little feathered bastid bulldozers is what they are with jcb buckets for feet and with an endless appetite for destruction. If you go the concrete route you can have my hens.you won’t need a mini digger when them fukrs are finished.
Get a few hens for the kids they said.be grand they said

whatever you do DO NOT GET DUCKS They make chickens look like amateurs.
I had hens, goose, ducks and peafowl at one house and the ducks were demolition squads.. They have such huge feet and will also pluck and eat pea pods

Doctors room ghost

Graces7 wrote: »

whatever you do DO NOT GET DUCKS They make chickens look like amateurs.
I had hens, goose, ducks and peafowl at one house and the ducks were demolition squads.. They have such huge feet and will also pluck and eat pea pods

I hear ducks are savages alright.when these chickens kick the bucket that will be the finish of birdy keeping here