Backyard Troubles

Howdy everyone. I am new to the Forum and was hoping that someone could help me with what seems to be an unsolvable dilema! We are in USDA zone 8a. The house if 4-yrs old, originally we painstakingly put down Centipede sod. However, a combination of hard clay soil (the builder trucked in about 20 loads and it is nearly all red clay), lack of sun, poor drainage (you can tell that the house sits atop a rather steep incline just in the back) & foot traffic by us and our 3 dogs (German Shepherd, Old English Sheepdog & German Shepherd/Chow Chow mix) have killed all of the sod. I need to do something with this backyard (the width of which varies from about 6' up to about 10') as soon as possible. The dogs track in smelly mud (needless to say the backyard sticks of urine from them going potty out there) when it rains and we can't even use it anymore. I need a fairly inexpensive fix that we can do ourselves which will make the backyard a pleasant place for us and our dogs.

I have thought of using some type of alternative grass, herbs (creeping thyme, etc...), paving stones, etc. I have to stay away from rocks as my German Shepherd will just destroy them. She totally destroyed a bed I put back there and lined with rocks. Not only did she carry off all the rocks BUT she also ate all my roses!

Thanks for your help & suggestions.

I don't have a lawn so I don't know if there are other types of grass that might handle your conditions better, but pretty much any other living ground cover you could put there is not going to stand up to traffic even as well as the grass does. So if grass isn't working, I think it's time for a non-living ground cover of some sort. My usual recommendation is crushed gravel, it packs down to create a porous surface that water can get through, but it's tamped down well enough that my dog doesn't track it in. But I don't know how that would stick on a slope so mulch might be a better option. It'll get messed up as the dogs run around and have to be raked back into place every so often, but it'll prevent the dogs from getting all muddy. Normally I wouldn't recommend the rubber mulch, the wood stuff is better for garden beds, but for something like this it may work better and won't break down as fast.

The area that I need to work on isn't on a slope, the slope is actually below it. How would crushed gravel hold up to doggie poo?

Buffalo grass might be a good option for you. It's supposed to be very tough and drought tolerant, which would be a plus on your slope. High Country Gardens offers it. I'd check it out good first though to make sure it will grow in your area. The info says it's good in the southeast.

http://www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/browse/native-turf-grasses/

Crushed gravel would be fine then, I thought it was the slope that you were trying to fix. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by holding up to doggie poo, it just sits on top and then you come and pick it up! The real key to success with the gravel is getting the right kind (very small pieces, my landscapers called the stuff I have called "quarter minus" which means it's gravel fines that are no more than 1/4 inch) and tamping it down really well, ideally you'd want to rent one of those vibrating compactor things but I guess you could probably do it with a hand tamper. Then when it rains it really compacts together and becomes a very hard surface. It's definitely worth investigating other grass types first, maybe there's one that would hold up better for you. But if it's a small area then with your three dogs I'm not sure any grass will really hold up. Even with my one smallish dog, anytime I've had a very small yard area I've never been able to keep grass alive.

You may want to check out sodsolutions.com
Look at Bermudagrass. Wear is excellant and recovery is excellant. A very good South Carolina grass.

I second the bermuda grass! We have 5 1/2 acres of nasty hard clay but the bermuda got a good hold in spite of the poor conditions. We used Sahara because it was the best we could afford. They have other types that are a good bit more expensive but don't have to be mowed as often. Sahara needs mowing every 6 to 7 days. For the price difference in the seed, I can handle that much mowing!

Have out checked out synthetic grass? I know it sounds cheesy; but it is porous, stays green all year and great for a "dog yard." Periodically you use special biodegradable soap and rinse it off with the hose. We are going to surround our dog yard with real shrubs and sink a doggy composter into the ground to make clean-up easier. It's on a shallow slope on one side of the house so I think I may add some medium landscape rock and create a couple of "stairs", too.

carterkz, great solutions. please post a pic of your dog yard.

I'll get before and after pics, but it may be a while. Both remodeling and landscaping ran out of money when my daughter decided to get married. The wedding is next month. Then we pay property taxes. So around next spring there might be more money for projects. lol

http://www.synlawn.com/

This is a link to the website for the company that sells synthetic grass for dog yards. On the right you can click on "uses" and go to "pet friendly." I've seen it used for doggy daycare areas, and it looks great.