Garden Fence – for everything in your garden

I have great back yard and beautiful stone patio, however I have six active dogs who spend most days outside. Right now the yard is a mud-pit because I do not want to put down grass only to be trampled. Are there any websites or books? Also any suggestions would be great!

I agree with Jonathan S above. But one thing I know from experience is that dogs like to make paths around the yard. They will have these little dirt paths of their favorite routes around and across the yard. If you end up landscaping the yard, you need to keep these paths open. Consider looking into a hardscaping (rock or something similar) on these paths that will stand up to the dogs feet. My parents have a people yard and a dog yard. The dog yard has trees (natural oaks) and leaf litter and grass clippings on the ground. It ain’t pretty, but the dog knows it’s his place to use the bathroom where he wants and by leaving the leaves and then dumping the grass clippings, there is no mud. The dog gets to go in the people garden, but only under supervision. He also has a cemented patio with a large dog house with sawdust inside. He loves that place. So do our cats, and sometimes we catch them sharing it.

We have a medium sized backyard with rock landscaping. Our Malti-poo refuses to do his business in the backyard. But, he will happily go when I take him to a local park. I’ve noticed he likes greenery (grass, shrubs, bushes, etc…).

We don’t have a watering system installed in the backyard, so switching to grass isn’t really an option.

Does anyone have any ideas that might help?

Thanks in advance.

build a raised box planter back there….. install a section of sod in it, after filling it with topsoil and a little compost …. place a fake tree, like a ficus in one corner for him to lift his leg on….. keep a watering can nearby…. water the sod when he ‘goes’…. if the sod gets too smelly, you can lift it and replace it for a few bucks when you buy another one….. again… praise the right action!!….

here’s one that’s what I’m trying to describe, but this one is plastic….

http://uniquedistributors.com/dogpotty.html

again, close, but synthetic…. you want real , don’t you?.

http://www.amazon.com/ORIGINAL-PETaPOTTY-INDOOR-TOILET-SYSTEM/dp/B000RO660W

same deal…

http://item.express.ebay.com/__Pet-Supplies_PETaPOTTY-CUSTOM-MEGA-XXXL-DOG-LAWN-TOILET-SYSTEM_W0QQitemZ130227336365QQihZ003QQptdnZPetQ20SuppliesQQptdiZ1012QQcmdZExpressItem

oh, you get the idea………!!

Landscapers charge us for like… $2000-$2500… and… we feel like… it’s not worth it… so we decided to get the materials our self so it would cost less.. but i don’t think it’s easy because,,, first of all… bricks are heavy… secondly we don’t have a truck to carry those bricks from home depot… so what’s a cheap and easy way to landscape our backyard?

Sounds like your going to have to work hard to save some cash! I believe you can rent a truck by the hour at most home depots. Your gonna have to get dirty! Put some music on grab a beer and make it fun.

My backyard is about 50 feet by 25 feet. I wanted to rip up all the grass and weeds…mostly weeds, level out the dirt because my backyard is not close to flat, and plant some very attractive flowers and new grass, but I am wondering whether I should shovel out all the dirt by hand or buy/rent some sort of machine that could do that. Could anyone recommend a particular machine to help me remove all of the grass/weeds in my backyard because doing it by hand is going to take A LOT of time. Thanks.

First kill off the weeds and grass with Roundup. That way if the weeds are a perennial, they won’t come back even after all the dirt rearragment. There’s a weed called bindweed with roots that can go 80 feet out/down. Chopping the root just makes more plants. Give Roundup at least 2 weeks to work after application before you start the project.

The bobcat must have access to the yard……you can always remove a fence section if necessary.

Rototilling with a strong rear tine machine wouldn’t take that long but the leveling would. You might want to rototill and then use a bobcat with a level bar on the back to speed that process up.

Be careful with drainage, as mentioned above. No drainage towards your house! and not towards your neighbor’s house or even his yard, if possible. Move roof drainage away from the house quickly and if necessary, use swales (opposite of hill) to move the water to a safe location or from the back yard to the front.

When it comes time to design, sketch out some ideas on paper (to scale would be great!) and then use the garden hose(s) to show you on the ground the grass area and other areas. Easy to move the hose to get just the right look. Be creative, but not silly.

Chances are unless you are sitting on river bottom land, you’ll need to revitalize the soil with compost and preplanting fertlizer.

Sounds like a nice size……just enough but not overwhelming.

I have a smaller back yard but we have this Mound that goes up to the back brick wall and underneath the mound is all concrete so I can’t dig into it. Its almost the full length of our backyard.

Any thoughts as to what to do with it?
It is concrete underneath but dirt on top.

There are quite a few sites that will give you good ideas for your backyard. Try:
http://www.myidealgarden.com/ or

http://www.the-landscape-design-site.com/backyardlandscaping.html

I found those two had great ideas, but there are a lot more if you want to check. Just Google ‘backyard landscape designs’ for a big list.

As far as your concrete problem goes, I have an idea, but it depends on where you live. If the conditions are ok, succulents would be a good choice, as the roots are shallow and they require very little care and are very easy to grow. Try this site and see what you think:

http://www.wildgingerfarm.com/SucculentGarden.htm

I would like a rough estimate on installing the following in the backyard of a 50×115 foot lot:

Grass
A few trees/shrubs
BBQ

You can do it for next to nothing if you do it yourself, and buy small plants and wait for them to grow into their spots. If you want big plants now, it’ll be about 5-10 times as much outlay for the plant material.

Seeding grass is a fraction of the cost of laying sod. So again, if you need instant gratification, it’ll cost more.

Hardscaping is the most expensive – cost depends on what you want.