Several suggestions:

a) Get rid of the dog.
b) Put a plastic tray, like they use in restaurants to collect the dirty dishes, by the door and fill it with a few inches of water. Make the dog and everyone barefoot walk through it to clean their feet/paws.
c) Since you are renting, I would check with the landlord before you spend any money on plant material. The cheapest solution is sod, but that's going to require a lawnmower. An interesting option is Dwarf Oyster Plant (image below.) This stuff is cheap and spreads very quickly. You can walk on it, the dog can pee or poop in it (don't step where he does, though) and together with some pine bark mulch you should be able to cover a large area for less than $100.
d) see option "a" (above).

Oyster Plant. Not the Dwarf variety, but it was the best photo I could find quickly.
The Dwarf looks exactly the same, only 1/3 the size.

Since you're low on funds and won't be there long, why don't you just put up a temporary dog run to confine it in a small area and mulch or sod only the run leading up to the door, the last few feet you could put down large stepping stones to eliminate some of the dirt? You could try to compensate for the confinement by taking the dog on walks as much as you could. I can't recommend getting rid of the dog, I know how it is with beloved pets.

Thank you, ritaweed, for the understanding ;) You must have been posting the same time I was.

I walk him all the time. Problem is that since I moved in here he wants to be in the yard ALL the time...he loves it. We had a fenced in backyard in WI (clay soil...no issue) which he got used to. I lived with a friend temporarily until I moved here (no fence, on a leash ALL the time). I didn't realize how much his freedom of off leash meant to him until I moved to this place.

Unless someone comes up with a good plant to use, I think I will stick with the free mulch.

Here's something you need to know about Fl sand. If it is dry you can water it all day long and only wet it about 1/2" deep. Whatever you plant will need water, daily at first, until it's established. Unless you have a well your water bill will make the cost of a lawnmower look cheap. Oh, then there are the water restrictions. I can't tell where you are, we don't have a zone 5 here, but where I live winter rye makes a lush quick lawn that will get you through the winter. When hot weather comes again its gone. As I recall the seed is pretty cheap.
john

Here is a link that might be useful: rye grass seed

Seeing neither you or the landlord care what you put down, a bag or two of portland cement is pretty cheap too and will bind that sand really good permanently.

Sprinkle it around, rake it in, water it down before nightfall, if you have lumps use a straw broom to smooth it, by the morning it will have set up hard enough to walk on and in a few days it's a solid yard.

Lou

How big is this back yard? I would put down the cardboard and put mulch over it for a quick fix. I know you are lucky to find a place to rent that allows pets. Either that buy some sod and get someone to mow for you.

A series of doormats (the seagrass 1s are great) might be in order around all the entries to trap that sand.

I cannot imagine how sod could be the cheapest - tho it would be the fastest.

I think that seed would be the cheapest - & rye grass (as low as .69/#) will sprout in a matter of days - but I think you need to keep the dog off for that time. You might try sowing a mixture of rye & bahia - the rye will come up 1st & it nourishes & binds the soil, then the bahia can establish. & you MUST keep it watered regularly or it dies.

To combat the sandy dry-ness, I would try broadcasting the seed (very thickly for rye grass) & then cover it w/ @ least 1/2 inch of composted cow manure, which Home Depot sells in 40# bags for approx. $1.59/bag. The compost will hold the moisture & act as a mulch until the seed can take root

To calculate how much compost or mulch you need to cover an area, here's a handy-dandy online tool - use the mulch calculator.....

HTH

Here is a link that might be useful: Materials Calculators

You can put down a piece of plastic-grass, Astroturf, whatever they call it... it is cheap, at any place that sells camping supplies... when you go camping you throw it down outside the door.. it can be hosed off, shaken out, rolled up and taken with you.... and it comes in fairly large sizes, 8 X 10, 10 X 12, etc. maybe even Wal-Mart carries it with the camping gear.....and you can put a hunk of rock or something at the corners if it shifts around too much... we used to go camping all the time and had several of these plastic grass rugs..... sally

Go to Home Depot or Lowes and get a bag of annual rye seed. It's cheap. Sow it generously and water. You should have some grass coming up in a few days. Keep it watered and throw some more seeds out if it looks thin or the grass starts to die. You should have grass until it get hot next summer.

DON'T USE SHREDDED MULCH. You'll be even crabbier :-)
When our dog was alive he tracked in everything: mulch, sand, anything he walked through/on, even grass bits. It's a fact of life in Florida.
Sand is one of the easiest things to sweep up so I'd suggest the astroturf walk-off rug near the exit door.

Anything else you try will be more work for you to get established, have to water, have to mow, and it will still be carried inside. A groundcover is fine but your dog will not be walking through it, he'll choose a friendlier location for his bizness. Do what others do and take him for walks on the street with a poop bag.

Just be glad he's not bringing in prickers/stickers which abound in Florida sandy soil. Ouch.

Good luck.

I was surprised that there is airborne sand or grit or dust that comes in through the window screens. Maybe the sand is fine here and gets blown around. On Cape Cod when we had work done on our house, we had pure sand at every doorway. Dogs and people brought in sand. We got free mulch and mulched all around the house. It really kept the sand down. One of the dogs tends to bring it into the house on his coat, but that is another story. I'd go with the mulch and vacuum the window sills.

My vote is for the astroturf. You can buy it in large pieces (carpet size)and put it by the door. If I remember correctly, rye grass is very delicate when walked on...?

cardboard covered with chop and drop or free mulch is cheapest and fastest ..ground cover takes more time but looks nice! powderpuff or sunshine mimosa is cute and perennial..and it's a legume so it improves the soil there over time..and prefers sandy soil.. plant trees around that drop their leaves and leave the leaves is long term way to build up a good layer of top soil..i thought the suggestions to get rid of the dog were funny :P

I have an odd suggestion but it might work for the price of package of seeds and a bag of dirt. A neighbor planted watermelon in his front yard, not my idea of lovely but those vines grew like mad. But as you said you only need a quick fix. So buy any kind of squash, cucumber or melon seeds (be sure they aren't a bush variety) and give the area that you are sowing the seeds some decent dirt (a bag of top soil should do it) and water. They grow by feet each day.

Well, good thing it's growing season, right? How long do you plan on staying in this place? Ask the landlord if you can take the cost off the rent if you plant grass...go with bermudagrass. It grows fast, fast, FAST, and since you won't be buying this place, you don't have to worry about it. It's going to eventually come up anyway. It's indestructible. Bad part is, it dies down in the winter, but it still holds the sand in place while it's doing it.

Just want to tell you though, that if you live in FL, you are going to have weeds and sand..it's just the way it is. The sand comes in from everywhere. It doesn't matter how much grass you have, sand will blow into your house at some point.

They say dust is made from dead skin cells. With all the elderly people here, I guess that explains why there is so much. (no offense, I'm contributing to that dust too!)

Believe it or not the dust comes from the Sahara desert in Africa. The desert sand storms lift the desert sand and dust way up into the stratosphere and it gets carried westward over the Atlantic ocean where 3/4 of the sand will fall into the Atlantic, but 1/4 of it (the finer dust) keeps moving westward towards the gulf where the water droplets attach to the sand dust particles and bring them down. On the way down the water droplets evaporate leaving just the dust particles to settle down covering everything called Florida. I was amazed when they showed this on the discovery science channel. They had pictures from skylab and weather satellites showing the dust storms crossing the Atlantic.

Lou

Being a native Floridian and always having dogs, rugs, rugs and more throw rugs. Inside and out. If you can't keep up with the sand inside, wear socks or slippers so you don't drive yourself crazy.

Lou, great, that's all we need. Saharan sand. Like FL doesn't have enough sand of its own. Geez.

ONE sweet potato. Dunk it i water keep pulling out shoots as they get big and plant them. One potato could give you ten shoots and the then shoots another million. You may even have some sweet potatoes to eat:-)

I use carpet remnants out side my door and have two dogs in the country - it has helped tremendously. Also gravel - well larger stones has kept the sand and dirt at bay. And obviously the people above must not have pets. I would get rid of them/ and their comments first before any dog.

I'd just mulch the whole yard since it's free, the city delivers it, and the owner doesn't care anyway.

A stiff long fiber carpet near the entrance should further alleviate the problem.

I inherited my dogs after their owner died. They were big time diggers in his sand pit of a yard and always covered in sand but they have never dug in my yard because I guess they don't care for the thick layer of shredded mulch/trimmings I have placed down on the sandy soil or that my soil remains moist and "sticky" because of the mulch + my once weekly watering during dry weather. I don't have a problem getting sand inside like he did.

You can get used astro turf for very cheap or nothing and besides the odd tent peg spike to nail it down every 20 or so feet, depending on the grade, traffic, odd size and small pieces and disconnected spots. Average space takes about 20, that's about $100, and a small amount of sand to spread around on top to weigh it down, probably $30. Before doing this try to remove small branches, leaves, and whatever other types of debris might be in there and then get it good and wet and then tamp it down, probably have to rent one of those. Can't be too much. This will give you a more solid base underneath and less shifting around that can make it uneven and or tripping and just keeping it unstable