I would get turf. Your dog will be able to go outside in the rain without getting muddy and your yard will look green year round. I have two dogs in a small backyard and I would have loved to get turf but we have the opposite problem...too much sun! so the turf wouldn't work for us (gets hot).

It will cost you, but you won't be spending money on a landscaper anymore or spending money on watering that space.

Hi Ga99,

I will be following your thread!

We have a tiny fenced in urban yard with a back porch, I'm at a total loss.

A professional landscaper came over (excellent reviews) and told me in order to "do it right" it would cost 18G!

I nearly had a heart attack.

We live in a flood zone also. This is not our forever home and the outdoor space is a huge (if not the biggest) asset in our situation.

Hubs also wants artificial turf now. We bought our condo from hoarder lady with gross renters, oh, the stories I could tell you, just cleaning it out...

Here is a pic while under construction. The squirrels desecrated the small grass area that he planted by the end of the summer.

Absolutely agree on modern minimal look.

How old is your dog? Can you post more pics?

Did you water the sod enough when it was first installed to let it take root? We had to water ours twice a day in the beginning and then once a day after. Are you sure the reason it's dying is lack of sun?

Grass does not grow in shade. Anyone who tells you that it does isn’t quantifying that it still needs 5 hours of sun instead of 10. Dogs in a tiny yard kill thriving grass even in full sun.

You need to give structured twice daily neighborhood walks to the dog, and give up on grass. Just do a nice ground cover.

Our home has towering oak trees and we enjoy heavy shade most of the summer. Our grass has always been very thin as a consequence of the lack of sun and the root systems of the oaks. We, too, have a dog. We regularly prune the tree limbs to maximize our sunshine, but would never cut them down! This is the trade off that we are willing to make: beautiful century old oaks and a scruffy dog rather than a pristine lawn. And yes, despite having a fence around our yard, we walk our pup twice a day! GroverAxel’s suggestion of embracing the Shade with either pavers or groundcover is excellent.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. We have a 5 month old bulldog. We do walk at least twice a day and have to use the front when it rains hard which it has been a lot lately. The grass started dying almost as soon as it was installed. A pest control company hired by the HOA dumped a lot of insecticide on it that wasn't supposed to kill it but did. It started dying then and just spread. We had a neighbor who had some leftover sod and we placed it down just to see what would happen and it has struggled.

We may try to trim all trees back. I know most people want to keep them, but I would love to remove them. The dog has eaten all of the acorns and berries from the crepe myrtles and it has driven us crazy. I would like to not spend a fortune but I also am tired of fighting it which is why the turf sounds so good.

if the dog is female, their urine will burn the grass. find a dirt spot for her to go.

Beth, I've heard that about females dogs, but our male King Charles Spaniel's urine burned the bajeeters into our grass. Made me crazy! Our daughter's female dog doesn't affect it at all. Maybe it's related to their diet...?

really? there are things you can put in the females food and it does something to the urine so it won't burn it. and it may also be the type of grass. we had that regular marathon mix/sod...our female would kill it every time she peed on it.

It was awful..he truly ruined the grass. I just did a very quick google search about it. All I saw was something about the pH and nitrogen in the urine making the difference more than male/female.

Speaking of grass, the comment was made here it won't grow in shade. We've been in this house for 4 years now, and our greenest grass (in our backyard) is pretty much in complete shade all day from oak trees. The second pic shows the most sun it gets at one end.

We all want a perfect English lawn, but we don’t live in the perfect English climate! It sounds like drainage is a big issue...if it were me, I would dig a drainage ditch before I did anything else..,see if channeling the water helps dry out the rest of the garden. If it does, then a French drain, or a beautifully landscaped dry stream would be the answer. We had a new sod lawn when we lived in SoCal, which didn’t take very well. I found that overseeding in the spring really helped. As for the HOA, they should not have treated a newly installed lawn, end of discussion.
Some Dogs can be trained to a specific toilet area, it takes a little time and patience. Not my style! But it works for some people.
And dogs=mud....just like kids!
The thing about the trees...they add tremendous value to your home, really hard to replace a mature tree. And the crepe Myrtle’s will redeem themselves when they bloom.
The other thing to consider would be to make the patio bigger, then mulch and plant the rest of the yard.
My dogs don’t require a lawn, the flowerbeds are just fine.

You beds are not very deep nor are they attractive. I simply installed pink muhly grass and purple hydrangeas so you would have color in your back yard. Nothing that requires “maintenance.” You do need to remove the rocks and go with proper mulch is you expect anything to grow. Look at pecan hulls since you are in Zone 7

chloe,,,that tree is beautiful! and your lawn,,,gorgeous.great yard. you must get just the right about of sunlight. I have a huge mulberry tree that I cut back every winter. my june it's full again. shades the entire lawn. I put St Agustine in there a few years ago and it took over where the regular grass didn't do well.

Chloebud, that is stunningly beautiful. I love that big tree in the first picture.

A bulldog, and a shaded yard that compact? You're not keeping grass back there. Your best option would be going with artificial turf. Most groundcovers aren't going to withstand any serious dog traffic. Thyme would last about a week. Your best bet would be to enlist the help of a local landscape designer, because boots on the ground is the best way to look at whether or not thinning/removing trees would help and what the water situation looks like.

btw the urine spot isn't due to hormones, it's the nitrogen that burns the grass. The reason why we tend to see the damage more from females is basic dog behavior. Male dogs tend to mark smaller, more frequent amounts, and often up high Females (like mine) tend to let loose with a lot more urine in one spot. It's why you'll also often see the worst damage on lawns that are heavily fertilized - too much nitrogen is a bad thing. We don't fertilize (except for using a mulching mower) and our junkyard dog has only left spots on freshly installed sod. Which is why she's lucky she's cute.

Revolutionary Gardens, I'm glad you clarified that inaccuracy about "hormones" causing the urine spots on lawns!! Any urine will produce the same results if concentrated in a single area, male or female. My male dog has produced the same effect in one area of my lawn as he hates bad weather and will rush to do his business in a single spot (and unfortunately, quite close to the house!!) if raining very much. But most spots are caused by females, just by virtue of their plumbing and habits :-) You will often see the same effect on shrubs, caused by males lifting their leg - it is just nitrogen burn. Urine is primarily urea, a high nitrogen source that is often included in many fertilizers. It is just very concentrated in raw urine.

btw, lawn can grow in shade if other conditions are right but you need the right kind of seed/turf grass species and not heavy shade. And thyme wants full sun and drier conditions, so a very poor choice for a groundcover in this situation.

chloebud-seriously gorgeous backyard

Initially, there was muhly grass in the back bed. It all died. I transferred some of it to another spot that got more sun to try and save it. With the dog, I think I will probably leave the back bare. She loves jumping, playing, and pulling the muhly grass we do have and also pulls on the boxwoods too. I don't think anything would survive long with her.

I am starting to call and get quotes for artificial turf. I think it really may be the only answer. I am just concerned about the drainage. I would hate to fix my drainage problem only to cause a backup in the neighbor's yard.

ga99,

When you get the quotes for the turf, please share! Very interested.

RevGardens,,thanks for clearing that up. I was always told it was the female hormones in their urine. having had both males and females, it was the female who did the worst damage, but makes sense if they squat and unleash at one time.

The stuff they give them must be to raise the pH and bind the ammonia in the urine. it's the breakdown of the protein that causes the high nitrogen. I guess this is where a small dog would be a benefit!

Yes...thanks, Rev Gardens. Love all these tidbits we can learn on Houzz. :-) Something that might explain more with our male dog is he developed leg and hip problems with age. That made him only squat in one place like a female. No leg lifting for him! I guess less nitrogen must be why there's not a problem with our daughter's female dog.

Suggestions from a dog parent with 2 shady back yards. 1st, pick out an area where you want the babies to do their business and, when you walk them, start in that area. My boys don't like "going" near the house so we're lucky. We have 2 areas that we've trained them to go to. Can you replace your rock mulch with cedar or cypress mulch? A bit more maintenance but has some nice benefits-encourage your dogs to go there and helps a bit with some bugs.

2nd, ajuga reptans! Fantastic ground cover that thrives in shade, it does extremely well in the lawn and looks very pretty. It also helps with erosion and can handle a beating from foot traffic. You will not have a pristine grass look, though. We have a little cabin on a private fishing lake, due to the health of the lake (super clean and we want to keep it that way) we do not use any pesticides or chemicals but we wanted a yard so we left the ajuga (thanks birds) that had cropped up. There are a lot of varieties of ajuga, I've included a photo of "Chocolate Chip".

The suggestion for a french drain is spot on, a 24 hour period for your yard to drain is crazy! Here in NC we've had quite a bit of rain over the last week but my yard has not turned into a bog.

I hope you can get things worked out, your yard looks it can be a great warm weather space.

Janie- Just talked to the first person. I live in the Atlanta area and have had only one company call back so far. We have such a small space I am worried that this may deter companies from wanting to do this project.

So far I have talked with a company that specifically offers a K9 grass. She also has a turf that she said would hold up well but would smell if not kept clean and if the dog urinated on it regularly. Her estimate over the phone is around $10 per sq foot. She said that it comes in 15 foot pieces so it is easier and less expensive if they don't have to cut and seam. Of course, my area is about 19x20.

She is coming out next week and I also do have a landscape company coming but am worried theirs is not specific to pets. I will post again once I get hard numbers.

reece- I am wondering about the ajuga. We planted it in the common area on the property and it has not held up well at all. I looked into it and it says it is nearly indestructible; however, we did have crown rot which was one of the only things it was susceptible to. We did get rid of it, but over the winter looks like it froze and almost died. I thought it was supposed to look good all year long. Not sure what happened.

Acute winter cold - like what much of the east coast experienced for a week or so in late December/early January - can damage any broadleaved evergreen, including ajuga. While the foliage or top growth may look like the plant is dead, it should rejuvenate rapidly once things start warming up properly in another month or so.

It takes a determined effort to kill off ajuga :-)