What can I do about a dirt yard?

Question

I have 3 dogs and they have destroyed any grass, etc. At this point, I just want to put down something so when it rains I don't have mud. Nothing is going to grow because of the dogs, so what is the cheapest/easiest way to cover the dirt? I am only moderately handy, by the way, so nothing too involved. Thanks.

Answer 1

To make it look nice, you could put down paving stones, but even cheap 16" ones could cost $3.00 or so. The cheapest thing might be pea gravel. If you put in a layer 3" or so deep, the dogs might not feel like digging in it, and it looks fairly neat. We have it in part of our yard.

If you want to do a bit more to prevent the gravel from sinking into the ground, you can lay tar paper (a kind of heavy roofing "paper") under it, but keep in mind that if you have a lot of heavy rain, it has to have somewhere to go and it won't sink through the tar paper, so you have to leave spaces with no tar paper, too.

Answer 2

Mulch is good , but woodchips is better.  It's stronger.  You need TONS of it though, but it will cut the mud problem.

Answer 3

You can cover it with heavy plastic sheets and order a truck load of stones to spread on top.

Answer 4

Well i live in NY and its almost fall here theres no leaves on the trees so what i would is when spring comes around throw down some mircle grow because we have/had the same problem but every other month we put more down the bad part is you got to mow it alot.

Answer 5

My local hardware store sells clover, it's considered a weed, but may be hardy once established. I contemplated planting it, thinking it may grow faster and better. You could also plant wild flowers. I understand about the dogs-I had two that destroyed my grass.

Answer 6

Was the grass you had previously seeded, or was it laid down sod? We've always had big dogs in our yard, but it was a sodded yard. The sod was so thick that the dogs were not able to dig in and destroy it. It's definitely more expensive to buy sod, but you can have it delivered to your house and then lay it yourself to save a little money. Other than that, perhaps you could cover the yard with a tarp like they use to cover a baseball diamond. Just don't let the dogs get ahold of the tarp!

Answer 7

To avoid all this, I have concrete. but if you want you can either cover it with gravel or sand..The dogs will love to play in it and easy to clean.