# Garden surface?



## kiara (Jun 2, 2009)

Hi all,

Im in the middle of re doing my garden and was wondering what everyone thinks the best surface is?

what are the pros and cons?

thanks

what do people think of sand? forgot to put it on the poll.


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## catz4m8z (Aug 27, 2008)

I think for a very small area then hard surface (patio.gravel), for a medium- astroturf, and for a large area- grass!
Probelms with grass are the inevitable winter/wet weather mud field you end up with and artificial surfaces will get stinky if you dont clean them enough!


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## Nonnie (Apr 15, 2009)

What ever you do, dont got for bark chips! 

My garden is good old Cranleigh clay, and is like a bog most of the year around. Many years ago i had a membrane put down, and the covered in childs play bark. HUGE mistake. My garden stinks to high heaven, especially after all this wet weather we have had. Cant clean it, cant afford to dig it up.

If i had the money; either concrete or fake grass.


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## JANICE199 (Feb 1, 2008)

*My garden is about 60ft long by 25 ft wide. We have some paving and some lawn. So far so good with 2 poodles.*


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## Izzysmummy (Oct 12, 2011)

I have put my personal preference as grass, patio and astroturf. 

I would avoid gravel (thinking of pooches paws), and bark (we have it in our flower beds and monkeydog likes to chew it when she gets too excited) and decking can get slippy when wet.

Grass is lovely but be prepared for burn marks with the dogs wee, plus constant weeding, mowing, re-seeding. If we had enough money we'd go for astroturf instead although some people have said it gets a bit stinky when the sun has been on it .

ETA; I would say no to sand and mud purely because of the mess it would make with the dogs coming in and out of the house!


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## Huskybob (Apr 18, 2013)

We have mud, it was grass but there isn't much of it left


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## kiara (Jun 2, 2009)

what ever i decide to go with its got to be hard wearing. I have a lot of dogs coming and going plus my owns. 

concrete would be ideal but its so expensive.
i think they would chew fake grass.
grass just goes to mud.
bark they might eat.
shingle, i imagine, is not very comfortable on there feet.
sand would end up sticking to them when wet and being walked all over the house.
mud ends up every where.
decking gets slippery....... 

x


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## Jazmine (Feb 1, 2009)

I have considered astroturf but I much prefer the look of a real lawn. So, to overcome the burn mark problem, we retrained Scout & Mira to toilet on a purpose built gravel bed. Problem solved! 

Took a few weeks to crack, Scout especially didn't like being told where to go, but now, they go there automatically. Has saved my lovely lawn!


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## catz4m8z (Aug 27, 2008)

Izzysmummy said:


> although some people have said it gets a bit stinky when the sun has been on it .


Mine does, but thats only coz I have never cleaned it!! I have now ordered some animal friendly disinfectant to water over it. Generally though its no worse then gravel when it comes to stinkyness.


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## Supasilvfoxy (Apr 6, 2013)

My garden is a conglomorate of several surfaces, lots of lawn, paved areas, pebbles, and cobbles. My dogs are allowed to go where they want, nothing is off limits, okey we get the odd patch of scorched grass - but what the heck!


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## sharloid (Apr 15, 2012)

Personally I wouldn't go with paving/concrete/gravel as the garden is one of the few places my dogs get to have a run around so I want it to be a nice, soft surface.


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## dandogman (Dec 19, 2011)

I voted grass and paving slabs


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## MollySmith (May 7, 2012)

We have lawn, beds and shingle paths.

I really really don't want artificial grass if I can help it. Whilst it does away with endless fertilising and mowing power, the construction uses oil palm which in turn cause damage to orangutans and other species as their habitat decreases. And it doesn't offer the biodiversity of a living lawn. It's another loss of green lungs for birds, butterflies and bees. If we had to have one I'd make it very small and plant a seed roof on our sheds to compensate but I would wait until new turfs are out that use recycling plastic bottles as their core ingredient like these ones here

TigerTurf adds recycled products to its range


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## Grace_Lily (Nov 28, 2010)

Lawn - Depending on how many dogs you have, and how they play on the lawn it can soon get chewed up. I have half an acre of lawn, 6 dogs, and there are bald patches.

Decking - Easy to clean, but slippery when wet.

gravel/shingle - Dogs kick it all up and over the place

bark chips - Imagine would be the same as above

concrete/slabs/paving - Practical but not very safe for dogs to play on, and bloody ugly!

artificial grass - Got to be the best solution all round, no lawn to get ruined but all the aesthetics of grass. No mud, no mess.

mud - Nightmare

something else/comment - I'd choose artificial grass given the choice. It would be totally impractical here for me because the garden is so huge, but if I had a normal sized lawn I'd definitely go for artificial.


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## catz4m8z (Aug 27, 2008)

MollySmith said:


> I really really don't want artificial grass if I can help it. Whilst it does away with endless fertilising and mowing power, the construction uses oil palm which in turn cause damage to orangutans and other species as their habitat decreases. And it doesn't offer the biodiversity of a living lawn.


If I had a large garden I would def go for grass, probably aim for a low maintenance wild flower meadow/chamomile version too! However my 'grass section' is only about 10ft x 10ft, with 4 veggie beds in the middle! The astroturf looks really nice, also very tidy, the dogs love running about on it and its better for the local environment then adding more paving/hard surfaces that water cant drain through. I just try and grow lots of herbs and native flowers to help the birds and the bees!!LOL


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## WeedySeaDragon (Oct 7, 2012)

We have a gravel and paving section down the side of the house which is fenced off and is where the dogs toilet. 

The rest is lawn which they're allowed to play on when its reasonably dry. 

Our garden drains really badly so the dogs would trash it if they were allowed free access. 

I would never get it replaced with artificial lawn though, I'd rather have real grass and have to manage it a bit more carefully.


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## kate_7590 (Feb 28, 2009)

We have artificial grass and its amazing!
No mud, no water, no grass stains.
It can be kept nice and clean with minstral disinfectant and wont smell if you keep it clean.

Our garden used to be a mud pit, and since the artificial grass its been lovely.

Its the one thing I will miss dreadfully when we move, new house has 3quarters of an acre so a bit too much for artificial!


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## kiara (Jun 2, 2009)

anymore ideas? x


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## babycham2002 (Oct 18, 2009)

We have a patio and then gravel/shingle
But it is larger than your average gravel, more like beach stones
The dogs dont mind it but I do :lol: 
I use a large broom to tidy the stones up and it can be a bugger to see poo in sometimes :lol: But its a godsend compared to the old grass/mud situ

Dont know if this shows the size very well


and then we have these rather attractive railway sleepers too


My biggest complaint is the colour, its all very brown and boring, 
so hanging baskets and some garden decorations get stuck out of the dogs reach to brighten it up a bit in summer


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## babycham2002 (Oct 18, 2009)

Sometimes the black sheeting stuff (i am sure it has a proper name lol) 
shows underneath


I need to buy another tonne of the stones really

Ignore the foster looking down the hole they are digging to next door


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## Gertrude (Feb 7, 2010)

I found the best solution for us is a slabbed patio area that is straight out of the doors.... but then there is also a fenced off grass area that she can go onto everyday, but we can just shut the gate to it if the weather is really bad and the grass is soggy

Like this ...


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## MollySmith (May 7, 2012)

catz4m8z said:


> If I had a large garden I would def go for grass, probably aim for a low maintenance wild flower meadow/chamomile version too! However my 'grass section' is only about 10ft x 10ft, with 4 veggie beds in the middle! The astroturf looks really nice, also very tidy, the dogs love running about on it and its better for the local environment then adding more paving/hard surfaces that water cant drain through. *I just try and grow lots of herbs and native flowers to help the birds and the bees*!!LOL


That's what I'd have to do. Our lawn is way to large to make it affordable for us but so far our real lawn is holding up given that Molly uses it all the time and there is a huge Ash tree in our garden too and the tree roots take a lot of nutrients away. I do aeriate it and feed it well twice a year.

I don't have a huge objection to fake grass as long as it's bought with provenance in mind. I much prefer the idea of it being made from recycled bottles and it's a good talking point at parties too 

Another suggestion is herbs. I have a stone circle and in between the cracks I grow creeping thyme and majoram. They're not evergreen but they are really durable over spring through until autumn. I've planted a camomile lawn in old house, not sure how dog proof it would be though.


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