Good evening, I seeded this area last spring after digging up a daft amount of concrete. It was about a 12inch deep and backfilled with basically topsoil. The grass grew well, but patchy (to be expected as it was bloody hot over summer) anyways this is what I'm left with, anyidea what the issue is? We have dogs, but surely them peeing on it can't cause this? Any ideas Kind regard James
I'm no expert on this topic but I understand that it's a common problem for lawns and dogs. Dogs' pee is high in nitrogen and too high a concentration of it can burn the grass. They say that female dog pee is worse but from what I understand that is only because they they squat and pee in one spot whereas male dogs spray so the concentration is less. If you've been using lawn fertiliser the problem could be even worse in those areas that the dogs go as the fertiliser is high in nitrogen. I don't know how easy it may be to train dogs to pee in one area and maybe have that patch of ground with woodchip. I'm not sure that the damage is actually nitrogen burn from pee as that last picture looks a lot like there is chalk in the soil. Some fertilisers are Nitrate of chalk but I'm not sure that is.
Good morning I have an area a small area of bark chippings and sand for my furry friends what they use most of the time but when on the rare occaision they do use my lawn I give it a good soaking straight away
Mostly it's bitches that kill grass, the problem is usually worse in the dryer summer months. A close up picture of the white patches might be useful.
The main reason why dog urine kills grass is the urine's nitrogen content. Dog urine is comprised mainly of nitrogen, which has a similar chemical makeup to bleach (and we all know what happens when bleach gets poured on any surface
I suspect that is a naturally damp area as I had a similar problem. I dug the area over incorporating some gravel into the soil and reseeded. Early last summer I fed the lawn and it's grown well since. I also suspect the area about 15 x 6ft in size may have a natural spring running under it. The dogs I've had in the past were all bitches and I never had a problem with patches from their urine, but they didn't use the same place each time. Do your dogs use the same area?
Maybe the damp area might be it. The dogs go anywhere they fancy. I will have a look at adding stones into the area and see if that does anything. Kind regards James
