It’s that time for your garden questions and hopefully helpful
answers.
It’s that time for your garden questions and hopefully helpful answers.
Q: I have a question I hope you can help me with. I have a young dog and whenever it goes to the bathroom, it seems to kill the lawn leaving a yellow spot.
I have tried the pills from the pet store, but with no results. Do you have any suggestions?
~ G.B., via e-mail
A: You probably have a female dog, right? Female dogs that squat to go to the bathroom will concentrate their urine in a smaller, confined area, therefore killing spots on lawns. Although male dogs’ urine is equally caustic, at least they distribute it over a wider area.
I can personally vouch for that as my Rocko lifts his leg on every flower pot and post in my yard. Short of trading your female dog for a male one, there isn’t a whole lot you can do.
Diluting the spot with water 5 or 10 minutes after the deed is done can save the grass, but it’s impossible to be that vigilant. As you’ve already found out, so-called dog repellents and pills don’t do the job.
You can try fencing off the bad spots with portable fencing, and reseeding the really bad spots. Soak the spots with water, rake vigorously to remove the dead grass and scratch in grass seed. Water daily, and you’ll have new grass there within six weeks.
Of course, your dog will do the same damage in another part of your lawn, but at least she’s spreading the damage around.
Unfortunately, owning a female dog can end up being an endless battle of fencing off areas and reseeding unless you can teach your dog to go only in a specific area. Until then, do as I do and live with those yellow spots in the lawn. The good news is that the yellow spots disappear with all our rain in the winter time.
Q: I am wondering if it would be a problem, perhaps toxic, to a 1-week-old, sodded lawn, if magnolia tree leaves are not raked or picked up. I don’t want to go onto the sod for fear of damaging it. What should I do?
~ J.G., via e-mail
A: New lawns, whether they’ve been seeded or sodded, are stronger than you think. Go ahead and walk gently over the new grass to pick up the magnolia leaves.
While I don’t believe that magnolia leaves are toxic, they are large in size and can prevent sunlight and water from reaching the new lawn. You can also blow them off your lawn with a blower as this will reduce the amount of walking you’ll have to do on the new grass.
Keith Muraoka’s award-winning column has been in this newspaper since 1984. E-mail him at
ga********@jp*.net
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