If you have a dog and a lush lawn, chances are Fido’s using it to relieve himself. Lawn care gets a little more complicated with a dog, but a few precautionary steps will keep both your favourite pet and your enviable lawn in top condition.
There’s a myth that female dog urine causes a lawn to discolour. The truth is that both male and female dogs can have a high pH, which is a scale for determining alkalinity. On this scale, 7 is neutral. A pH level that’s higher than 7 will cause your lawn to burn. A higher pH level is generally found in plant-eating species like koalas and even humans.
Female dogs squat, rather than spray, when they urinate so they tend to have a greater impact on damaging lawns.
Other causes of “burning” urine include a high concentration of urine that has more solutes or particles than diluted urine. Nitrogen can also be a problem but isn’t as common.
Fixing Brown Spots
Once the lawn’s been damaged there’s not much you can do apart from wait. A brown lawn is pretty much a dead lawn. In summer, your lawn will almost double in height every two weeks or so. Give your lawn a good daily watering at this time of year and you may find the spots are overgrown by healthy young lawn.
At the end of summer, give your lawn a good feed with a fertiliser or lawn care product and keep it well irrigated. Time and a bit of TLC will heal brown spots.
When you’re looking for turf suppliers in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, Australian Lawn Concepts have everything you need. For a lush and healthy lawn, call us on 1800 486 204, use our contact form, or drop in for a chat. We’ve got a huge range of turf supplies and solutions that’ll solve any lawn problem you can throw at us.