Gardening, Composting and Dogs Doing "Potty"
as many of you will recall, Adam and I bought our first home last year. We're still doing renovations (and feels like we will be doing them for some time to come) but my mind has turned to gardening. I've got a lot of weird stuff going on in my life, and gardening has always been such a pleasure to me, I think its a good way to get my mind off other stuff. But i have questions; being a North Easterner living in the South, I'm constantly baffled and confounded. No lilac bushes?!? I have to lay my veggie garden now, in January?!? So much to learn.... So I thought maybe some people here could help me out with advice and their personally experiences. I have SO much to do, and so many questions.... I want to compost. The home's prior owner never threw away his lawn trimmings, but piled them in a discrete section of the property. This has resulted in a gorgeous pile of great compost/soil. I'd like to continue it, but have some questions about what you can, and can't compost. As a kid all kitchen stuff that wasn't meat went into our compost; coffee grinds, egg shells and veggie peelings. But my parents also put the dog's poop from the yard in there, and I've read that its a big "No-No". Any thoughts? GRASS. Boy oh boy; do we need a lawn! Our soil is mostly clay, and it doesn't drain. Right now we have a muddy bog in the back yard, which prevents us from letting the dogs run on it. Any suggestions on something I can plant that will 1) improve the soil 2) drink up all that water, and 3) be resilient to dog pee? I'd read that clover would be good for 1 and 3 but I don't know about number 2. Anyone have any experience growing a clover yard? So this is the tip of my Iceberg named "Gardening questions". Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated! |
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| Sorry I can't be of much help but am anxious to see some responses. I too need a lawn or something that drinks up excessive water. I heard about clover as well but not sure if it gets thick enough to drink up excess...looking forward to some advice too! We get the clay type soil and the tide comes up often and floods the lawn. We;ve sodded twice already! |
| I love to garden. I took it up to save what little sanity was left after dealing with corporate BS.
NO dog poop in the compost pile! Start saving your garbage (fruits, veggies, egg shells, coffee/tea grounds, no animal products) and add that to your pile. Introduce worms, I use red worms, as they will work wonders turning all that luscious stuff into compost. Most important, don't forget to turn your compost at least once a week. I can tell you what to do for lawn soil prep, but you will have to check with your local expert for type of grass as it's specific to each area. Clay soil can be handled two ways. If you are patient, Aerate twice a year and compost your lawn during the winter. If you can't wait, till up the entire lawn, break up or remove the large clumps, leaving the smaller clumps of grass as it will nourish the soil later. Top the freshly tilled area with at least 6" of good quality compost. I prefer a 50/50 compost horse manure mix. If you can't get that, try to find a turkey manure mix. Since clay is very prevalent in GA, I'd mix in an inch of sand with the compost. Once all of that is on top of the soil, till again. Let it rest for a day and till once more. Compact the soil, but not to the point of rock hard before sodding or seeding. When the lawn is ready to mow, DON'T bag the clippings. Use a mulching lawn mower and leave the clippings to nourish the soil/lawn. DON'T mow your lawn shorter than 2.5". This will keep your lawn lush as it helps retain moisture and fights weeds. Healty, lush grass with stand up to dog pee a little better but not entirely. Keep your Sheepies safe and use corn meal glutton for weed control. |
| I'll add to good advice above:
A good lawn starts with good soil prep. Yes you have clay. Organic matter such as compost is your best bet. Rototill it in and deeply as possible. Problem in tillers only go down about 7" max. If you can predig it in a bit lower and then rototill, your body will hate you but your lawn will be better. Don't add sand to lighten soil! It bonds with the clay particles forming a wonderful concrete. Realize there is not pee proof turf grass. The urine is concentrated nitrogen so the burn would be like throwing handfuls of lawn fertilizer onto a small area, burning the plants. Water is the best dilution for urine but your dog will get a complex if you follow it around with the hose after each pee. Do what you can. Design might help you, don't think of typical landscape but set aside turf, groundcover, shrub, flower areas (assuming you aren't under all those trees there. Might be your lawn could be two different areas and the one away from viewing (such as behind lower shrubs) could be the doggie bathroom (with training.) Even better is if you can train them to pee on a non-growie area like gravel or other nonliving mulch--good luck with that. Closer into the house could be groundcovers, low shrubs, etc. I think Val's landscape there in Boulder is ideal. Now as for lawns, depends on where you are in Georgia (I guess I could look it up) but here are some suggestions by region: Quote: •Bahiagrass - Most Areas - Pastures.
•Bermudagrass - All areas. •Bluegrass, Kentucky - Northern Areas. •Carpetgrass - Central & Southern Areas - Wet soils. •Centipedegrass - Central & Southern Areas. •St. Augustine - Warmer Central & Southern Areas. •Ryegrasses - Overseeding of warm season grasses. •Tall Fescue - Central & Northern Cooler Areas. •Zoysiagrass - All areas. Might I suggest to make friends with some Master Gardeners in your area. They are trainef volunteers who can answer more deeply that I can as I haven't lived in the south......my hort knowledge is more arid and mountain regions, don't start talking acidic soils...only met them in high moutain areas and a sulfur mine tailings here. To find a Master Gardener in your area : http://georgiamastergardeners.org/ There are there to "hold your hand" . No question is too silly for them, they've heard most. |
| Ditto the Master Gardener advice. They are volunteers who live and garden in your area and know how to succeed with plantings in your own neighborhoods.
Another option may be the local county extension service. I know they are real active here - not sure about the south. They have printed bulletins and staff who can help. Drainage - does it need to be releveled? It would be a pain (and mess) but a rented bobcat or similar machine can fix a lot of frustration in an afternoon! If it just has a few dips and rises, putting in fill in the low spots may do the trick. Good luck! |
| we DO think re-leveling is part of the problem. There is a stream at the back of the property, and the water just never gets there. It pools in the yard and never gets absorbed.
So... this will probably sound dumb but why is Horse Manure okay, and Chicken poo, but putting dog poo in compost bad? Is it because horses and chickens are herbivores? |
Darth Snuggle wrote: we DO think re-leveling is part of the problem. There is a stream at the back of the property, and the water just never gets there. It pools in the yard and never gets absorbed.
That is a problem! Sad to have a place for all the water to go, but never have it get there! So... this will probably sound dumb but why is Horse Manure okay, and Chicken poo, but putting dog poo in compost bad? Is it because horses and chickens are herbivores? I didn't re-read it, but I think the manure (horse, chicken) was part of the soil amendment part of the discussion, not putting it in the compost heap itself. Using the manure as fertilizer when spreading the composted soil is good, putting raw manure in the compost heap is not. But also - the carnivore vs herbivore part is most likely true as well - although I am just guessing on that one! |
Darth Snuggle wrote: why is Horse Manure okay, and Chicken poo, but putting dog poo in compost bad? Is it because horses and chickens are herbivores?
Bingo. Risk of disease (think e-coli, salmonella, giardia...) transmission is much greater between us and our fellow carnivores/omnivores. You can compost dog excrement, you just shouldn't use that compost to amend the soil that gets near anything you're growing that you may some day want to eat. Most people I've spoken to in this area choose not to compost it. I know I don't add it to my compost pile, but then the compost is destined for the garden for the most part. On the other hand there are a number of innovative/interesting gadgets/techniques aimed primarily at composting dog poop. Most of which would probably work better for you than me given geography and the fact that your ground isn't normally frozen much if at all. Kristine |
| I bought one of those dog poop natural degraders for my Mom. It was good for a while but her soil is mostly clay so it didnt end up coping with one big and one small dog's poop output.
It was great while it worked though. |
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