Pets are a part of our family, so we work hard to make sure they have many comforts of life. This often includes modifying the environments in our home and garden to accommodate the needs of our furry family members. In his book Petscaping: Training and Landscaping with Your Pet in Mind, Garden Artisan Scott Cohen states, “Wherever I go, folks are always asking me for advice on how to design their yards to solve the challenges that sharing a yard with pets can present. The problem is, it is never just a landscape solution alone. Pets are people too, and our furry friends have their own personalities and behavioral issues to consider.
The best solutions are always a combination of knowledgeable pet training and well planned landscape design.” Here at The Green Scene Landscaping & Swimming Pools, we have years of experience of landscaping for pets and are happy to work with you to make your backyard into the pet-friendly zone you’ve been dreaming of. Here’s a handful of tips on petscaping to get you started.
Choosing the Right Lawn with Your Pets in Mind
There are several considerations you’ll have to bear in mind before you choose the right lawn grass. First, you must research what grasses grow best in your environment. Does your backyard have more sun or shade? And depending on how active your dog is, how resilient is the grass to rough play?
To help make your choice even easier, here’s a list of our Top Ten Lawn Grasses for Pets:
- Tall Fescue
- Dwarf Tall Fescue
- Double-Dwarf Fescues
- Hybrid Bermuda
- St. Augustine
- Kentucky Bluegrass
- Perennial Ryegrass
- Zoysia Grass
- Seahorse Paspalum
- Creeping Red Fescue
From this list, you can better narrow down which one is right not only for the environment of your yard, but for your dog, as well.
Choosing the Right Pool with Your Pets in Mind
If you plan on letting Fido swim laps in your pool with you, we highly recommend that you do not get a saltwater pool. Why? We worked with a client who needed to remodel their saltwater pool and backyard. While we discussed issues and solutions with them, they pointed out a deteriorating area of their concrete patio. They couldn’t figure out how it had even happened. There wasn’t another area of the patio that was in that same condition. As we stood there scratching our heads, the family dog went for his daily swim, jumped out and shook off all that saltwater right where the concrete was beginning to erode. Needless to say, we figured out the cause of the problem!
If you’d like to dive deeper into landscaping for your pets, check out Petscaping: Training and Landscaping with Pets in Mind by Garden Artisan Scott Cohen and Professional Animal Trainer Carolyn Doherty. We cover plants that are suitable for your pets, creating pet-friendly environments, addressing pet behavior in your garden, and so much more! If you would like to transform your backyard into a pet paradise, contact The Green Scene Landscaping & Swimming Pools team today.
