Why I Chose Artificial Grass With Dogs – And Love It!

A few months ago I wrote a post on my year of battle with having grass in my backyard with my giant dogs, and the alternatives. I really thought I could grow some type of grass but in my small space it was a losing battle! Spring came around and my attention went back to my garden and lawn. After being constantly disappointed in my efforts last year, I initially thought I would try to lay sod again but then gave my head a good shake!

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Finding that there are really good and realistic synthetic grasses out there now (I chose Rymar Durablade 65), I found a contractor who could do the installation for me! That was mid-March…Expectations were for something sooner rather than later since I was sick of the mud and stink situation with the snow melting!

Temperatures stayed cool for the next few weeks, making it difficult to get anything started since the ground was not yet thawed. I pretty much gave up on any attempt at keeping my floors clean and worked to keep them simply acceptable instead!

Time passed…no turf. I had come to the expectation that during the pandemic things were just taking much more time than anyone anticipated. I did not pester the contractors as I figured they were probably dealing with enough grief from other customers!

My neighbour’s had also gone with the same contractor as I did, and I felt bad about the amount of time it was taking since it was essentially my recommendation to go with that company! They seemed to be in touch with the company more than I was, and apparently at some point the turf ended up stuck on a container ship for some time with some sort of a union strike!

Continuing to be patient, we finally got a date for installation! I wasn’t sure if it was ever even going to happen at this point, so it was great to get this news! Unfortunately, they ran a day behind so they day they were supposed to come it was POURING rain (and snow…ugh at the end of May!) and it was impossible for them to work.

Not hearing anything over the following weekend, I figured I would hear from them any day, and if not I would be following up again. And then…Tuesday I was upstairs brushing my teeth getting ready to take the dogs out and the doorbell rang!

Running down the stairs (so the dogs don’t push through the screen door!) I opened the door…and the man there said he had the gravel for the backyard! But he was also asking if the crew was here to work yet, and I didn’t even have any idea they were coming that day!

Sure enough, within the next half hour a crew of four men showed up at my door! It ended up causing a bit of chaos though! They had gone into the backyard before coming to the front door. And OPENED THE GATE! When the weather is nice out, I tend to just sit in the house blogging away but I leave the back door open so the animals can all come and go as they please!

Talking with the head of the crew out front, all of a sudden there is one dog there. Then two! I was like nooooo they let the dogs out! Benson and Grace are usually pretty good, but when they get their freedom out front there is a lot of dog running and me yelling going on! They don’t go far, and they usually will come back for treats but not after getting a good run in! So while my dogs are running back and forth all over front lawns, the two small Poms next door were going NUTS on the balcony!

Usually the dogs will come back…but for some reason on this day they just WEREN’T! Then Grace even went to follow one of the contractors down to street level where I was terrified she would run out onto the road! And where Grace went Benson was sure to follow!

I managed to finally, finally get a hold on one of the dogs! Back into the house with you! Then I remembered the back door was still open…and the back gate! One of the guys then volunteered to go shut the gate before I had two running around again! And I was finally able to get both bears back into the house…

Okay. All good, right? I was already tired and the day was just getting going! But I was so happy to have the work started on my yard!!! I had a quick chat with the guys about what I wanted done, and took the dogs down to the beach to burn off some energy! And also since they wouldn’t need to be able to use the yard to go the bathroom during the day. Although I have seen Grace refuse to go out in the yard for more than a full day before so I think she may be part camel and ok to hold it until the next walk…

After we got back from the beach, I headed to the back door to see how everything was going. They had done an incredible amount of work while we were gone, digging up the dirt and were already in the process of bringing the gravel to the yard! My yard was NOT fun for them, since there is no driveway and a narrow lane to access the yard meaning they couldn’t bring a machine in and it was all manual. I felt kind of bad…

By the end of day one, they had my yard and the neighbour’s yard completely dug up, all dirt and stones removed, and new gravel poured! I thought they were almost finished, and was surprised the next day at how much more there was to do!

A great amount of thought and care went into the work they were doing. They cut the remaining patio stones carefully to be very aesthetically pleasing which I was surprised at! I was also amazed that they managed to put back up a small retaining wall that had fallen over last fall when I had a tree removed! The yard already looked a hundred times better than when it was a giant mud pit!

They also spent a great deal of time grading the yard. When it was time to roll out the turf I was really excited!! It was almost done!! A GREEN yard with no worries about anything dying anymore! After the turf was rolled out, great care was again taken to take care of the edges and drive spikes into the ground to hold it down. The fill was put in, the “grass” hosed off…and IT WAS READY!!!

Unleashing the beasts, they started rolling and playing on it immediately! They love it! I love it! My daughter loves it! No more SMELL! In case it does start to smell a bit, they provided a bottle of deodorizer that I can spray on it on the hottest of summer days. Water and vinegar will also do the trick if needed. The dogs used it to go the the bathroom…and guess what? The EASIEST cleanup ever!

Everyone is really, really happy with the result. Yes, it was a bit of a wait to get there but we still have the best part of summer ahead of us to enjoy it! We are really happy with our decision, and I am crazy excited about clean floors that will stay clean!!

I also want to give Two Guys and a Shovel a big shoutout here, as they did an exceptional job on both yards! They were very careful and went above and beyond to make sure that the little details were paid attention to and that everything looked perfect before they left. They even dug up the roots on a plant I had in the ground so that I could replant it, fixed the neighbour’s eavestrough and moved my heavy furniture back into place when they were done! They were also insistent that if at any point there were ANY issues to give them a call back and they would do what they could to fix it. I know that it took some time, but these are pretty exceptional times as it is and we need to have patience…It is well worth it!