Sharing your garden with dogs, and artificial turf

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I just love having a garden, and I just love having dogs. I have two dachshunds, and I'd like to believe that they're just as happy in the Tropical Paradise as I am.

When I bought this house, over twenty-five years ago, two things attracted me to it: it had a garage, and it had a nice little area for a garden. I dislike leaving my car out exposed to the elements, and I dislike not having a space big enough for some plants and flowers. And I lived without dogs for a long time.

As the years went by, I struggled to keep the grass growing in such a small and shady area. And then I got my first dog, who I taught to be good, but hey, dogs are dogs - they do their business on grass, and it kills it. So about a year after I got my first dog, in 2006, I had artificial turf installed. At the risk of sounding like a commercial, it was the best investment I ever made. It cost me a fair amount of money, and I did have it professionally installed. Artificial turf is not a "do-it-yourself" project, that is, if you want it to look great, and mine does.

And the most common question I get related to the dogs and the artificial turf is if they can do their business on it. Yes, they can. It's perforated, so their liquid waste trickles down, and their solid waste sits up where I can see it, and clean it, unlike in real grass.

And of course the artificial turf needs no watering, no mowing, and you can leave lawn furniture on it without killing the grass. I blow it with a small rechargeable blower every week or so, and of course I go out daily with a pooper-scooper.

I can't imagine life without my dogs, or without my garden. I'm lucky.

By the way, the pup you see there learning where the "Ladies Room" is is about nine months old, and her name is Phoenix. You can call her Feeny-Weenie.

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