Sand in the backyard - what could go wrong.

Post date: 2021-04-17 05:03:54

We recently adopted a greyhound. He's wonderful. He likes to run, unsurprisingly. He is tearing up our back lawn, which was already in crappy shape for various reasons. Is sand and pine straw a workable solution?

Lots of people use regular straw over dirt to allay the mud. I don't really want to do that. In one of my greyhound groups, a woman on the east coast showed her solution. She had a couple inches of topsoil removed, brought in several tons of beach sand, and covered the sand with pine straw. According to her, she replaces the mulch each year, and every couple of years has to bring in minimal sand to even some places out. Her dogs can dig and run and she brushes their feet off at the door and there's no mud. She says it hasn't impacted her established trees.

I live in Michigan, if climate matters. Our yard isn't large; we have two kids (8 and 12); it's shady and the grass has always been a struggle. I have lots of ideas about how this could be great - less upkeep, good for the dogs and kids, no mud. Are there potential downsides that I am missing?

We'd only do the backyard, the yard is bounded by concrete driveways so there's little risk that the sand will migrate to the neighbors, and we will take other measures to prevent that. No one will really be able to see it.

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