Advice on garden Please

My Garden is wrecked. It is now the odd tuft of grass between the thick mud. Also next door has two cats which sit beside the fence so the dogs charge up and down at the fence so that part is just thick gloopy mud. You can see the puddles laying in the mud all over the garden too.
Then dogs come in and I have thick and I mean thick mud everywhere. I have ruined endless towels trying to get the worst off them to no avail.
I was thinking of putting gravel down but am worried that my two dogs that delight in trying to eat stones may swallow them. I thought about slabbing a good part of the area but would have to pay someone to come in and do it as I live alone with my daughter and I really cannot afford that. bark is out too as they delight in trying to eat any that comes out of the local play park .
Any ideas what I could do as not being much of a handyman i'm at a loss as what to do or how to do it.
All I know is that I have washed my floors 18 times so far today and its getting soul destroying.


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Concrete????
With reclaimed bricks thrown in?
We put down a bit of a makeshift patio at the back of the garden that was a mudbath,it's basically concrete with bricks put into it in places to make it look a bit prettier. It was cheap and cheerful which was what we needed at the time? Why not do that close to the house and put a bit of a makeshift fence up so they can't get onto the rest of the garden???
Any chance of some pics to help us be creative for you???!!!!

Not an easy one - especially at the moment as most gardens are now in this state.

Can you not section off part of the garden just over the winter months, then you could concentrate on slabbing a small (mud free) area!

Oh dear! Do they have to be out in all that then? Mine are quite happy to be indoors in the winter after their morning walk and only get let out for a wee and poo if they need it?
I have grass (complete with mud!) at the front, but luckily I have gravel all round the side and back, so if it's really bad they don't get let out the front.

Whatever you go for, you'll have to get someone in to do it, and that's the expensive bit I'm afraid. My odd job man charges £120 per day but he works like a trojan so he does get a lot done in a day. If access to the garden is near a spot where they can drop off a bag of gravel (peabeach it's called)in the road, then you can always wheelbarrow it to your garden? I've done that in the past, but it might be a lot easier than what you're going through at the moment! You need to put down some of that material stuff first (called type 1)to stop any weeds coming through and then the gravel lays nice on that. I'm sure this would be cheaper than the slabs, and you really couldn't do that on your own anyway.

If I were you, I'd take those two out on a very long walk in the morning, wear them out, and they'll be quite happy to lay by the fire instead of playing in all that mud out in the garden!!

I will try and get some pics for you. But when I say money is tight I mean really tight as I'm a widow bringing up my grandughter now 15 (the expensive age) and with christmas theres only me earning to pay all the bills etc, so £30 would be a lot to me right now.
I do 6 walks a day with my dogs (3 each) which includes at least 2 of them free running over the fields chasing the frisbee.
They DON'T go out in the garden to play. But my big girl will not go toilet on walks so has to go out in the garden for her toilet. The new cats next door delight in sitting on or just behind the fence to wind her up so as soon as I let her out to the toilet she roars up and down trying to catch them churning up the garden more before she does her buisness.
I have tried taking her out on a lead but she won't toilet on the lead and will then go indoors rather than on lead.
Little Milo does go toilet on his walks and when I let him out he doesn't get muddy as he hates the mud.
I let them out in the garden seperatly to try and minimize the running about out there and they are only out a few minutes each time.
I only have a smallish garden anyway so not a lot to split off and more fencing and posts would be rather expensive.

Bev

Oh dear Bev, you've got quite a problem there then haven't you! I really can't think of anything to help you out. Can you not hose them down from outside (if you've got a tap and hose that is!) at least you'd get the worst off from underneath that way wouldn't you? I used to have to do this with my Cassie (whatever the weather!) when she came up to the horse with me in this awful weather, she'd end up plastered in one from our wet muddy fields, so I had no alternative but to get the hose out on her, there's no way she was coming home looking like that! It must be a nightmare for you, let's hope the weather dries up a bit, or that neighbour puts those cats indoors!!

Thought about using bark chips? Still a bit messy but not as bad as mud. And it's very cheap and you can do it yourself??

Whatever you do, don't get those coconut shells coz they're cheaper than he bark, as they are poisonous to your dogs!!! Be carefull!

Mud is usually caused because the soil is compacted and the water is unable to drain away, so you could try digging it over and adding sharp sand to the mix, although with the amount of rain we have been having it may not help immediately. You would need to dig quite deep and churn it up quite well though, and when funds permit try planting some shrubs along the fence to soak up the water and put some distance between the dog and the fence.

We've had the same problem -only with kids not cats The answer for us was railings -we've sectioned off the garden so the dogs have access to the patio and up the side of the house but not the grass ..not the cheapest option I know but worth every penny IMO the floors are cleaner - the barking is less and the stress factor is zero