Help!!!

Our gardens are extensive which is great for the dogs . However with all the heavy continuous rain, we have a big problem. The first garden is at the top of 8/9 steps & that first part is just a mud mire, its slippy & nasty & the dogs come in caked in mud. When you wAlk up there (no other wY into garden) you squelch & sink in mud/mire

Has anyone any experience of tbis type of situation or anyone advise on what can be done. There is no back access (long story) to these gardens so everyting has to be trudged through the house. This year is the worst its ever been.

Wehave paved some in at top Of steps but the mud just moves back. I presumme its something to di with bad drainage? Its a nightmare going up there to clean sfter the animals. The rest of the garden/gardens are ok.

Our garden is looking very bad this time of year aswell.
dan has been putting down sharp sand and it seems to help

my mum is having real problems with this too and as there is usually 5 gsd's that use the garden regulary (her 3 and my 2) it is a nightmare, she was considering just slabbing the whole lot off

Do what we did and fence the patio area (if you have one?) from the grass? it was definitely the best we ever did for the garden. It means our grass stays good all winter because the dogs don't have access to it (unless closely supervised!) and best of all no mud.

Our dogs have access to the patio area and a toilet area we made from putting down purple slate. In the warmer months when the ground is dry they can sunbath on the grass, but in winter it saves everyones sanity to not let them on there as routine.

No, no pato area, they have to go up the garden to play. & toilet

Ooh we had this problem with our chickens when we let them free-range the bottom of the garden - they killed all the grass (even though it's a large area and we only had three hens ) and turned it into a bog in winter. You could literally step down onto the mud and glide all the way to the other side of the garden

We added some sort of drainage system underneath the grass (I don't remember what it was, my uncle helped my parents do it) but it was something to do with fine gravel / sand to allow the water to filter through. And for the bits that weren't grass we swapped to bark chippings so it couldn't turn into a quagmire!

Red

I'm a bit late on this one, but cat litter will help soak up the excess water.

Our garden (in patches) is sodden, and the dogs come in caked in mud. I sprinkle Tesco Value Cat litter on it to absorb most of the muddy excess, and it also helps with the frost when it decides to come. Frost won't stick to cat litter.

At the back door, I bought a thick plastic shoe scrubber mat, and on top of it, I bought one of those JML magic mats. Yes, it does work, and washes no problem at all.

Hope this helps, and might not cost as much as paving your patio.

Good Luck x

Is there anyway you could slab the whole of the muddy part. I done that with my garden and then fenced it off from the lawn so they only go on there supervised as I got fed up with the dogs constantly covered in mud as well as my house.
The other alternative could be fake grass.
I have no mud in the house at all now and its bliss.

Part is paved, my father when he was alive got it done however it's spread up the garden, you do sink and squelch down into it. Makes getting up there to clean up after the dogs most unpleasant.

I never thought of car litter - have used it for frost before now. Will get a cheap bag and try that - experiment on a small patch even to see how it goes. I've collected so e old rubber bath mats tom throw down to try and give me passage up the garden

Fake grass is pricey - looked at it before