My Favorite Dog Pee Spot Patching Product

We just had a large dog move out of our house when our previous room mate left, and now we're patching up all the dead grass pee spots the dog left behind. Fall is a great time to grow new grass, so I'm hoping to have a lot of good grass come in before winter.

The stuff I swear by is the EZ Seed that looks like grass seed mixed with instant coffee. When you add water to it, it expands like a sponge and holds water in all day long so your grass seed has just enough moisture and doesn't dry out. You can't just dump it on top of the grass though you have to prepare the patches by ripping out the dead grass and adding a bit of fresh topsoil to the hole.


I had about 30 pee patches from dog pee all over the yard, and the dead grass came up super easy. There were a few spots where it felt like the brown patch had some good roots in it still, so I let it go and I'm hoping it will come back on its own. Of course all the holes would eventually fill themselves as the grass sends out shoots to the side, but some fresh seed will help it along for sure.

Cleaned the dead patch like cleaning a wound so it's ready for fresh seed

Filled the empty patch with fresh topsoil so the grass seed has nooks and crannies to catch onto

Room mate Zack helping out in the yard

Love this stuff, but it was like $54 for the big bag. A bit pricey but better than the smaller jugs.

Final result, now we wait for a week for the seeds to germinate.

The morning dew is enough to wet the patches in the morning and then usually I got out when I get home from work and give it some more water just to keep it moist overnight.

I also added some topsoil and EZ Seed to the low spot where the pear tree used to be 2 years ago, this is still not naturalized into the rest of the lawn after all this time!

Update: 10 days later...

Recap: Best Blooms Summer 2016

I have a ton of photos from early spring before anything was really happening, and then as soon as things really started blooming my blogging slowed down. Here is a recap of summer bloom photos that I neglected to post.

Siberian iris

Lily 'After Eight'

Erigeron speciosus 'Darkest of All'

Hosta 'Frozen Margarita'

Siberian iris

Lily 'After Eight'

Salvia sylvestris 'Little Night'

Purple coneflower 'Magnus'

Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum'

Cercis canadensis ‘Ruby Falls’

Lily 'Tiny Invader'

Lily 'Tiny Pearl' (front) and 'Tiny Invader' (back)

Lily 'Tiny Shadow'

Summer Views from 2016 Quick Garden Tour and Update

I don't intend to recap every single thing that happened to my yard this year, but I will post a collection of photos in case I want to look back at them during the winter, or have them to compare to future photos. Here are some of the major events:

1. My epic battle with the rabbits continued for months, and I'm trying to make peace with the fact that they will eat some of my plants, and that's okay. (trying to convince myself).

2. My hardy pampas grass grew to record heights, I can't wait to cut it down this winter and get the official measurement.

3. My emerald green arborvitae in the back yard got a weird disease and partially died, had black fronds, then grew back, and actually put on some good growth.

4. I had 2 out of 15 or so Surprise Lillies bloom this year, which was a surprise indeed, I heard they don't like being transplanted.

5. I had a short Japanese beetle scare a few months ago and had to spray my birch trees. The spray seemed to take care of them, I only had to use 1 bottle. 

6. My mail order purple coneflower 'Magnus' came back to life and actually flowered!

Front yard Summer 2016

Emerald green fighting off a disease, it seems to be winning. The mail order phlox around the base is taking well and should be nice in the Spring.

Late summer back bed, not much blooming but things are definitely getting bigger. I'm liking the idea of a back bed that is more filled in with plants touching or overlapping and blooming at different times.

Back bed island earlier this summer. Birch trees put on a lot of healthy growth, can't wait for them to do it again next year, they are super healthy in spite of a Japanese beetle scare a few months ago.

Back bed late summer 2016 - Purple Dome is about to flower, blue fescue is looking good against the pink rock.

Early summer view of the utility box bed, Shasta daisy did great this summer, but the Russian sage is getting a little unruly, I cut a bunch out and replaced it with my first try at Gaura 'Dark Pink' which I'm hoping is hardy in this zone. I moved the PowWow Wildberry cone flower to the back because it's really too short to hide the boxes anyway.