Question
We live in the downtown Atlanta area.  We have a very small front yard 20' x 15' approx. and 2 dogs, one is a 1 year old 50 lb female and the other is a 14 lb 11 year old who is still very active.  We took the grass out of one side of the yard this past spring and made it a garden.  We have almost no problem keeping the dogs out of this area.  Because of the way we planted it and we put up a small wire fencing.  They have made a "race track" around one of our oak trees and completely torn up the yard on the other side of our walkway.  We now have dirt and a few very small patches of almost gone grass.  They run around the house but of course love to play in the front yard.  We are thinking about synthetic turf but it just isn't the same as the real thing.  Is there any grass that we can put in that is durable enough for this situation?  We would really love to have a small yard with grass.  HEEEEEEEELP

Answer
Melissa:

I am afraid that the area left may be inadequate to support both lawn and traffic.  The action of your dog's paws will damage grass in this small lot.  If you had a yard thirty by thirty, there would still be wear at the fence and gate.

Installing a Bermuda sod may give you some grass, but if you have trees in this yard, it will not do as well as in sun.

I would go with synthetic turf and place my priority on the dogs.  If this changes, you can always go back to turf.

Best wishes.