Question
We recently put an addition on our house and a small portion of the back yard was dug up and our dogs have trampled it to hard dirt.  We've used bricks and large flat stone to help fill in, but it's right around the dog door area where they come in and go out of the laundry room.  What's the best way to reseed, organically, esp. with this area being highly trafficed?

Thank you,
Darlene

Answer
Hi Darlene;
with heavy foot traffic from the dogs, you will most likely not get grass to grow there for any length of time.
If I were you, I would get very creative about laying a larger, sort of patio area there. You don't have to pave and make it permanent, laying stepping stones close together, pavers etc on sand or gravel can make a very attreactive area free from mud, and looking ike a disaster.
This can help in other ways. My son put a larger area klike this in his back yard, for his smoker, some seating etc. It was very attractive but,,,,, his Rottweiller liked to play on it, and she ran on it a lot. After she started using this as her main running area, he no longer had to clip her toenails as often. The scratchiness of the pavers he put there, seemed to keep her nails filed down.
Another solution might be ground cover.
I have Asian Jasmine in a raised area in my frot yard, under a large tree.
There is too much shade under that tree for grass, and it is between our front door and the west sun.
I live in North texas and our sun can get VERY hot. That tree HAS to be there or we would cook in the summer.
Asian ?Jasmine will grow in anything from total sun to total shade, and it is low growing, evergren, so it looks nice all year round.
If it starts growing out of the bouinds you want to keep it in, just mow it. That may have to be done every few years. More often if it gets a lot of sun. Naturally, it grows much faster in sun than in shade.
There are other ground covers, some that even bloom, some that only grow 3 or 4 inches high.
Most of these will take a lot more foot traffic than grass will.
Charlotte