Question
My backyard looks terrible.  I am a new home owner, I moved into this house last September and am very new to maintaining a lawn.  So I am somewhat clueless about what to do.  The backyard looked great before we bought our house, then soon after we moved in, it started dying in spots.  I think there are several things going on here.  First of all I think that the previous owners applied some sort of weed killer/fertilizer shortly before we moved in and it didn't rain in enough time and burned patches out.  Then in October we got a puppy, a female so I have yellow patches from her urine.  Now my grass looks very thin and there are large patches of hard packed dirt.  I don't think it's from wear because she doesn't spend a lot of time outside.  Yesterday I noticed in one of the larger patches that there were small holes all over.  They were about the diameter of a pencil.  I have also noticed an awful lot of "ant hills", they are small but noticable because of the bare patches.  I don't want to put anything on the lawn that will hurt my one year old puppy, but my yard looks terrible.  Any suggestions?

Answer
Hi Sarah;
Ok, this is what i was able to find.
I have never had a problem with urins killing my grass, and i have always had several dogs, both male and female.
I think it is because my soil is more alkalyne, and dog urine is acid, so it doesn't add enough acid to harm the grass. could be wrong, that is just what seems logical to me.
Howard Garret ( Texas' organic guru), says to treat the grass spots with Zoelite, whatever that is. I have never used it.
I am assuming you could get it at a nursery, since you treat the lawn with it.
I also water deeply, so the urine would be deluted and washed through the soil further.
Shallow watering can damage a lawn a lot. When roots have to come close to the surface to get water, they are more affected by heat and cold and drought.
watering deeply, to at least a depth of 6 inches, encourages a deep root system, and that protects against heat cold and drought damage.
The large patches of hard packed dirt sounds like too much clay in the soil. Soil needs to be loose to allow grass roots to penetrate and spread.
also, hard clay won't allow water to soak into the soil to reach deep roots.
Those holes could be a number of things. Insects, I am sure, but not sure what kind.
You don't say where you live, so I don't know what burrowing insects you have there.
I am on a completely organic program, so I don't have a problem with any kind of insects.
My toads, lizards and grass snakes and beneficial insects keep me free of all the unbwanted insects.
I have tons of cockroaches in my soil whis is good. the eat unwanted insects, tunnel through the soil and keep it aerated, and NEVEr come in my house.
i use herbs to keep unwanted insects out of the house.
those holes could even be cockroaches, and if it is, good!
The will benefit the lawn. we just want to make sure they STAY in the ground, ourside.
This is going to take more than one session.LOl
Orange oil gets rid of fire ants. Lemon gets rid of ants in the house,also, basil for house ants. I also no longer have those tiny black ants in my flower beds, so I am going to give you a recipe for getting rid of all kinds of ants.
Buy bags of epsom salts at Walmart. I get a plastic bage of it there that looks like about a half gallon size, for about 3 dollars a bag.
To each bag of Epsom slats, ad the ground up peels of about 3 large or 5 medium oranges, and 3 or w lemons.
Grind them in a food processor or blender, till finely chopped or ground, and add it to the epsom salts in a large bowl, mix ir well.( I pour some of the salts in the blender or processon and rub it around to absorb all the oil on the sides of the container.) Then store it overnight covered tightly, to let the salts absorb the oils, then broadcast this over the yard.
I use about 6 bags of epsom Salts with the cu=itrus peels in it, for my front yard that is about 3000 sq.ft.
So about 2 bags per 100 sq.ft.
you should see no ants within a couple of days.
The epsom Salts also adds nutrients to the soil.
dig down and see if you can see what it is that is making the holes.
check the soil to see if it is clay soil. If it is, you will need to add some things to loosen it up some, and get it started on a soil improving program.
Check out those things, and write me with what you have found, and we will go further from there.
Together we will turn that yard into an oasis ( or at least a very pretty lawn.
Charlotte