Is Dog Poop Good for Your Grass?
The grass is greener when you scoop the poop
Dog poop and urine contain nutrients that burn and damage your lawn.
There are environmental and health risks associated with dog waste.
Composting dog poop is an environmentally friendly way to feed your lawn or ornamental plants.
It may not be the most glamorous question, but if you have a dog, you’ve likely wondered whether dog poop is good for your grass. The three most common nutrients found in lawn fertilizers are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and the right balance helps you achieve that lush lawn you see in gardening magazines.
Unfortunately, letting your pooch potty all over your garden grass won’t make it greener. In fact, it can do the opposite (and don’t forget all the health and environmental concerns that come with not scooping the poop). Learn more about why dog poop isn’t good for your grass and practical ways you can make your woofer’s waste work for your yard.
Why Dog Poop Can Be Bad for Your Lawn
Dog waste and lush lawns aren’t a good match. Learn more about why it’s not just unsightly patches you have to worry about if you don’t scoop that poop.
Brown or Dead Spots
Your lawn won’t appreciate it if you leave dog poop to linger on it. It contains high nitrogen levels that, when left to dissolve into the lawn (sorry, not a pleasant image!), lead to brown patches, and solid poop suffocates the grass underneath, causing it to die.
Your pooch’s poop also contains high levels of phosphorus. According to Texas A & M University, high levels of this chemical prevent the soil under your grass from absorbing essential micronutrients like iron and zinc. This combination can make your lawn look patchy.
Odors
It’s not just brown patches on your lawn you have to consider if you leave your pooch’s poop to seep into soil. You’ll have to get rid of pet waste odors in your yard, especially on hot summer days. The easiest way to eliminate stinky smells is to scoop your pet’s poop frequently.
Pathogens and Parasites
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, dog poop is chock full of bacteria and can pass on pathogens or parasites like E. coli, giardia, salmonella, and roundworm. Some microorganisms can survive in your yard for up to 4 years. So they’re not things you want to potentially expose your kids to when they’re playing on the lawn.
Fungus Growth
Mushrooms love feeding off moist, decaying matter. So decomposing, nitrogen-rich dog poop is perfect for encouraging their growth.
While mushrooms aren’t necessarily bad for your lawn (they can even help break down things like lurking leaves), too many can inhibit grass growth, and they don’t exactly match a manicured landscaping aesthetic. Plus, many mushroom species are harmful to people and pets.
The last thing you want is your curious kid or canine trying to eat a toxic variety, so it's best to prevent mushrooms from growing on your lawn.
Pollution
When you leave dog waste to break down in your yard, it isn’t just hurting your lawn. It enters our waterways through surface runoff and is a significant contributing pollutant, especially in the form of disease-causing fecal coliform bacteria. It also creates problematic algal blooms, and dog waste’s high nitrogen and phosphorus levels can deplete oxygen levels water-based life forms rely on to survive.
Lawn Damage Prevention: Remove Dog Waste
Punctual poop pick-up is the best way to avoid a proliferation of patches on your lawn, but it’s not the only way to prevent poop-related grass problems. If your pet’s waste has caused serious damage to your lawn, consider hiring a lawn care service near you to help you repair it.
Scoop the Poop
We get it. No one relishes picking up after their dog, but doing a daily poop inspection is the best form of defense for your lawn. And these days, there are plenty of hands-off poop-scooping tools to use if you aren’t a fan of the customary bag.
Train Your Dog Where to Potty
Setting up a “poop zone” in your yard means training your dog to do their business in a gravel, paved, or artificial grass area where your dog’s waste won’t cause damage. This method requires patience, perseverance, and plenty of tasty treat rewards.
Take Your Dog For a Walk Instead
Before letting your dog out into the yard, you could take them for a walk around the block to do their business and pick up the poop while they are on the leash. That way, there’s less chance of them pooping on your lawn when your back is turned.
Hire a Poop Picker-Upper
If daily poop pick-up is something you dread and you live in an urban area, you might be able to hire someone to do the duty for you. Look for a professional pet waste removal company that disposes of the poop in an environmentally friendly and approved manner. Failing that, you might find a house cleaning company near you that offers this as part of their services.
Can Composting Your Dog’s Poop Benefit Your Yard?
There are many easy ways to pick up your dog’s poop. And after gathering it up, instead of sending it to a landfill, why not create a garden-friendly, beneficial compost out of it? Once it has broken down, it won’t emit a putrid stench, and, providing your dog is up to date with treatments, you don’t have to worry about parasites.
Following studies, the USDA created an in-depth guide for safely composting dog waste. It makes a fantastic fertilizer for your lawn and non-edible, ornamental plants in your garden.
Whether you add the poop to a traditional composting pile, vermicompost in a small bin filled with worms, or opt for the on-trend Bokashi method (using anaerobic, oxygen-depriving techniques), there’s a compositing technique to suit everyone.
Is Dog Urine Harmful to Grass?
It’s true that if your lawn doesn’t get enough nitrogen, it can turn yellow and suffer from spotting diseases like anthracnose. But, too much nitrogen also leads to brown patches—even on the best types of grass for dogs. This is why you’ll often see these ugly dead spots on your lawn when your pooch pees on it.
Your pup’s urine contains high volumes of nitrogen, and the concentrated stream directed right at your prized lawn invariably burns the area. You might even see a more lush ring of green around the scorched patch, where the more diluted nitrogen leaches out, having a more desired effect.
Thankfully, there are ways to stop dog urine from killing your grass. These include regularly hosing the pee away, training your dog to go in a particular spot, and picking urine-hardy grass.
As we know, leaving dog poop on your lawn can cause patching and even death of your grass. But, even if your yard is hardscaped, leaving dog poop lying around is unhygienic and smelly, and it’s an invitation for kids to trail it into the house on the soles of their shoes.
Always do a poop sweep before mowing your lawn. Running your mower over dog waste can be messy, unsanitary, and smelly, and it can spread the poop to other parts of your lawn. Plus, you won’t be able to get it out of the grass (or the mower blades) easily.
Dog poop can make a fantastic natural fertilizer, but don’t just whack fresh fido feces onto your lawn. Apart from the smell, health risks, and overall ick factor, poop isn’t good for your grass in its unprocessed form. Its high nitrogen levels mean it can burn or even kill your grass. Correctly composted dog poop, on the other hand, is a much safer, odor-free, and effective way to encourage green lawns and blooming borders.
If your dog always does their business in the yard, daily poop pick-up makes sense. The nitrogen in the poop can start making its way into the grass and surrounding soil quickly, a rain shower can send the waste into waterways, and less poop lying around means less chance of stepping on it accidentally.
