Why Kikuyu Turf Makes An Ideal Lawn For Dog Owners
A dog can be a faithful companion as well as a loving pet, but while you may get along very well with your dog, it's a fair bet that your lawn won't be quite so fond of it. Even a small dog can deal tremendous damage to a turf lawn in a short space of time; even if your dog isn't the digging type, many dogs like to chew on grass to aid digestion, and constant running, rolling and playing can wear down a fragile grass quickly. Dog urine and faeces can also deal enormous damage to lawns by dramatically changing the pH of the soil they come into contact with.
As such, any dog owner who wants to create a new lawn on their property should make sure the turf they choose can stand up to the severe punishment their dog will inevitably inflict. Kikuyu turf is one of the best turfs for any lawn-loving dog owner, and it has a number of advantages over lesser turf types that make it an ideal choice for most dogs and their owners.
Why should I choose Kikuyu turf for my new dog-resistant lawn?
Rapid regrowth
One of Kikuyu turf's most attractive qualities is its ability to recover quickly and completely from physical damage; as you can imagine, this is an even more attractive quality for dog owners. Patches of damaged grass and even bare earth caused by your dog's digging, playing and urinating will regrow quickly, as the intact blades of grass nearby spread themselves by sending out shoots to the damaged sections of lawn. This also means you don't have to use supplementary grass seeds to regrow damaged patches.
High foot traffic resistance
Resistance to foot traffic is an important quality of any lawn turf, and your dog's feet can cause just as much damage as human feet to fragile grasses. Kikuyu turf forms a dense, matted layer of grass over the surface of the soil when properly cared for, and the cushioning effects of this dense growth protect the more vulnerable sections of the plant from damage.
Urine and faeces resistant
Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients for any plant, but too much of it in the soil can cause severe damage to roots and potentially kill the entire plant. Most turf grasses are also vulnerable to nitrogen overload, and unfortunately, dog urine and faeces contain particularly high nitrogen concentrations.
Kikuyu grass is one of the rare lawn turfs that can withstand large quantities of dog urine and faeces without becoming wilted and yellow, even if your dog does its business in the same spot on a regular basis. Although Kikuyu grass has relatively modest nitrogen requirements, it is robust enough to withstand much higher concentrations and will continue to grow and thrive when exposed to both dog urine and faeces regularly.
Low maintenance
All of these advantageous qualities would not be particularly useful if they required an inordinate amount of maintenance to maintain, but Kikuyu turf lawns have very modest maintenance requirements. They need to be mowed relatively frequently to keep their aggressive growth in check but are otherwise very easy to care for. They have very modest fertilisation requirements and are well-known for their excellent resistance to droughts, allowing them to be watered relatively infrequently.