A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Dog poop runoff

I live in a townhouse. My neighbors backyard is FULL(emphasis)of dog poop. When it rains it all drains into my yard. Now there is slimmy green algae where the water runs through my backyard and all the grass has died. What can I plant or put down to absorb or neutralize the fecies coming into my yard?

hi..
being a dog owner, i can only imagine how bad it is for you, its not a pleasant part of owning a dog but it happens. i dont know if it is possible but what about running a little trough and having it go to the back of the property (if possible) or checking to see if there is a good weed and feed that might help this problem, have you talked to the neighbors?
Penny

Aglime or dolomite may help , the green algae is thriving in an environment of high nutrient, high moisture and probably low light, but definitely talk to your neighbour. That is a real health risk. If they won't do anything about it you can always take it further. Health dept' etc. Up to you really. If you don't stop the cause it will always be a problem. Don't spray chemicals, it will just be adding more poisons to a poisoned situation. Besides, why should you clean up someone elses crap?

Wow don't you have any CC&R's that could be enforced? That's a bad situation. In addition it's usually illegal to drain to another person's property across the property line. Good luck! PS try some Cat Country wheatgrass cat litter. IT's got a great odor absorbing quality. Don't put down too much though or the cats may poop in it! ha ha. No, maybe a line of it along the fence or something? then you can periodically scoop it up and replace it? Just a thought It smells really good, like sawdust sort of. NO additives that will damage your plants. You can get it at Petco.

Graham


I totally feel for you! I have been in that situation before myself. Lime, while it will sweeten the soil will not do anything to counter the nitrogen that is harming your lawn. There is a grass that may work however and that would be winter rye. It is more tolerant of N and can take some abuse. The only problem is that this is a much wider bladed grass and most folks don't like it for a lawn. But it may be your only port in the storm. Another possibility to help you out would be to dig a trench about a foot wide and an foot and a half deep along the property border and fill it with white gravel or marble. This would then act as a dry well, hopefully trapping the water before it has a chance to run into your lawn.
By the way, the way I dealt with my old neighbor, was....well let me give you a bit of background info...
This dog would terrorize my kids, do its business on our lawn, dig holes under then fence that I put up to keep him out, trash our garden and basically make life miserable for us. I tried and tried to talk to the owner, who was about as useless as boobs on a bull frog. I eventually started calling his house during the day while no one was home, and blew a dog whitsle very loudly into the phone after the machine picked up. (you have to make small noises to keep the machine recording as it does not hear the whistle as well)
Well it got the dog so worked up that he started doing his business in the house, and they eventually got rid of him.
Sounds kinda mean, but we were at the end of our rope, and in all honesty we did take a bit of sick pleasure looking out over our trashed vegetables and hearing the dog going beserk inside the house when we did this. :rolleyes:

What a unique suggestion! I like it!!!

Dianna

You should talk to your neighbour about cleaning it up. We had this problem at our old house and when the weather warmed up we couldn't even sit in the backyard because of the smell. We asked the neighbours if we could help them clean up the poop because it smelled really bad and they had no idea! They hardly spent anytime out there and didn't know how bad it was!

This caught my attention because I am the proud grandma of two labs. You know, the kind your grown children get when they live in an apartment and a year later they can't take care of them and need to find them a home We put up a privacy fence and poured a patio the end of last summer. We decided we didn't want dog poop in the mower wheels, on our feet and we didn't want to smell it while we sat out on our new patio so..... we clean it up. I am the official pooper scooper in our household and it takes no time at all. Well... just on the other side of our brand new fence right next to our patio, new neighbors have tied up a half lab half pyranies(?sp).... a BIG dog that has pooped a bundle this winter. As things are starting to thaw, so is the poop They looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if it could be cleaned up. I called the city and animal control and we have no laws/ordinances for such a thing. Needless to say, all my planting and landscaping around my patio has been nixed until the dog is gone. I can hardly wait for the mosquitos to come out They will thrive in that muddy poopy mess. I feel for you... I am so irritated

OHHH wow, auntnene! That's just nasty!

Hmm... If they were my neighbors - and I'm young and work on the graveyard shift... I'd sneak over there at night and put the entire mess into a trash bag, and dump it on THEIR door. But that's just me. I once threw a dead mouse into the backyard of the neighbors I didn't like.

OOO! Take the poop and sell it as fertilizer? It would be a nice profit!