Hello all!
We're renting a townhouse in AZ that has a small backyard with some large gravel and dirt. There has been several dogs that have lived here in the past - and my dog as well now, and the yard smells horrible all the time - mostly when it rains or gets hot.
Any thoughts on what I can put on the dirt areas to get rid of the smell for good? We're giving my dog tomato sauce in her food to make her urine less acidic - but we need to correct this problem from the previous pets. Also - it needs to be safe for her and my 2 yr old son - (he doesn't play much back there now cause of the smell - but I'd like him to be able to someday)
Any help would be nice! Thanks in advance!

well, while your question isn't strictly a gardening question, it is one that gardener's seem to have more experience (and problems) with than most.

on that note, here is my 2 cents worth. my sister-in-law lived in el paso for several years, and to keep the smell from being an issue, she regularly scraped the dirt in the back yard (the dog's home) in areas that the dog used. that dirt, she would dispose of in the garbage. she included the the dried fecal matter in the garbage, in fact, that was the reason she did it, but it kept the urine odor down also.

additionally, if you aren't worried about soil ph (ie - not trying to grow a garden right there) you can pour vinegar over the areas that smell the worst as the vinegar will neutralize the odors. (kind of like you would use on a carpet spot in the house). finally, what i have done, and am still doing, is getting the large bags of cedar shavings/sawdust that is sold for small animal bedding, and spreading it in the dog yard. keeps the smell, the fleas, and the dust down. hope this helps, let us know how you make out!

I don't know how to mak your yard smell better but I'm interested in learning more about your tomatoe sauce supplements. Does it work? I thought tomatoes were acidic so I'm surprised that they would make urine less so.

Thanks for the replies - I did find something that may help - but if not - I'm going to try the vinegar thing. I've got to keep trying - it's just AWFUL!

Also - to answer your question on the tomato thing - I actually have heard that from several sources. Not too sure on the specifics on WHY it works - but several people I know swear by it. It's usually a solution for people who have brown spots on their grass from dogs - I just did it here in hopes of not adding to the problem.

Wish me luck! Hope all of you are having a wonderful fall so far!

How about vinegar?

Uses of Vinegar

WOW - great site thanks for that!
I just put down charocol from a gardening store - to see if that helps. (thinking back to chemistry class) does vinegar and charocol make anything bad???

I love vinegar and use it all the time for all sorts of things, will be adding more things to my list now

I use it to remove stains from my car seats, it'll take off stains that stain cleaners won't touch. Of course for gooy messes I use goo gone

But I love the way vinegar smells I use to wet a cloth with it and use it to relieve my sun burn back when I chopped cotton

yeah - i just need to keep more on hand in the house. works well for cleaning shower doors

Ok - yard update Charocol and vinegar on the dirt - smells like vinegar - MAJOR improvement from the ammonia smell
Let's hope it works for good

Update time:
Don't want to jinx things - but I think the vinegar and char. are working!!!! we got some rain yesterday - and my husband just told me the backyard smells like nothing!!! Weeeeeeee!

Thanks for the ideas - I'll post again if it stays ok

I tried it in my car shed, the cats seem to think this is their own private toilet. It leaks in there some but doesn't just pour down.

I'll try it a couple days and see if the smell clears.