hedges and dog urine

[Mr_Downtown]

I’m president of a highrise condo building and we’re looking at our options—hedge or wall—for a landscaped area that adjoins a busy sidewalk where probably 500 dogs a day from elsewhere in the neighborhood pass on their way to the park (or to pee on other parts of our lawn). Our landscape architect is recommending a boxwood hedge to run the length of the sidewalk, but I’m dubious. I think once one dog lifts his leg there, the other 250 male dogs will also and we’ll soon have a dead boxwood in the middle of the row. And then another and another.

But I live in a highrise apartment without even a houseplant (or a dog, for that matter). Any opinions from those who know about hedges and dogs?

[Senegoid]

Cecil did a column on this. Hang tight a bit, I’ll see if I can dredge up a link . . .

ETA: Here it is:
Is it OK if I let my dog pee all over somebody else’s shrubbery?, June 8, 1984.

@Cecil

Dogs don’t bug me, Etta, it’s their idiotic owners. It’s hard to believe you’ve gotten through life without noticing that dog urine can cause grass, shrubs, and other plant life to turn brown and wither. This charming phenomenon is called “urine burn.” It’s caused by the ammonia and urea contained in doggie water (and, for that matter, in the urine of all mammals).

[Barkis_is_Willin]

@Mr_Downtown

I’m president of a highrise condo building and we’re looking at our options—hedge or wall—for a landscaped area that adjoins a busy sidewalk where probably 500 dogs a day from elsewhere in the neighborhood pass on their way to the park (or to pee on other parts of our lawn). Our landscape architect is recommending a boxwood hedge to run the length of the sidewalk, but I’m dubious. I think once one dog lifts his leg there, the other 250 male dogs will also and we’ll soon have a dead boxwood in the middle of the row. And then another and another.

But I live in a highrise apartment without even a houseplant (or a dog, for that matter). Any opinions from those who know about hedges and dogs?

You’re correct. I can speak from personal experience having had a row of boxwood shrubs in my yard destroyed by my own dog pissing on them.

[Jackmannii]

One solution might be to have a low retaining wall extending a certain distance back from the sidewalk, and then start the boxwood hedge. This would deter the casual pee-ers passing by with owners on the sidewalk, but of course do nothing to stop loose dogs.

Or the condo association could encourage people to have female instead of male dogs, which would spare shrubs in favor of the lawn (as noted horticulture writer Christopher Lloyd once observed “Bitches are hard on the turf”).

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

If dog urine can do this,* what chance would a terrified little retaining wall have of surviving (unless it’s made of beryllium)?

• Our condenser looks just like this, thanx to previous tenants’ Bowzers.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

When my sister had a problem with this, she went back home to the farm where we were raised and picked up one of our old electric fencers, and connected it wire she ran through the hedge. It was too worn to be effective any more for farm herds, but she found it worked well enough to train neighbors dogs.

Surely a highrise condo building can afford to buy one.
Get one of the newer ones. with adjustable levels, use the lowest one that proves effective.

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

Some things must be impervious to dog urine. In my old house I had a lilac, which was peed on by my dog, then every dog who walked by, then my dog again, every day. Okay, it did not look great, but it didn’t die.

Now I have a rue plant that gets similarly peed on by I don’t know how many dogs a day, and it’s holding up fine.

So maybe they could plant some low, dog-resistant plant in front of the hedge?