I live in the PNW and recently purchased a home with a large Oak and Pine tree in the front yard. Granted, nothing is growing underneath the Pine tree, but as we get lots of moisture, most especially this time of year, I've noticed I have small white toad stools growing in the lawn that is not covered by the canopies of the trees. Is there a fungicide or some sort of organic treatment I can use to kill them without causing harm to my two dogs and other neighborhood pets? The quality of the grass isn't great. The quality of the grass in the backyard isn't great either and would like to make it better, again without harm to my dogs. When they chase each other tufts of the grass come up and there are a lot of sparse patches that encourage the dogs to dig in the mud. Yes, they like to eat the mud. Some people's kids eh? Anyway, any advice or help is much appreciated. I love having the yard to work in and would like to do as much as I can without calling in professional help to keep my expenses to a minimum. Thanks in advance for any/all advice.

Hi gargurlie. I have a fairly large yard and lot of pine trees. I trim under them so there is lots of room for maintenance. I don't have the toad stool problem but what I have done, as no grass will grow under the pine trees, was to plant lots of periwinkle which is a dark green leaf ground cover with violet coloured flours year round. This ground cover stands up to a lot of abuse from my dogs running through it, in fact does better from being roughed up once in a while. I run it over with the lawn mower once a year and it thrives.

It may not address your lawn question, but with pine trees you are not going to have a good lawn around them anyway, and I don't know how much more pet-friendly the ground cover can be.

Hi tickle. All the pines in the back and the one in the front yard are clipped up to where you can walk underneath them. However my problem is not so much what to plant around or under the pines, but how to address the fungi growing in the lawn between the two trees. This area is not covered by either tree. However, I will keep the perwinkle in mind for the back area under the pines. The previous owner had lived there 24 yrs and I think the pile of decayed needles was probably 24 yrs in the making. I've since cleared them down to the bare ground and was wondering what I might be able to plant to reduce the amount of mud that is exposed that would stand up to a couple of active dogs. Thanks for your help!

This may be your answer to killing the fungi naturally:

Kill the fungus with different products. There are several different types of natural ingredients that will take the moisture out of the fungus that you have in your yard. One type of ingredient is baking powder mixed with water. You can spray this over the area where the fungus is. The baking powder will act as a neutralizing agent to get rid of the fungus. You can also use plain corn meal by spreading it over the area where the fungus is. If you choose to use one of these ingredients, make sure you know what type of fungus is in your yard first, then use the proper type of ingredient in order to get rid of the fungus.

Your garden center will be able to identify the type of fungi it is.