The Challenge

An apartment complex north of downtown Indianapolis was having difficulty with their dog park. More residents adopted dogs over the last two years and use of the park sharply increased. The late, wet spring caused their dog park to be muddy, which was not acceptable for the apartment management team, the residents, or their pups. They wanted a new ground cover that wouldn’t force them to close the park on rainy days. 

They needed a product that would:

1. encourage people and dogs to come to the yard
2. stand up to the wear and tear of hundreds of paws a day

The Approach

We wanted a clean, level surface, so we tilled and removed debris before we seeded and fertilized the grass. The next day, we began installing Natura across the dog yard, starting at one end and working to the other. By early afternoon, the hybrid grass was fully installed and ready for use. We used the included bio-degradable anchors to keep the turf in place. The grass is growing through Natura in areas that experience less traffic. This is what you’d expect. Even when there’s no grass, the turf still appears grass-like, as you can see from the image on the slider above.

Results

When we checked in a year after the Natura turf was installed, everyone was content! The dog park added exercise equipment to encourage more enriching usage of the area. When we talked to residents who were in the dog yard with their pups on a March morning, they said, “we didn’t use the dog park before, now with the new turf we love it. There’s actually a group of us who get together daily here now.” That’s the kind of ringing endorsement we love to hear! A better sense of community means happier residents—happy residents mean more business to the property managers. The residents of this Indianapolis apartment complex and their dogs will enjoy this dog park oasis for years to come, and they won’t have to worry about bringing home a muddy dog. Success!

"Natura transformed our dog park almost overnight. It was a muddy problem that our residents complained about...and now it is a daily meeting place after work for residents. I love what it is doing to build community" Hanna - Community Manager