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Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Emilyjane1311. It's terrific to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about turf.
Can I just confirm whether your plan is to remove the fake grass and try to grow real grass in that area? The main issue you’ll face is that grass generally doesn’t survive in spots where dogs regularly urinate, as the high nitrogen content in urine burns and kills the grass. Even in a backyard lawn, the patches where dogs frequently go will die off quickly, so unfortunately, it’s not really practical to maintain healthy grass in a small toilet area.
If you do want to give it a try, you can use a good-quality topsoil mix that’s suitable for lawn growth, but expect to replace the turf fairly regularly as it deteriorates.
Out of curiosity, what type of fake grass do you currently have there? Some budget varieties can be quite rough or plasticky, which might be why your pup avoids them. There are premium synthetic turfs that feel much softer and more natural underfoot, and you might find your dog is happier to use those instead. That could be a much lower-maintenance and longer-lasting solution than trying to grow real grass in a confined toilet space.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
Grass typically grows best in soil or a combination of soil and sand @Emilyjane1311, such as a top dressing mix, which can also be used as the base layer for turf. Whoflungdung, however, is a composted mulch rather than a growing medium, so I’m curious whether you have some of it mixed in with soil or if it’s purely Whoflungdung under the grass. If it’s being used on its own, it probably isn’t the most suitable material for turf growth, even though it’s giving you around two months of healthy grass, which is quite good in your setup. My suggestion would be to swap your current base for a quality top dressing mix instead, as it’s designed to support turf growth, holds moisture well, and is perfectly safe for pets.
Mitchell
