Turf cleaning in Loris

A town of 2,449 doesn't usually have three boarding kennels, but Loris does: Morlen on Green Sea Road, K9 Pandemonium and Pampered Paws. Runs carry more urine load per square foot than any backyard, and Grand Strand humidity keeps it from drying between bookings. We treat it as a schedule: daily solids by staff, and on our visit a high-volume rinse, antimicrobial treatment of the whole run, and infill replacement where zones have crusted.

Twenty miles inland, Loris turf never sees salt spray or storm-surge wind damage. What it shares with the coast is 85 percent pre-dawn humidity and pine pollen from February through early April, which feeds algae and pet-zone bacteria all summer. The right visit is a Premium Restoration in late May, after pollen stops — not March, with half the season still to come.

Woodland Valley is built around Diamondback Golf Club, and a backyard green here, farther from salt air and beach humidity, holds its speed a little better than one on the coast. It still needs the same fall cleanup: cleared of pine straw, top-dressed with kiln-dried green sand, brushed and rolled before spring play. Putting green restoration.