We put our garden and fire pit area in the center-right of our yard instead of up against a fence. This gives our dog (cane corso) a big oval she can do her zoomies around while cutting the maintained space down by about 1/3 ( the unmaintained portion is half is a small fenced in raised bed garden with mulch the other half is river rock around a fire pit). We also have some misc rose bushes and small trees along a fence line for privacy/looks. So we have enough space for the dog to fully sprint around the yard and have a nice garden and fire pit area. And all of the grassways are wide enough for the landscapers riding mower to drive through, etc. Worked out pretty well. We didn't do it perfectly centered in the yard so one side is still a bigger grassy space for her to play in and such with the most narrow strip of grass being maybe 36" and that's between our patio and the garden. The beds + firpit area takes up maybe 20'x40' of the yard, and the rest is all grass. The main goal was to keep a continuous circle for her to run and keep the full width at some points so she can really run, even if only for a few seconds. For the grass, we just seed the patches areas every year. Last year under the tree got a little muddy so we seeded it pretty heavily and threw down some straw matting and it worked pretty well. Answer from xtc46 on reddit.com