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  • From: Michael Snow <msnow@valley.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Dogs in the Design
  • Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:13:13 -0400

Thought this might be of interest:

Best,

Mike


Subject: [mghcmembers] For dog owning gardeners


The National Wildlife Federation has a recent article on creating a
dog friendly wildlife garden, which is a good review. I swear I'm
going to prepare a presentation some day on "Gardening With Dogs".
-- Lisa Lemza

http://www.nwf.org/NationalWildlife/article.cfm? issueID=129&articleID=1730

Here are some of my personal observations, with my pack of 3 medium
sized dogs:

-- Raised beds- or at least beds that are highly defined-- are the answer. The dogs clearly see the difference, just as we de.
Enhance it with mulch or other visual cues that tell the dog/s THIS
IS DIFFERENT FROM THAT. As many of you know, my so called 'raised
beds' are simply beds lined with scrounged rock; they don't have to
be fancy or expensive.

-- If the dogs are racing through a particular short cut through a bed over and over: GIVE UP. The dogs will win. Redesign the bed
and put a path through their preferred shortcut.

-- Do not plant up to fence lines. Leave a space for the dogs to run along the fence-- THEY ARE DOGS. It's what they do. Just back
new shrubs and plantings off enough for them to run between them
and the fence. Cage any new plantings (they'd better be sturdy
ones) that must go next to the fence, until established.

-- Tin snips are your friends. Buy a short roll of 4 foot fencing, the cheaper the better, and whenever your dogs take a fancy to a
particular place to wallow in a no-go zone, cut out a small section
and lay it there for a while. Yes, it's ugly but not as ugly as a
dog wallow. They seem to particularly hate chicken wire.

-- Don't hesitate to cage young trees or plants with a roll of aforementioned fence material, planted with an upright tomato
stake. They will adjust to it in a few months, but due to a searing
incident with a prized young halesia (silverbell) tree, I just keep
small trees caged indefinitely.

-- I'm sure some of you will feel strongly to the contrary, but I have never once seen any of my dogs-- or any dog-- eating any holly
berries or milkweed or any or any of the listed toxic plants (HINT:
they taste BAD). Some dogs will eat ANYTHING of course, and it may
be an issue for puppies, but it's just one of those things I choose
not to worry about. You of course may not want to accept that risk.

-- You will occasionally take some damage. You just have to accept it, like the broken halesia tree, or more recently, a badly damaged
Pee Wee Oakleaf Hydrangea that the little b++xx@ds tore up,
doubtless when chasing an unfortunate rodent.

-- Which of course leads to my last point: they will kill the occasionally small creature-- rabbits, chipmunks, etc. They will
try to kill snakes, or at least attempt to bark them to death. Try
not to let it bother you too much.

They are all worth the trouble and bother Which are the names of 2
of my dogs, oh-so-appropriatly. -- lz





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