Keeping Dogs Out of the Garden!

Dogscape on the Cheap

Anyone trying to establish a new garden knows what your four-legged fur friends are thinking. My drooling Labradors are thrilled by the smell of fresh compost and the texture of diggable soft dirt. 

Experts have their recommendations. 

• Train them to stay out: Dogs resist training (a fact that is obvious the moment you leave the house) 
•  Apply repel chemicals: Smelly chemicals meant to repel them rarely does but instead it does the opposite 
•  Install barriers: Small garden fences get expensive as do invisible fences and ugly hot wire. Dogs still might jump over or simply ignore the expensive collar 
• Plant prickly ground covers: Prickly ground covers take too long to grow. 

The dogs rule in the yard unless you have a fence around it – OR…. Consider my great dogscaping idea, something that’s free and I’m loving it – the dogs aren’t but they understand. 

While installing a new shade garden I spent some creative time reflecting, while digging, on how best to keep my two Labradors out of the garden. I’m tired of the mismatched cluttered-fence look. Both dogs have sensitive feet and have been complaining about playing in a park with too much nettle. One of our dogs returns at the end of the play session only to groom her paws hoping it will soothe the burn. The other runs three-legged, often switching legs so we know it’s not a muscle pull. Realizing this provided a solution that’s working.

Necessity is the mother of invention. 

Once finished with the planting and covering with mulch I opted for a somewhat painful barrier

that could be scattered over the top of the garden. It’s not mean and they learned really fast to respect the thorn. My rose bushes were hit hard this winter and now have quite a few dead stems – but their thorns are in great shape. Pruning the rose shrubs was required and my moment of creative thought inspired me to chop those freshly pruned stems into six- to eight-inch sections.

Once cut I scattered these over the shade garden’s surface. The distribution density was thicker closer to the edge but knowing the dogs are smart enough to jump over them, I spread a few throughout the entire garden. 

This might not look as attractive as dark mulch but it’s certainly less obtrusive than another mismatched wire fence. The stems won’t germinate like goat head seeds or sweet gum balls (seed heads). If you don’t have rose plants check with friends and relatives and offer to help prune their roses – and then offer to transport the cut stems away for free. That will delight them, especially the generous free part. If you don’t have access to any roses, look around for local plants that have thorns or prickles. 



The dogs have no interest in this garden. I've no idea how cats will respond to this - no cat is foolish enough to enter our yard. Fencing hasn’t been required. I’m planning to develop a foundation planting and yes, I’m going to use this approach but by then they might be nervous about any twigs and small branches of similar color and size. Time will tell.