What to do when man's best friend is your garden's worst enemy?

Sunset, April, 1987

What to do when man's best friend is your garden's worst enemy?

Man's best friend is often the garden'sworst enemy. But there's a recurring paradox: good gardeners are often great dog lovers. If you think your dog has as much right to enjoy your garden as you do, and if you know he wouldn't enjoy a dog run any more than you would, here are some other ways to coexist with your pet.

These simple ideas came from more than150 dog owners, several veterinarians, even a couple of dog psychiatrists who replied to a query in a recent issue of Sunset.

The materials are available at most gardenor building supply stores (the photograph on page 109 shows some of them).

Some dogs don't bother the garden. Ifyou're the lucky owner of such an angelic beast, you don't need to read further. But most of us have had numerous run-ins with our canines over garden damage, and wish for some miracles.

A few ground rules (and no woofin')

Veterinarians gave us these pointers. Notall apply in all cases.

No two dogs are alike. A trick thatworks perfectly to control one dog may be totally ignored by another.

Dogs are creatures of habit. Get a dogaccustomed to one way of behaving and a major battle is won; from then on, it's usually a case of consistently maintaining an existing system.

Dogs want to please their masters.Thorough training and positive reinforcement go a long way to a harmonious relationship. Shout "No!' to a dog who's about to dig up a newly planted geranium, and when he draws back give him praise and a treat. If you have a choice, train the dog before you plant; a puppy and a new lawn are a losing proposition.

Little dogs do little damage, bigger dogsdo bigger damage. If you don't have a dog but plan to get one, consider an animal with an adult weight of 20 pounds or less.

Different breeds (and crossbreeds) differin rambunctiousness. A veterinarian can give you guidelines.

In general, female dogs are a little lessrowdy than males.

Routing the traffic

Rather than worrying about dog-proofingevery square inch of your garden, you can take a laissez-faire approach to most of it. Then you can defend smaller battle-grounds --a bulb bed, vegetable plot, prize dahlias--more vigorously. The pictures on page 108 show some solutions to the problems shown above. Here are a few more; some may seem remarkably obvious once uncovered.

On an average-size suburban Portland lot,Donn Callaham has a handsome garden in which three dogs (totaling 170 pounds) romp. Mr. Callaham realized that they always wanted to be at the property's edge, barking, sniffing, monitoring. He surrounded his property with a sturdy but see-through fence of cedar posts and chain link. All plantings along the garden's perimeter are 2 to 3 feet from the fence, giving the dogs a complete run.

Gaps at 15-foot intervals allow thepooches to get on and off their freeway. "No more knocked-down shrubs or perennials,' says Mr. Callaham. "They hear a passing cat, run to the nearest on-ramp, and speed along the fence until the intruder is out of sight.'

Digger dogs like terriers would enjoy Mr.Callaham's open space, and their holes would be hidden from the main garden.

In Cliff Kaylor's garden in Eugene, Oregon,narrow-gauge bamboo stakes detour Babe. Six 18-inch-long stakes (set 6 inches deep) make a semicircle around a planting of ferns and camass bulbs. In six months, they changed the traffic pattern. Says Mr. Kaylor, "Those stakes are inexpensive, easy to move, tough, good looking if at all noticeable. Yet to Babe they're like the Berlin Wall.'

Wire fencing, chicken wire, and bird nettingwork well, too. Inexpensive and easy to move, they let air and sunlight into the plants but say "Stay out!' to a dog.

Planting for Fido or Fifi

Like children and burglars, dogs hatestickers. A strategically placed rose, pyracantha, or mahonia were mentioned often as the answer to a gardener's thorniest problems. A pyracantha hedge around a perennial bed, berberis sprouting at the outside corner of the lot and used as background to a begonia planting, a band of ground-cover juniper between lawn and a collection of dwarf rhododendrons--all seemed to have voodoo power over resident and itinerant canines.

Unknown properties make epimedium afine deterrent to passing male dogs. For years, Seattle gardener Bonnie Werrbach was exasperated by their marking her front-yard cottage garden. Then she flanked the walkway with epimedium. "Since then I haven't had a wet leaf. I don't know what it does, but it works! Dogs stop, sniff the leaves, and trot on.' Many dogs are suspicious of viny ground covers like ivy or vinca. They'll walk into them cautiously but rarely charge through. These are good plants to put between lawn and beds of fragile plants.

Fast-growing and resilient plants like starjasmine coexist well with active dogs. For every branch that's broken off, several new ones sprout to cover the break.

Containers and raised beds put plants out of harm's way

Big containers make the difference. Theyput plants high and away from a wagging tail or errant paw. Filled with soil, they're hard to knock over. Flue tiles used as containers have the advantage of letting the plant's roots go into the soil below.