Please share your dog-proof garden plot design

[northwesterner]

I have to redesign my garden plot because I now have two active dogs who race through and chew plants in the yard.

After getting the first dog I fenced my garden this summer with posts and a 2' high chicken wire roll. It kept me out of my garden more than the dogs. I couldn't mow between beds like I used to and it was harder to get in and water.

I am thinking about raised beds, but need to design in a fence of some sort that won't shade the garden, that makes it easy for me to reach into for weeding or harvest or mow around it, and isn't necessarily a huge bed. My previous plot was about 25' by 20' with two paths of grass running between three distinct beds. This way I didn't have to step into the bed to work and I could run the mower to keep the grass low.

Have you designed your vegetable garden to keep your dogs out and make it easy for you to work in? Please describe your design and motives for the design you concocted. What would you change to make it work better?

Thanks!

Northwesterner

[green husker]

I realize this is late, but don't get to this site often enough. We have 3 dogs, two that play and run around the back yard. (One really, the whippet mix; the other is a Lab/Ridgeback mix who ducks and runs.) This is what we've learned:

1. Until the whippet is dead, we'll have no more lawn.

2. Invisible Fence. (Wired version) One of the greatest inventions of all time. We have it configured around the ivy and shrub beds, and away from the perimeters of the yard, so they can't get to the fence or gates. She still has plenty of running room, but can't dig up the beds or under the fences.

3. Mulching the dog track keeps mud out of the house after sprinklers or rain.

4. Less turf = less mowing. So far, husband isn't appreciating this benefit. Amount and appearance of lawn must have something to do with measuring masculinity.

At least the dogs are happy.

green husker

[northwesterner]

Since I wrote the first question I have put in Invisible Fence, and we've done the training and adjusted to it and find it works very well. I didn't have them lay out a garden plot for me because I wasn't sure where I wanted it to be (I've been nudging the boundaries to the south each year. It sounds so luxurious--to have easy access to my garden again! It probably would be worth the $89 service fee to come out to wire it.)

Do you have a vegetable garden that is somewhere other than along the side of the yard? How did you have them put the Invisible Fence around it--did they bury it or put it above ground? I'd be afraid of cutting through it with all of the digging I do. Or did you end up with a garden next to the fence to keep it easier to wire? Ideally, the placement of my garden would be such that they could still run between the garden and the fence (I think this involves twisting some wire across a space). But if that's too much trouble, I'll just lop a bunch of limbs out of the hackberry next to my fence to get more light in the garden that I'd place on that side. I also have the Invisble Fence placed so that the dogs can't approach the fence closer than about three feet. It keeps the pit bull from charging the fence and the visiting Boston Terrier who stays with the next door neighbors some weekends.

If I do this I'd probably have to put a compost heap right next to the garden so they'd only have to put in one garden zone like this. I stopped putting non-meat food in the compost last fall because the dogs were treating it like a cafeteria (and they needed more baths what with crawling under a fence and through the contents to get to what they wanted to eat).

It has been such strange weather. I didn't have a garden this winter, but I have a few volunteer onions poking up and the garlic is coming back. First sight of those and I want to be out there digging! I have young dogs, a pit bull and a catahoula, who are as energetic as the day is long. They've trampled the entire lawn area, and as you say, there won't be much in the way of great-looking turf with that kind of traffic. I've been thinking about putting down gravel or mulch beds in areas of high traffic.

Thanks for your answer--it gives me some ideas and reinforces others.

Northwesterner

[green husker]

Hi NW'er,


I laid out the IF myself, but it did take some tweaking. We have a concrete patio right behind the house, then ivy/tree beds, then lawn. (Or what used to be lawn.) Past lawn space we have shrubs planted around the outside perimeter of the yard, for asthetics and privacy. (Wrought iron fencing.)

You can make 'islands' in the yard; the wire must make a complete loop to work properly. Determine at what point in the forbidden area you want to make a splice, then dig around a bit to find the wire. (Hint: turn down the range on your transmitter, then use a dog collar to find the general location of the wire. The wire will be in the middle of the now-smaller boundary. I turn down the range to almost nothing, about 12". This makes for much less digging, and I'm basically a lazy person.) Don't forget to reset the range to the previous level after the work is finished.

Cut into the wire, (it's low voltage, so you don't necessarily need to unplug the transformer, but you can if you want.) Strip the ends and lay out your new 'island', then twist the wires together loosely where they will overlap the path or allowed area. Twisting the wires cancels out the signal at that point, so the collar receivers don't get confused and go off. Test the 'island' space before burying the wires! This is where the tweaking might be in order. Make sure the splices are waterproof, (lots of high-quality electrical tape) or use heat-shrink material. Grease-filled caps are also available, but I've had sporadic luck with them. Then simply cut a 3" or 4" slit in the sod and bury the wire. I would suggest placing the wire on the outside of your garden, in the lawn, to avoid digging it up later when planting the vegetables.

You can also lay the wire across a sidewalk, if you notch the sidewalk first at an expansion joint, with a circular saw outfitted with a masonry blade. We did this to keep the dogs from leaving the front yard via the sidewalk to the street. We also inserted the wire across the garage opening, again in an expansion joint, to keep the dogs in the garage and out of the driveway. Would recommend masonry caulk be applied over the wire to protect from wear and tear. If you use an edger along the edges of your patio or sidewalk, run the wire through a 4" - 6" length of copper pipe, then bury the pipe. This kind of keeps my husband from cutting through the wires where they are close to the surface, but he's still managed to snag a couple.

Hope this helps. Feel free to email me offline and we can converse some more if necessary.

green husker ~ "midwesterner"