Smith - Dog friendly gardens: garden friendly dogs

DOG FRIENDLY GARDENS

Garden Friendly Dogs

Cheryl S. Smith

Dogwise Publishing
Wenatchee, Washington, U.S.A.
www.dogwisepublishing.com

DOG FRIENDLY GARDENS, GARDEN FRIENDLY DOGS

Cheryl S. Smith

Dogwise Publishing

A Division of Direct Book Service, Inc.

PO Box 2778 701B Poplar

Wenatchee, WA. 98807

1-509-663-9115, 1-800-776-2665

Website: www.dogwisepublishing.com

Email: info@dogwisepublishing.com

Illustrations: Judith L. Winthrop

Cover Design: Anderson OBryan, Wenatchee, WA

2004 Cheryl S. Smith

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

Photographs:

All-America Selections,

Arch Wood Protection, pages

Bernd Guenter, cover and pages,

Better Lawn and Turf Institute, pages

Danielle Young, pages

Donn Dobkin, pages

Easy Gardener, Inc., pages

Garden Media Group, pages

Isser & Associates, page

Jerry Vavra, page

All other photos by the Author

Limits of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty:

The author and publisher shall not be liable in the event of incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of, the furnishing, performance, or use of the instructions and suggestions contained in this book.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 1-929242-07-7

Printed in U.S.A.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

While I am an avid gardener and devotee of heathers, rhododendrons, and bonsai, my own knowledge is admittedly weighted toward the dog side of the equation. So I solicited advice from plant specialists Laurie Fox (Horticulture Assistant at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), Kathy Burkholder (Program Coordinator, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at Ohio State University), Susan Cruver (Tsunami Landscape Design), Katy Fraser (Virginia Horticulturalist), Josh Schneider (Proven Winners representative), Miek Stap (Project Manager, International Flower Bulb Centre), Ed Markham (Ornamental Horticulturalists), the American Nursery Landscape Association, and the Better Lawn and Turf Institute.

While they are all quoted directly from time to time, they also provided a solid grounding in the topics that should be featured in the book, and I appreciate their generous sharing of information.

I also thank Donn Dobkin, Bernd Guenter, Danielle Young, All-America Selections, Better Lawn and Turf Institute, Easy Gardener, Inc., Isser & Associates, Arch Wood Protection, and the Garden Media Group for the use of their photographs.

I hope that when you have read this book, you have a newfound enthusiasm for both your gardens and your dog. Enjoy.

To Sundance, who never bothered a garden plant; Spirit, who insisted on eating wisteria beans despite being told repeatedly they werent good for her; Serling, who teased me that he was going to crush my favorite plants but never did; and Nestle, who uses the paths when he can, but just has to run through the lavenderthe gardens always look better with you in them.

My mother is a gardener. My early memories include squeezing the snapdragons to open their mouths and make them roar, and taking bunches of lilacs to my grade-school teachers (no apples for this kid). I liked the flowers well enough, but I wanted a dog (and a horse), and I wasnt allowed to have one. When I went out on my own, my first purchase after a place to live was a dog, a wonderful Keeshond I named Sundance. I got my horse, too. So I had my animals, but there were no gardens and no one with the time and energy to make them.

I moved cross-country, and acquired a second dog, a Springer mix named Spirit. We lived in a rented house, and part of the deal was that I would landscape the property in exchange for keeping the rent low. So I combined dogs and gardens for the first time. There were no books on the subject, and I was pretty much making it up as I went along.

The next house was mine, and it too needed landscaping. In the midst of planting, I lost my Keeshond and found a Newfoundland mix I named Serling. Serling and Spirit played with much greater abandon than Sundance and Spirit had, and they soon ripped up much of the back yard. There was still no book about dogs and gardens, so I tried ideas and found some that worked. I also started a lifelong training program with the dogs.

Both dogs moved to Washington with me. The only existing garden here was the foundation planting in front of the house. But when I started this time, I already knew a lot of things that didnt work and a lot of others that did. We soon had an improved front garden, a secret garden, a shade garden, and a bulb and roses garden.

During all of this, I had managed to fulfill my other lifelong ambition to make my living as a writer, starting with some travel and humor writing, but moving quickly to a specialty in dogs. After writing a few books, I realized I had the opportunity to write the book that had never been there when I needed it, the one on having both dogs and gardens. And so, after seeking the expertise of gardening professionals to be sure I had it all right and hadnt overlooked anything, here is the result of all those years of trial and error learning. I hope it saves you from the errors, minimizes the trials, and maximizes your enjoyment of your dog and your landscape choices.

Cheryl S. Smith
Port Angeles, Washington

Biographical Information

Cheryl S. Smith has won the Maxwell medallion from the Dog Writers Association of America and the canine award in health writing from Eukanuba. She hosts her own radio show, PetSmith, and her website at www.writedog.com. In addition to Dog Writers, she is a member of the Garden Writers Association, the National Association of Science Writers, and the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. Her books include The Trick Is in the Training (with Stephanie Taunton); The Absolute Beginners Guide to Showing Your Dog, Quick Clicks (with Mandy Book); and The Rosetta Bone. When Cheryl isnt busy working in the garden or training the dogs, she tends her chickens, sheep, and bonsai, spins or felts some of the wool from those sheep, investigates new dog-friendly places, and competes in agility.

P eople and dogs and outdoor environments seem to go together naturally. Being outside with your four-footed friend for company can be pure bliss, whether you are a dog-loving gardener or a garden-loving dog person. I dont know of any statistics showing how many families include both a dog and some sort of garden, but the number must be enormous. With gardening given as the most popular outdoor leisure activity of American families, and dogs as the number one pet (in number of households including a dog), there have to be millions of households that combine the two. That combination should be a joy to all.

Yet what you hear most about are the problemsyellow spots in the lawn, digging in the flower beds, running willy-nilly through the borders, chewing on branches. But stop and think a minutethe dog doesnt know these are problems. Its all just the great outdoors, part of his turf, to him. We humans are the ones demanding everyone walk here, not there, or play only in that open space over there. So its our job to plan a dog-friendly garden that will accommodate your dog(s) as well as explain our garden-friendly rules to the dogs, and in a nice way, if you please.