perrin Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 As the title says, we are looking to re-design our yard. Just the backyard at this stage due to lack of funds. Things that will be in the yard will be a grassy area for the kids and dog to play on, a cubby house (eventually) and a couple of raised walkways with railings and steps down to the grass. Hopefully the gardens will be off limits to both the kids and the dog but we'd like to make it as dog friendly as possible. I'm guessing any cactus typ plants will keep the kids out. It will need to be a rock type garden. So we were thinking maybe some bromilliads (sp?) for a start? and some more drought hardy plants. Unfortunately i am hopeless when it comes to plants so any suggestions on what we can use that are okay for dogs would be great. I have had a quick browse on the internet but it doesn't really tell you what kind of plants are non destructible The dog is a kelpie and he doesn't dig much, yet. Any ideas would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallomph Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 Steer clear of oleander! -it's very drought hardy/ tough, but it's leaves, sap etc are poisonous. Some kind of physical barrier or edging between the lawn and the garden beds is useful, so you can train the dog where he is allowed to go, and where not. Bromeliads are mostly subtropical & can be expensive- check that your location is appropriate for them before you buy. gardenexpress.com.au has a forum section where you could post asking for advice. There are nice helpful folk from all areas of oz who will be able to give you suggestions for your climate & situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R00 Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 steer clear of plants and grass. Seriously though, plant a lot of mint and lavender it keeps the fleas away. (and smells nice) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longclaw Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 One way we went wrong was getting a 'top quality' bark mulch. It's great mulch, but terrible when Tommy runs through the garden beds - he often gets little cuts on his paws where it scratches him. We're looking into replacing it with a softer kind of mulch. Having said that, I don't know how much of a problem it would be for dogs with thicker skin that the paper-thin stuff greyhounds have got! Obviously steer clear of toxic plants, and remember if you're having a vegie garden, that common plants such as tomatoes can be poisonous to dogs. But the only plants we;ve had dog problems with are the raspberries... the greys eat the fruit straight off the canes!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perrin Posted August 13, 2007 Author Share Posted August 13, 2007 Thanks guys. We already have Lavender on the list. I love the smell of lavender. Will add some mints too. Thats a good idea. Our vegie patch is going to be over near the horse paddock so that hopefully the dog will stay out of it, as he only goes out to the horses with us. I was thinking lots of grasses and stuff would be ideal and ground covering daisy plants. I have no idea what they are called. Told you i am hopeless I am making a list of plants not to put in so will put oleander on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgrubber Posted August 14, 2007 Share Posted August 14, 2007 Provide a digging area for your dogs. It should have soft soil and be in a shady position and stay somewhat moist in summer. You should be able to train your dogs to constrain their digging to that area. People think dogs like grass, but many of them prefer sand. Avoid rounded pebbles for mulch. Many dogs will swallow them. My eight dogs do not bother the cactus garden much (large cacti). Agaves also survive without protection. Protect young plants or you will never see them grow up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kishika Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Provide a digging area for your dogs. It should have soft soil and be in a shady position and stay somewhat moist in summer. You should be able to train your dogs to constrain their digging to that area. People think dogs like grass, but many of them prefer sand.Avoid rounded pebbles for mulch. Many dogs will swallow them. My eight dogs do not bother the cactus garden much (large cacti). Agaves also survive without protection. Protect young plants or you will never see them grow up. Our 9 wks old puppy love chewing/eating the mulch but. Is the mulch harmful to dogs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nanna Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 The Pedigree website also has a list of plants that can be poisonous to dogs - http://www.pedigree.com.au/puppy/care/plants.asp I think they're mainly a concern for young puppies, but you might want to avoid them just in case! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlet Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 First be careful with snail bait -just don't us it. Dogs will eat fertilisers like blood and bone and although I don't think it does too much damage I'd use it very sparingly I'd put in paths as dogs like children will follow them most of the time. Try to plant larger plants of give them wire protection untill they are larger. If a plants are too hard to see a dog will just run through them. Plant quie densly so dogs won't be encouraged to go through the garden. Border the garden with ornamental grasses that ate quite hardy. There are lots of these grasses in every nursery. There are a few realllly scratchy grasses that I 'd not get in case the dogs scratch their eyes. Also avoid plants like oleander, lilies, wandering jew, poinsettias I would put a fence around the vegie garden - even if it is just stakes and rope. Give the dog a boundary that he is not allowed to cross. Don't let him near the vegie garden - be consistent and if he goes near it call him away. That soft soi; is so nice to dig or roll in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percyk Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 i remember the days we used to pour money into our new garden it looked ok fora while but we are not gardeners now it's established andwe dont do anything anymore it is heartbreaking for somewhen the first bit of dog damage is done- so i hope youre 'well steeled' we have a couple of fenced off areas that we designed for the dogs but we hardly use them now - we had a golden retriever many years ago and it was supposed to be his run but it never worked out of course - he wanted to be close to the house where he could see us you learn along the way i regret getting red gravel pebbles - hard to clean and now we have to partition that area off ,too(by the fence it is) theyre good for security as they crunch underfoot but ive never been able to keep the dogs off it because like most dogs they like to run the perimeter of the property and check things out ive never worried about where the dogs toilet because there is a lawn area they use but one or two ofthem like to sneak off to the gravel area and its a pain picking up their waste with pebbles attached i reckon we should have just concreted - easier to clean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leema Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 With a young puppy here, I have found that new plants are the most tempting. I think when you plant new plants you should try to fence them off until they're 'not as new' - Clover just finds the freshly turned soil so fun! I would definitely consider putting a little border around garden beds... At Bunnings I saw trellis that you are supposed to put on top of fences, but I thought it looked great to put as small fences in garden beds. But I'm not sure what kind of gardening experts you have, and what lengths they'd go to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staycalm Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I read quite a good book that I borrowed from the local library: Dog friendly gardens : garden friendly dogs by Cheryl S. Smith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~*Shell*~ Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Maybe take a trip to your local nursery and ask - they'll be able to show you what certain plants look like and if you get a list of names you can google and find out what is toxic to dogs and what isn't. I know my dog loves catnip (funnily enough my cat loves it too!) but it gets eaten faster than we can plant it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerda the Schnauzer Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Great question... hadn't thought about this enough!!!! So thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparkyTansy Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 I get to start over with my garden once our house is finished, so this is a great thread!! In my first garden, we put in a heap of Flax. We had stones (bluemetal) and pavers and a really nice area with pots and a tree, as well as a large grassed area for the dogs surrounded by raised garden beds with lavender and rosemary. The flax is great for the dogs, very hardy and can withstand a bit of damage, but it can get out of control and needs cutting back... ours also just died and we think it may have been some kind of fungus The lavender and rosemary are great... particularly the rosemary which smells beautiful... I won't be putting lavendar in our next house because James is allergic to bees and they just love the lavender in particular. When i had just spartan, the garden stayed beautiful... he isn't a very active dog... but when James came along the stones became as much a dog area as the grass, and they would run THROUGH the flax. Several times they crashed into the pots and as a result, smashed a paver. Then the worst thing of all happened... James discovered retic... so my biggest piece of advice is, BURY YOUR RETIC DEEP!!! (or get drought tolerant plants that don't need a lot of water) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossumCorner Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 One system worked beautifully for us at the previous house, as we were intending to sell and needed to keep the value up - keep it looking good. We fenced off a garden section, one corner of the back yard completely, a good looking fence (not just star pickets and chook wire) with a pretty picket gate. Behind the fence was the garden, a couple of fruit trees, the rabbit hutch and the rotary clothes line. It had a great effect, sort of like a private secret garden, and all safe from doggy attention including the washing on the lines. The dogs then still had the lawn area and other fence-line garden beds to play on or in. The overall look was great, a good feature instead of some bitty garden beds with scrappy-looking barricades here and there, if that makes sense. Depends on your design and slope etc - it could look great at the "end" of a raised decking path. Or - fence off both sides of the path (garden bridge railing to lean on), and let the path lead to the open lawn play area. We are putting in some decking paths at the moment and the designs (and cost) keep growing so need to modify the plan. And the dogs and pony supervise every step of progress: pony thinks the paths are for his benefit at this stage. Agapanthus is a great tough plant for borders if it is acceptable in your area, always looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KismetKat Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Dogs Life magazine ran a competition last year for the best 'dog friendly' gardens - and my sister-in-law won first prize! Woohoo! She has a fantastic garden - except for the vegie patch every plant in the garden is a native - her garden attracts heaps of native birds. One major thing she did was watch where the dogs run - their zoomies tended to have a regular track. I think she observed and then marked these doggie routes with lengths of hose. These 'runs' are NOT where you place your garden beds So she built the garden beds next to the dog paths, using soil to build up and actually raise the garden bed (kinda like giving the dogs banked corners to run on, and then planted shrubs above the run area so that when they grew the grew up and overhung the dog trails - so now they have shelted 'tunnels' as part of their zoomie tracks. She also uses a lot of 'found objects' (found at the tip, e.g. she planted some giant springs in the ground) to define corners and stop the doggies taking short cuts. These 'found objects' are also useful peeing posts. With clever planting she's managed to build an absolutely beautiful and lush garden that is also 'doggy-proof'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rexiam Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 steer clear of plants and grass. ;) ;) Thats what I was thinking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jigsaw Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Whatever you do don't plant mint in your garden - always pot it, it will go rampant if you let it!!! Our first house had wild mint - up to 5ft high!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dxenion Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Agapanthus is a great tough plant for borders if it is acceptable in your area, always looks good. It is a tough beautiful plant but it's also poisonous to dogs. I am currently trying to find a list of plants that are safe for dogs so I can submit it to the property manager but all I seem to find are poisonous plants. It's a slow process trying to find something hardy, not poisonous to dogs, can cope with a bit of canine watering, cope with less than two hours sun a day and can be planted next to a wall or fence. It doesn't help me but I did find this story on a couple who designed a yard around their dogs: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2872551.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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