Thinking about Gardening

As we begin the new year, I wistfully gaze out the window at the bleak, gray landscape and try to imagine what my spring and summer garden will look like. It's a always a challenge to maintain a garden that can coexist with dogs who like to dig and run like crazy around the perimeter and through the shrubs.

I'm looking for bare spots to fill in with new shrubs that can withstand Anika racing around the yard in hot pursuit of a squirrel or just a case of the zoomies. With all the rain we get, I find new puddles and small streams where holes have been dug and paths have been created for running. Steffi is my digger and Anika gets the zoomies.

Over the years I have learned the hard way of what not to do:

• No little wire barrier fences for protecting young plants--danger! danger! Those cause leg lacerations and cost several hundred dollars in vet visits.
• No roses except in planters. Again, thorns can lodge in an ear or a leg and cost lots of money to treat infections.
• Do not use homemade compost, fish emulsion, or any organic plant fertilizer unless you want every plant to be dug up after your hard work transplanting. The dogs love the taste of that stuff and cannot resist.
• The same goes for planting bulbs with bone meal. Forgetaboutit!
• No bird feeders with sunflower seeds--they attract rats, which carry disease. I feed hummingbirds and put out some suet feeders in the winter. But even those suet cakes are too irresistible to the squirrels and then the dogs are frantic about the squirrels.
• As I mentioned in an earlier post (here), I don't use pesticides. I sometimes use an herbicide to kill unwanted weeds, but I spray it on and then keep the dogs out of that part of the yard for the rest of the day.

I do love attracting wildlife to my garden. I didn't have Weimaraners when we bought this house and I started the garden. But I have decided that with this breed it's exactly like inviting hunters into the wildlife sanctuary. No bird that has nested in my garden has lived to nest again. All fledglings have perished from the relentless canine hunters. Many squirrels have too. Some snakes. The yellow jackets fight back and the dogs end up with swollen muzzles or eyes. Thank goodness they are not allergic! Nobody has tangled with a raccoon yet, but they've come close. I'm lucky to have lots of neighbors with backyard chicken coops that are much more interesting to the raccoons, so they stay out of my hostile environment.

Anyway, I am planning for fresh bark mulch to fill in the worn out areas. I am thinking about putting in a swale to help with drainage on the west side of the house. Like this:

And finally, the big one--we have to build a new privacy fence because ours is so rotten that one big wind or a dog jumping on it might knock it over. It's only a matter of time and I can't risk that.

Until next time, Happy New Year!