Garden in the back yard with dog?

[jackslivi]

Hey everyone!

I want a vegetable garden in my back yard but I have a dog. I know before we lived at this house there were other dogs too. Would it be a bad place to put a garden? How should I start it? Let me know your advice or your experience with this.

 

[marlingardener]

When we had a dog I trained him to stay out of the garden--grass underfoot was fine, but not dirt! If there are other dogs, not yours, roaming about, then fence the garden in--T-posts and chicken wire would be sufficient.
If you are referring to the "droppings", they are very bad for the garden and again, fencing is the answer.
The previous dogs' contributions should be rotted away by now. You can have your soil tested, but for pathogens, the testing is very expensive.
Have you considered a raised bed garden?

 

[Chuck]

As marlingardner said, a raised bed but with a fence around it. And stay away from dog and cat poop. I have heard that if dog poop is composted for at least a year it should be safe but I wouldn't count on it. Not that it would adversely affect the plants but because of working the soil

 

[helagumamela]

I have a garden and I have 6 dogs. I don't really have problems when it comes to their behavior. They don't dig up the plants. I guess that you can train your dog to not destroy your garden.

 

[claudine]

Hi Jackslivi! I'm a dog owner too My little Yorkie loves digging, rolling in grass and stealing apples that fall from my apple tree. That's all. Vegetables and flowers don't interest him at all, so I can grow them without any worries.

 

[splinx]

Dogs are not good for plants... They (mine at least) love to pee on leaves, some destroy them as well.

I'd keep them OUT!

 

[Cheesy Potatoes]

My dogs love to roll around in the grass, but they usually ignore the plants. When they were younger, they loved to uproot plants and drag them all over the yard, but now that they're older, they don't really mind the plants that much anymore.

 

[kammy]

I think you might have to consider training your dog to stay out of your garden which isn't going to be an easy task or just have the area where your garden is going to be fenced off.

 

[gmckee1985]

I think a garden in your back yard with dogs around is doable if you are able to control them and train them to stay away from the garden. Obviously, dogs are capable of doing a lot of damage to a garden if they misbehave, which they usually do. Hopefully you'll be able to train them to not do that, though. I haven't had any problem with my dogs. I think if you make it point to keep them away from it they'll generally get the message.

 

[JoshPosh]

Your dog just needs to be trained properly. If that doesn't fit your timeframe or patience level, then I would suggest building a perimeter to keep the dog out.

 

[splinx]

I would suggest building a perimeter to keep the dog out.

An electric fence would be a good idea.

 

[bellahpereira]

Jackslivi, I had the same concern you do when I moved into my current house. My puppy loves to explore, and it doesn't help that my garden is up against a fence that is shared with a neighbour that also has a dog, so my puppy always wants to get into my garden. I didn't have too big of an issue with him after I figured out why he was getting into the garden. All I had to do was put up a small fence to keep him out of it. I put some 2x2's into the ground and nailed a small fence onto it, so I could still go over it and he cannot. It also helped that I had a little 'talk' with him about how 'we do not go there' lol. I know he's a dog but I swear he understood me It solved my issue and I'm hoping it helps with yours too

 

[Kansas Terri]

I have usually fenced my garden away from my dog. Mother nature does a really wonderful job of breaking down any poo, but the idea of a male dog marking his territory in the salad patch is not a good one!!!!!!! On the occasions that a fence around the garden was not possible, I used to do things like tie up the tomato plants, and the cucumbers to get them out of reach of my dog, and put the greens in pots on the deck. If you cannot fence the garden off, then I would suggest that you grow things like sweet corn, or potatos, or other things so that a dog cannot wet on the edible parts.

I never worried about animals relieving themselves in the soil, as the bacteria in the soil will quickly break down anything unpleasant! I did want to keep the edible parts clean!

 

[Twinsmommy31]

I made this same mistake. We even had the dog trained. Behind our backs we always seemed to find pee on the garden. Dogs are sneaky little creatures. I guess he couldn't;t resist the urge to pee on the lovely plants that I had in my garden.