Dog Vs Garden: Meet the Fence

Never underestimate someone just because they have cute ears or flatter you with kisses

The biggest threats to our gardening efforts do not come from pests, but from those that snuggle up against my legs and keep me warm all winter long.  Yes, my pups may be my best friends, but they are not my garden’s best friends.

Over the last two years I have tried a variety of things to ward them off, with mediocre but up-till-now acceptable success.  I have mostly tried strategies that were low cost and low effort.  Someone suggested I try cayenne pepper sprinkled over the garden as a deterrent.  This might have worked out well, except that some accidentally got into my pup’s eye and it swelled shut for a day or so and I felt like the worst parent ever in the world. It was particularly depressing because it still didn’t keep him out of the garden.

When this failed, I finally decided to lay out a bit of cash and bought what we affectionately refer to as “the rock monster”, which is basically a battery operated invisible fence that keeps dogs away from its ten foot radius.  This worked well until the batteries died, but trained the dog to stay out of the garden until summer drought killed most things and a mini tall grass prairie sprung up and I didn’t care anymore if the dog ruined things or not.

Another idea I tried was my own special version “companion planting”.  I planted all my hot chili de aqua peppers around the outer edge of my garden in hopes that if my dog ventured in for a snack that he would have an unpleasant experience and never do it again.  This didn’t really have an effect.  My best plan was to plant multiples of everything as an insurance against canine catastrophe and hoped for the best. Yea, it wasn’t a great plan, but it was also pre-Cowboy involvement, and he has a way of improving my plans in ways I couldn’t previously imagine.

But this year there are now two dogs, which means like three times the destruction.  After all the effort to build trellises and defeat the weeds and our desire grow so many more items, we needed a better plan.  At first, I tried a liberal layer of cayenne pepper (with no puppy eyes harmed) but it didn’t stop either of them.  And we tried the rock monster, but only one could wear it at a time and it didn’t cover the whole garden.  So, after we lost a pepper and an eggplant to veggie loving pups within a few hours of planting, we decided we needed to break down and build a fence.  Not a pretty one, just an effective one, and as soon as possible.

Harley sits safely on the other side of the new garden fence from this beautiful marguerite daisy plant The Cowboy picked out that will hopefully attract more butterflies and fewer puppy dogs.

The Cowboy came by on his day off and built it with his bare hands with the help of his roommate. I think a t-post driver was also involved, but I am still pretty sure his hands were bare. He said that the project went much faster than anticipated and texted pictures that looked great. And it was only a one band aid necessary project (trellis building was a two band aid day).  I came home from work that night eager to see his handiwork, but was greeted by only one puppy face at the gate!! Someone was missing.  That someone was behind the garden fence sitting with the marigolds he had ripped off their stems.  Scandalous!

The Marigold Murderer investigating checking out his handiwork

So, the next day was fence building day part two, which has so far proved quite effective.  The Cowboy re-enforced the breached defenses, constructed a gate, and I happily planted some additional plant selections. 

So far we have had no more blue heeler break-ins, so we hope our harvest losses have been minimized. Hopefully we have outsmarted them.  Although, you never want to underestimate a blue heeler, not even the tiny adorable cuddly ones. 


What strategies have you used to keeping your homestead harmoniously co-existing?  Do you have any hilarious failures or wild success tips for keeping canines out of the compost?  I am all ears.

Puppy Mug Shot