Yesterday the weather was nuts. It was all sunshine and rainbows one minute and showers the next. And the wind, holy cow it was windy here yesterday.
The good news is, the chives I transplanted alongside the greenhouse last fall are doing great in their new home. I scattered a few chive seeds I collected last fall in the bare areas and hopefully this area will fill out nicely over the next few months.
Even though the weather was a total bust, I still managed to get some broccoli, and cauliflower starts planted.
It’s really hard for me not to fill all 16 of the raised garden beds right now.
Check out the artichoke plants. I think they look pretty great considering Lucy the puggle dog likes to run through the bed every time we go out to the garden.
I’m not exactly sure how I am going to keep her out of the garden beds yet, so if you have any ideas {other than a fence} please let me know.
I’m hoping someone out there has a neat trick or knows something I can plant around the edges that will make the garden beds seem less desirable to her, and yet let her still roam around the backyard.
The rhubarb crowns we planted about a month ago are finally starting to come up.
And the garlic! Did you plant any last fall? Our garlic is a little behind this year because the chickens got into it and I had to replant. I’m hoping for some yummy garlic scapes in about another month or two.
What’s new in your garden? Do you have anything popping through the soil yet? Do you  have any tricks on how to keep dogs out of the garden?
~Mavis
Judy N. says
Great Gardening going on at your house!! still too cold here in N. Georgia Mountains..
Now as far as that scamper Lucy girl goes, she needs a little discipline. You pretty much treat her like you did your kids as far as discipline goes when they were a toddler like Lucy, I would tell her NO in a firm voice as you clap your hands together, whenever she jumps in your beds, she will learn quickly! and before you know it she will follow the beaten path you take and not the beds!
I trained my little Bella girl like this, and she knows not to jump into the garden beds or eat the plants in the pots anymore, however like a child, they will test you occasionally to see just how far MOM can be pushed..LOL
Good Luck and Happy Gardening
Cecily says
Simmer a handful of hot peppers (I use habaneros) in 2 cups water covered for 15 minutes. Cool and strain into a spray bottle and spritz around the edge of the bed. Keeps away cats and deer too.
Cecily says
Also you could sprinkle red pepper flakes in the beds
Johanne says
All I know is my dogs ate my beans poking out of the ground, my squash and tomato transplants, and sometimes I catch them eating the raspberries off the thorny branches. The veggies were just extra and not part of my real, fenced off garden so I fortunately didn’t sell off the dogs. 😉
Amanda B says
With consistency dogs can be trained to not run/walk in raised beds or flower beds. My in-laws dog skirts all the forbidden beds, even in pursuit of a thrown toy.
Carol says
you’re killing me! *cries* It’s frozen here still.
(but seriously, I love seeing your garden – gives me hope as this cold snap has to give up its hold soon)
Knitting with Olof says
Got Fava beans in. Have my seedlings in the window and transplanted my tomato seedlings into bigger cups. Hoping this cold snap will lighten up and let me get some real gardening done.
cptacek says
Train her not to. Dogs are smart, we just have to learn to tap into it and be able to communicate with them on a level they understand. Start by every time she tries to jump into one, say NO and don’t let her get into it. Reward her with a small bit of food when she tries to get in, you say no, and she stops. Praise her and rub her belly. It will take time, but dogs will learn. Or maybe, if she is in the bed already, say “get out”, snap your fingers, and mean it 🙂 and when she does, give her some food and praise. Say the same thing every time, be consistent and don’t let them get away with it, and they will learn.
Our dog knows he can only be in the back room and can’t get into the kitchen. If I tell him to “go around” at the back door, he meets me at the front door. If we are within a block of our house and I tell him to “go home” he meets me at the back door. If we point to any pickup and say load up, he jumps into the back. He is a herding dog and once guarded the gate for my husband so my husband could feed our cows for an hour while my husband was driving in and our with the bales. He loves to follow the 4 wheeler, but can’t go out in the pasture with new baby calves (the momma cows get crazy when they see any dog around their baby) so he has to stay on the outside of the fence, and he does.
Mavis says
My pockets are going to smell like dog treats from here on out aren’t they. Ha! Thanks for the tip.
cptacek says
🙂 We actually use cheese, as our dog can’t get enough of it.
But, no, once you train them, the training should stick without the constant rewards they get when learning. Keep the treats for new things and occasional reinforcement.
Grandma PattyB says
Good luck! My dog stays out of the beds when I’m out there with him. But, watching out the window, I see he goes there to “catch up” on anything he missed when I was with him. I had to fence.
Jen says
Goodness gracious, what are you going to do with all those chives! Can you possibly use that many? I’d love your ideas as I have way more chives than I’ve been able to use here on my little plot!
suzanne says
I used to put sticks in the ground around the edges of the forbidden beds. I would curve or loop them it was kind of like those pretty english edgings you see in the potager pictures. I was able to pull them up after the veggies filled in. I think you can buy premade edging @ 1.5 feet tall if homemade would freak the HH out. Placed inside the edge of your raised bed it should be tall enough. Kept out our (at that time) dachsund, english bull and a mastiff. Used the trimmings from my fruit trees and the abundant maples. Check Pinterest for edgings or wattles maybe. Good luck.
suzanne says
*Hurdles not wattles;-)
Thelma says
I use the plastic trays from the nurseries not the solid types the ones that have a woven pattern so light and water can still get through , these go right over newly seeded beds to keep my cat & dog out..I’ve used sticks as well around larger plants. For the most part my dog wont go in there shes been trained not to, but once in a while she trys..
Catherine Foster says
Re: keeping dogs out. I heard that to keep a dog from counter-surfing, place a bunch of empty cat or dog food cans on the edge. Dog jumps up, makes big noise, gets frightened, quits counter-surfing. Might work on the lower-level raised beds (with lower-level dog!).
That said, has anybody got any good ideas for keeping CATS out of raised beds and using them as litter boxes? I used 18 inch plastic decorative fencing pieces but they just jumped over. Now I’ve got plastic up, along the sides, but when the good weather starts I don’t know that that’s the best option.
Would love some suggestions… Thanks, Cathe in Ashland, OR
suzanne says
Look at Thelma’s reply above, works or some beds or me.
Miriam says
Re the keeping pets out of garden. There is a way to do it that is unobtrusive (can’t see it) and works but it’s expensive.
I have an “invisible fence”. It’s an electric wire that is buried in the ground and connected to a controller in my house. My pet wears a collar that received an audio signal as she gets close to the edge of the property and then becomes an actual electric shock (not dangerous) if she goes too close. It didn’t take her more than a couple of boundary close ups to learn where they were but we had flags every 6 feet for several weeks to give her a visual clue.
I have this around my whole property so she is free to roam anywhere in the back (at the front we put it about 5 feet from the front porch so she doesn’t go towards the street and it works beautifully. She has the whole (1/2 acre) property to roam on – just not the street or public sidewalk.
Apparently you can make a circle of this wire around any area you don’t want your pet to go into.
To do my whole property including the collar (which is, in my opinion, expensive) cost about $1300. The wire is pricy so a smaller area shouldn’t cost any where near as much. The collar itself is about $300. These are Canadian figures so I’ve no idea how much it would be elsewhere.
There are also ‘don’t dig’ sprays but I don’t like to use chemicals that my dog might ingest. They do work – I tried it before we got the fence but you have to keep reapplying. Not a good choice.
Stephanie says
Be careful with dogs around rhubarb. It can be toxic to them. I don’t remember which part of the plant.