Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jul 04, 2011 2:41 pm Has anyone ideas on what to put on a garden bed to deter digging dogs? My garden will be very small - really just a courtyard and patch of lawn surrounded by contained garden beds. We are about to begin planting and wondering how to dress the top after the plants go in. My dog likes to dig into gardens and lie in the cool earth in summer which means scattered soil all over the BBQ, the outdoor furniture and decking. My thought was that hefty pebbles would stop him getting through to the soil or generally make the garden less inviting, but having read the previous posts regarding the choice of mulch over pebbles I feel bad about the thought of having to supply nutrients for evermore through liquid fertilizer. Does anyone have ideas? We are experimenting with the idea of embedding fencing mesh in the soil and laying mulch over the top. He will be able to scratch around in the mulch but not get through to the soil. The trouble is that we won't be able to dig either and once we have laid the mesh with holes for the plants it cannot really be changed short of cuttig it out. Will that matter if the plantings are for trees and shrubs and other long-term plantings? Is there another approach that we have not thought of? Re: Mulch v Pebbles and digging dogs? 2Jul 04, 2011 3:53 pm My Dog is a pain in the *ss at times with her digging. She will dig through pebbles mulch etc, the only thing she doesn't dig through is the lawn luckily. I have a number of garden beds and to stop her digging I use the galv weld mesh which I cut up with an angle grinder. I put it above the soil but under the mulch. She gets the point pretty quick. It is much better then mesh as it doesn't move and flex, problem solved. Re: Mulch v Pebbles and digging dogs? 3Jul 04, 2011 4:59 pm I think each dog is different and it can be hit and miss. We have two dogs, an American Staffy and a German Shepherd. Both LOVE digging and we have a few raised garden beds that they would constantly dig up. We would come home to bark and dirt across the concrete every day. We ended up removing the mulch and placed a layer of large rocks/pebbles over the garden bed instead. Most are approx 100mm in size. Any smaller and they still move them around. Haven't had a problem since and I've never fertilised my plants either and they're going strong. I have Liliropes, Orange Twists and a new form of compact pittisiporum called "golf ball" planted. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Mulch v Pebbles and digging dogs? 5Jul 05, 2011 11:23 am If you raised the garden beds would that stop the dogs? Instead of wire mesh have you thought of using that dark green plastic trellis material? You can buy it in rolls at Bunnings. It would be easy to cut to add plants later. It wouldn't cut the dogs feet or rust and get dangerous to you while you garden... Re: Mulch v Pebbles and digging dogs? 7Jul 06, 2011 4:00 pm Dogs dig for different reasons. If they're digging to stay cool, they need somewhere shady where they don't have to dig. A lot of dogs dig from boredom though, because they just don't have anything interesting to do. Do you take your dogs for daily walks? do you spend time throwing a ball or just playing with them? or are they just in the yard all the time wondering what to do with themselves, because that can get really boring for a dog. But some dogs are just natural born diggers and if you give them somewhere where they're allowed to dig, they'll be happy with that, that might mean setting up a simple sand box in corner somewhere away from the patio rather than trying to stop the digging. Re: Mulch v Pebbles and digging dogs? 8Jul 07, 2011 12:24 am the dog just likes to lie in earth, I reckon it feels nice - before we started landscaping it was just lawn and he left it alone we previously lived in a clay soil area and he didn't dig there even though it was far hotter than sydney he isn't generally destructive and has company / walks /shade so I figure I just need to make the garden beds less inviting the mesh under the mulch might work - my trial is the green plastic trellis, hopefully we won't need to go for galvanized and if mesh fails can always try the pebbles thanks to all I recently went through a similar renovation and move scenario when updating our family home. We also swapped some rooms around and tackled a major… 2 3672 nothing to do with salespeole. you'd do well to read and ccomprehend the post before bashing away at the keys with some negative comment again. 4 5042 Hi, This is my first post. We are planning to buy new home via House and Land (H&L) Package around Boxhill/Gables/Marsden Park in Syndey. Googled reviews for most of… 0 10460 |