Do you remember the Pandemic Puppy phenomena of 2020? A large swath of the country was under lockdown thanks to COVID-19, and folks took in dogs left and right. In hindsight, this had both upsides and downsides, but adopting a rescue pup in September of that year was a bright spot for my family and me.
Bergy is a Pennsylvania Love Hound. Yes, I know that’s not a real breed, but she’s a mutt of unknown origins so we came up with our own designation based on the location where she was abandoned and her cuddly disposition. When I let friends and loved ones know—mostly via Zoom—that we had adopted a dog, more than a few responded with, “Well, you can kiss your gardens goodbye.” That reaction posed a serious question: can gardens and dogs peacefully coexist?
More than four years later, my answer is unequivocally yes. Nearly all the Fine Gardening staff are dog owners. If you were to peek at our internal DMs, you’d be just as likely to see photos of our pups as you would our penstemons. And when we do our end-of-year planning sessions and share stories of garden scouting from around the country, inevitably one or two of us mentions the dog that made a guest appearance during a visit. (My highlight this past year was with Dorothy, a giant Newfoundland from Wisconsin who politely sat on the feet of my tripod as I took photos of her mom’s dahlias).
There are certain adjustments or integrations that every gardener can do to make their landscape more dog friendly (think of it as the equivalent of kid-proofing your house). Many of these are brilliantly illustrated in the article by Jay Sifford, Designing a Beautifully Lush, Dog-friendly Garden. For instance, after we got Bergy, I learned that certain spots were best left empty because she liked to lounge there. Anything I tried planting in that space would be pulled out or dug up. In other high-traffic areas, like outside our back door, I planted a super-tough ground cover that could withstand romping. But overall, having a dog has not prevented me from having a lush and beautiful garden.
One improvement I plan to make this year is replacing a turf pathway with gravel at the back of my property. It has become a doggie racetrack over time and always turns into a mud pit by May. Taking a page from Jay Sifford’s playbook, I’m going to install metal edging and pea-stone instead, which will minimize the mess without sacrificing the aesthetic.
In short, having gardens and dogs can be a challenge. I’m still trying to figure out how to harness Bergy’s hole-digging proclivities for good, not evil. But a couple of trampled trilliums seems like a small price to pay for unconditional love.
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| Danielle Sherry Executive Editor |
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