Some gardeners worry about deer, squirrels, rabbits, cats and even birds. But have you ever heard of the problem being your family dog?
This is our yellow lab Comet.
Yes, hes is pretty dog-gone cute. And now he’s for sale. Real cheap.
You see, this dog thinks the garden was made for him.
PS – it’s pretty sad that I was spying on the dog for about an hour to get this picture. I watched him do so many things before I caught him in this dirty deed. In fact I almost gave up… but ha! Worth it.
A few weeks ago he ate half of my sugar snap peas before trampling them so bad they died. He also devoured all my strawberries!! He waited until the strawberries were ripe and ate them as soon as they were red before we could get to them.
He also took a doo doo by my lettuce a few weeks ago too. Not cool Comet, not cool.
And this week it was the final straw. He dug out and ate up a whole row of my carrots.
I am really upset about the carrots. My garden only had 3 rows of carrots to begin with since its a small garden. Now we are down to 2 rows. Very sad.
So anyways, I really don’t want to have to fence off my little bitty box garden, but I don’t know what else to do. Any advice?
On a positive note here are some things that are growing well right now – So far Comet doesnt seem to care for my Zuchinni, and its growing like crazy! We have had enough for 2 dinners already. Also I have lettuce, basil, and some green beans starting to flower.
I will end this post with a picture of my little tomatoes growing I took a picture of tonight. Yep – he had to take a sniff of them which made me really really nervous. Help!
See other posts in my Adventures in Gardening series so far:
- My Adventures in Gardening: The Fall
- My Adventures in Gardening Part 2: Where did my Dirt Go?
- My Adventures in Gardening : Hello Seed
- My Adventures in Gardening: Popsicle Stick Garden Seed Signs
- My Adventures in Gardening: Little Seedlings
- Planting Indoor Seeds as well as Outside too
- Karrie Karrie, How Does Your Garden Grow?
LOL! Thank you for the chuckle this morning 🙂 We have a 6 month old puppy and she has taken to destroying ALL of my potted flowers that I toiled over for months 🙁 I have no idea what to do with her and I can so relate to your misery. At least a fence will keep him out. I’m thinking I may have to put all of my flowers up high. I’m from the Pacific NW too! Good luck!
Oh no! So does your puppy just like to dig or does she like the flowers themselves? I know Comet there likes to go into our flower beds to dig a cool spot – and destroys flowers in the dig process. It pretty much drives me and my hubby nuts. It’s a good thing my kids love this dog…LOL or he really would be for sale! 🙂
We don’t have a dog, but had a similar problem with a neighbor cat. We finally put in some ultrasonic devices that dectect motion. They are solar, so we never have to get batteries and they seem to work pretty well. Another thing they have is a motion detecting sprinkler, but it worked so well, it would spray my kids when they went outside. Hope you find something that works because fresh from the garden veggies are amazing!
So an ultrasonic device that will send off a high pitch sound? Or something else? Great ideas Sandra, I am going to look into those options.
Well, I finally gave up and fenced my garden, but we live on a small farm, so it works well for other little critters also. When we lived in town, I used a fence and my husband finally had it and put an electric fence in, one tap on the fence and the sweet little lab never bothered the area again. The fence came down 1 month later, and he stayed away. Worked like a charm, but a little spendy. We use the fence on the farm now, so no big deal.
I would look for the ultra sonic things. I know that I see them at the feed stores all the time.
Good luck, and I know you won’t sell your dog….kids love them too much.
True true, those kids DO love him too much. I guess he can stay. Ultrasonic device..here I come! 🙂
I’ll take him if he is free. I have a lil lady named Missy and she will be three on August 1st and I think it’s time for her to have a playmate because I am unable to play with her due to I had a hip replacement in January and two back surgies since then, my last one being the 25th of may. I feel so bad for her. She loves male dogs but don’t care for female canines. She is fixed. Since she was six months. Please let me know if you change your mind about giving him away. He looks like a beautiful doggy. Missy would love you forever. Email me @
My rascally dog loves to roll around in my garden too! At least he’s not eating my vegetables, just trampling them. You can make an inexpensive fence out of stakes and chicken wire- keeps my toddler and the dog out, although it isn’t the most attractive thing. This ultrasonic device intrigues me. Good luck!
Thanks Emily!
Try sprinkling pepper in your garden. I had a tree that my Dogs were chewing on I put pepper on it, that stop them. (Not sure if pepper will hurt your garden)
Oooh, that might be something. I wonder if my dog likes spicy food though…LOL! I will have to try and let you know.
Just wanted to let you know that tomato plants are poison for dogs. Tomatoes the fruit is ok but the plant itself (if he tries to eat it lol) is not good. I had to elevate my garden for this reason. Good luck and thanks for all you do!
This is why I don’t have a garden (or any plants or trees) in my backyard. We have a great dane, and she eats any plants she’s near.
I have a great dane who loves vegetables. I have a garden fence but he uses his nose to open the gate latch. 🙂
I know what you mean about a dog that loves the veggies. I have been feeding fresh veggies to my dog that is a mix of anitolie shepard/ great pyranies/ mastiff. He gets his feelings hurt if I do not give him some.
We got some 24″ high 50′ long garden fencing (I think it was called rabbit fencing) for under $25 from Lowe’s. Did a great job 😀
P.S. Tomatoes- ESPECIALLY green tomatoes & their leaves can be poisonous to dogs! Careful
We have a dog, too, a little german sheperd mix. And she looooooves our zucchinis. She eats them right off the plant! She loves lying in my beds. We think, that remembers her at her time in the shelter, where she slept on the ground. Sometimes she is so cute, but most of the time I could cry. Poor little plants. It’s our first garden and I’m so happy about every little green thing. And then comes this cute, fat dog and lies down right on the first green. We think about a fence, too. But I think, she would just jump over it. Zucchinis are all for her 😉
Good luck!
After feasting from the garden our weims sweet tooth leads her to the raspberries lol quite commical