Dog Friendly Gardening
Hi!
Thanks for dropping by ...
Your garden should be a place where both you and your dog can enjoy spending time together - not a source of danger to your pet, or where you come into conflict with each other.
On the following pages you'll find some information which I hope you'll find helpful in achieving this. You can also find out more about my book on the subject, which goes into more detail about gardening with your dog, as well as with yourself in mind.
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As well as this website, you might also like to visit the Dog Friendly Gardening blog HERE and the Facebook page HERE which will have regular updates on what's happening in the garden and on the allotment, plus tips and trivia and other items of interest to dog-owning gardeners!
If you have any news or tips you'd like to share, you can either post them on those pages, or email me using the contact page on the website here.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
About me and my dogs ...
The joys of gardening very nearly passed me by completely.
There was a time when I really wasn't at all interested in the garden - despite coming from a long line of keen gardeners, it looked as though the horticultural gene had skipped a generation in my case. And then I accidentally acquired a rescue dog, and overnight everything changed.
No longer could I ignore the lush and rampant wilderness growing outside the kitchen window - the grass had to be mowed at the very least so it was possible to do the daily poo pick. One thing led to another and before long I was on the phone to my Dad asking his advice about plants and doing the previously despised gardening thing. To my surprise, I was even enjoying it ...
Boris was soon joined by Chester, a smaller but equally determined escape artist, who could jump like a flea and had a habit of testing everything with his teeth. As he enthusiastically set about exploring both our garden and that of our neighbours, the realisation dawned that not only did we need to do something about a really dog-proof fence, but that some plants might not be good for him to chew.
Obviously a bit of research was going to be needed if the garden was going to be a safe and relaxing place for all of us to enjoy: and gradually an interest in gardening began to finally take root.
Since then, we have moved twice: first of all to a large house with a tiny paved garden which presented its own particular doggy challenges, before moving to our current house which has fewer rooms but a much bigger garden. Since that first garden, Boris and Chester have gone on to Rainbow Bridge, as have their successors, Lisa and Fern. My assistant gardeners nowadays (although sometimes I suspect it's the other way round) are two whippets, Archie and Angel - that's them you can see at the top of the page.