You can prevent dogs from rooting around in your flower beds by employing one of the following methods.
No matter how much you love your dog, you don’t want him or her rooting around in your flower gardens. The digging can destroy your beautiful blooms, plus create a big mess. But you can prevent dogs from rooting around in your flower beds by employing one of the following methods.
Five Tips for Keeping Pets Out of Flower Beds:
- Fence them in. Prevent dogs from entering your flower beds by installing decorative fencing. Or, create a temporary barrier out of chicken wire. Drive a few stakes into the ground around your flower beds, then roll the chicken wire around the stakes. When you don’t want the wire visible, roll it up and remove.
- Create a play zone. Dogs often dig due to boredom. To prevent your pet from heading to your flower beds for some fun, create a play zone all their own. Dig out a shallow area in your yard, then fill with sand and some toys. This play pit should be much more enticing than your flower beds.
- Use dog repellents for flower beds. Dogs don’t like spicy or bitter flavors, so mix up a homemade repellent using these flavors and sprinkle it on your flower beds. An easy spicy dog repellent includes equal parts of red pepper and powdered mustard. For a bitter dog repellent, dissolve bitter orange, an essential oil used as a flavoring agent, on spent coffee grounds. Bonus: The coffee grounds also help fertilize your garden.
- Use prickly brush. Not surprisingly, dogs don’t like to get poked. Save all of your prickly clippings, such as those from rose bushes, hawthorns or barberries, and toss around the edges of your flower beds. If you don’t like the “rustic” look of branches strewn about, tuck the branches under the bottom leaves of your flowers.
- Train your dog. Just as dogs can be taught to sit or roll over, they can be taught to stay out of flower beds. It takes some time and consistent reinforcement, but once your dog learns that your flower beds are off-limits, you should never have problems again.
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Originally Published: June 25, 2020
Is your pooch pawing your petunias? Here’s how to keep your dog out of your garden and away from your precious plants.
We want our dogs to eat well, but we don’t want them snacking on our heirloom vegetables and prized perennials. Nor do we want them digging up the daffodils.
How can you keep dogs from wrecking your garden?
Spray Nasty Odors
Your vegetable garden is a salad bar for your dog. To keep him away, spray plants with pungent white vinegar or apple bitter. Or plant marigolds between vegetable rows, which repel dogs and other backyard pests, such as Mexican bean beetles, aphids, squash bugs, and whiteflies.
However, don’t apply rabbit or deer repellents that contain coyote urine. Dogs love the smell of urine and will either roll in your sprayed plants or leave an odor of their own.
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Sprinkle Yucky Tastes
Sprinkle powdered mustard or red pepper flakes around your plants. A few sniffs and licks of these unpleasant tastes will discourage your dog from returning to the area.
Fence Dogs In or Out
If you’ve got small dogs, a 16-inch fence border ($29 for 6 feet) will mark the perimeter of your garden and discourage them from trampling your seedlings. For large, spunky dogs, encase your vegetables in a chicken wire cage with a top enclosure, which fence out deer and rabbits, too.
Or, contain your dog in a fenced play area that’s roomy and filled with interesting toys and treats. However, if your dog likes burying things, don’t give him a bone; instead offer chews, such as rawhide or bully sticks, that’ll keep him occupied and his mind off burying.
Erect Prickly Barriers
Place pruned rose or holly branches around your garden or plants. The thorns and prickly leaves will discourage your dog from entering the restricted area.
Provide a Pooch Path
If your dog cruises through your garden but leaves the veggies alone, make him a path of his own. You can lay down mulch, or even place a spare piece of carpet along your pet's favorite route. You may have to alter your garden design a bit, but that's better than watching puppy crash through your flowers or zucchini.
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