Ringing Bell's Best Gardening Tips for Dog Owners

This morning I’m putting the “Amen” ( I hope) on a writing project I’ve worked on for months. And like many of you, I’d like to do a little gardening this weekend. As I think about it, I feel selfish that I’ve not shared some of my best dog owner gardening tips gleaned from years of experience. So without further delay, here they are:

Who me?

Buy rocks. Lots of great, big rocks. Preferably, the six by six foot boulder side. Anything smaller is prone to redistribution or else mistaken for a comfy pillow. Creatively arrange your boulders throughout your garden to deter your dog from lying in your flowerbeds and or place around newly planted shrubs to prevent excavation. It only takes about two years for you to see the shrubs over the top of the boulders. Have a party and let friends and family inscribe noteworthy sayings on your garden boulders such as, “Dogs are the flowers in the garden of life,” and “Life is short, stop to pet the dogs along the way.”

Save on water. Don’t wash your face in the morning, because as you’re planting petunias, your dog will wash it for you.

Dogs provide ample fertilizer. After scooping, use it to grow an abundant harvest of prized flowers such as dandelion and crown vetch in the back of your property.

Cracked pots are good. When your dog drops you ceramic containers on your hard patio bricks, remember the cracks allow for absorption of more water.

Two dogs

Hanging baskets, hanging baskets, hanging baskets.

With dogs, there’s never a shortage of ornamentation in your botanical displays. Gnawed sticks, broken pottery, and split tennis balls provide interest in the garden.

Remember to install large sized shrubs, which provide much needed privacy when your dog demands such.

When planting in the garden a dog also shares, wear gloves…really, thick, plastic lined, almost galvanized steel gloves that are disposable.

Suggested flora: Kudzu, bamboo, English ivy, and privet. You will never be annoyed with your dog when you find them pulled up by the roots on the back door welcome mat.

a new planting location

Learn to make good use of the deep holes your dog will mine in your grounds. He’s only trying to help by preselecting your planting locations. Use them and save yourself hours of backbreaking toil. That new tea olive will look great in the middle of the walkway.

I hope these tips are helpful and let me know how they work for you. Here at One Ringing Bell, we’re all about making your life a little lighter.

The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it… (Psalm 24:1).