This summer I had the opportunity to help develop a garden for a Saratoga Dog Lover (https://jessecology.com/2014/07/a-new-secret-garden-in-saratoga-springs-ny/), and it forced me to think about gardening strategies that lead to success when sharing space and life with dogs.
The dog at this Saratoga home is a rambunctious 9 month puppy. One challenge with sharing the property with energetic young dogs is how to keep them from undoing all the landscaping work you do, or have done. At this Saratoga dog lover’s property, we observed the foot paths through the yard the puppy was running every day like a mail route. We decided to make these paths a clear, permanent feature in the structure of this garden so we delineated them with a plastic sheet and a thick mulch layer.
With the paths established in the garden, this Saratoga dog has plenty of space to tear around and play in the yard. The plants we chose to add were all species native to New York State that are especially tough and resilient, like the Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) in the above photo. This isn’t a guarantee that if the dog tramples the new plants she won’t cause damage, but gardening with tough natives is a smart strategy to give the gardens a leg up over delicate ornamentals. In my experience, Saratoga dog lovers are often gardeners too, and gardening with dogs present unique challenges. Creating mulched paths that echo the dog’s natural routes and using tough New York state native plants are two excellent gardening strategies for Saratoga dog owners.
Blog post written by:
Jesse Elwert Peters
Jessecology Organic Garden Design
www.jessecology.com