It's time for the Gardening Simplified podcast, YouTube and radio show coming to you
from Studio A here at proven winners, Color Choice Shrubs. It's Stacy Hervella
me, Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, let's
raise the woof Yeah, popular things to do out in your landscape gardening and
dog scaping. We're going to talk about dog scaping today, and statistics show
percent of US households own a pet. More specifically, dogs are the most
popular pet in the US. Sixty five million US homes own a dog now.
In twenty twenty two, statistics show Americans spent one hundred and thirty six
point eight billion dollars on their pets, and essential dog expenses cost owners on
average about one thousand, five hundred and thirty three dollars annually. Stacy,
I'd have to say people are mutts about their dogs and gardening. Oh that's
rough, wreck, Thank you very mulch. Well, dog friendly gardening is
very important, and you know, spending time outdoors with your pet, you
want it to be less stressful because I think you got to think sometimes about
your pupp as a toddler. You want it to be a safe environment for
your dog. At the same time, dogs are very very smart and very
very interactive. You can teach a dog tricks, so dog scaping is a
topic that is great to cover to make the area wonderful for both you and
your pet. When it comes to occupations, dogs are not good landscapers.
They are roofers, so they can dig. You know. I've definitely seen
some very digging dogs that could, you know, give you a little headstart
on planting a shrub. If you can get them to dig in the right
place exactly, I can dig it well. Full disclosure and transparency, I
do not own a dog, but I live next to a dog beach.
It's a fifty two acre park with breath taking views of Lake Michigan, and
I watch dog owners and their dogs enjoy the beach now. I've also spoken
to hundreds of dog owners who have called into a live radio show to talk
about their dogs and their landscape and their yard. And it's not far fetched
to say that dogs need room to roam and so Stacy, most of the
questions that I would get through the years were surface related, turf related,
Essentially, the dog evacuating on the turf let me put it that way,
going potty and creating spots or digging up the turf, and I would say
that that's probably the number one issue, at least as I've heard from dog
owners, because that surface is important. There's controversy there. There are some
people who will resign themselves to artificial turf. Well, that's expensive, it
can get hot in the sun. You've got clean up issues. So I
personally believe through the years, a tall turf type rescue that's used in heavily
traffic parks, along with perennial rye grass which tends to germinate quickly, is
a great way to go. Maybe some water in those areas where you need
to drain the salts out of the areas where the dogs have evacuated. I'm
going to use that word because I just think it's more radio friendly. And
of course through the years too, we've advised people to use gypsum pellets.
Gypsum pellets are used on clay lawns. Whether or not it works, that's
up to you to decide. But I find that as one of the top
issues. Well, you know, I think that along with all of that,
a healthy dose of tolerance is also a good thing for dog owners to
have. I mean, you're going to have a dog, then I think
you need to just kind of resign yourself to not having a perfect turf.
And it's okay if those you know, you can coexist with those two things.
I mean, you know, I think you know, my neighbors have
two dogs, and their turf looks to me absolutely immaculate. I'm sure they're
sitting there going oh jeezer spots all over it, but I mean I think
it looks amazing, and so it's okay. You know, a lawn doesn't
have to be a completely con assistant perfect thing. And if you're one of
those people who have a home putting green, well you just keep your dog
off of that problem solved, Yeah, exactly. Well, there are many
wonderful dog owners who do a great job training their dogs and setting up in
their landscape an area where the dog can go to the bathroom, and it
works. It just takes some work, some time to train the dog to
go in those areas. Obviously, the difference between male and female dogs also,
the male dogs tend to do more damage to shrubs, the female dogs
more damage to turf areas. Now, also we want plants that are tough,
that can handle dogs rummaging around in the yard. I think ornamental grasses,
as an example, are perfect. They're tough, they're safe for the
dogs. And of course we have unsafe plants that we don't want in our
landscape. You know, you think of sago palm or oleander. I mean,
those are obvious plants that you don't want in your landscape. But Stacy,
you've often advised people to use a method to look up university websites for
plant list Oh yeah, I'm a big believer in this. And you know,
over the years I've heard from a lot of gardeners who are like,
you know, I'm interested in your fill in the blank plant, but I
want to know if it's if it's okay for my dog to eat or you
know whatever. And I will say, first and foremost, your assumption with
any plant should be your dog cannot eat it. So even if something is
not harmful, it's not like you should encourage your dog to eat it,
because you know, at least at worst your carpet could be at riskless once
the dog comes back inside. So you know whether or not something is actually
coming up as toxic, is an important distinction because you're just like, don't
you just don't eat the plants. But if you are wondering, and if
you are concerned or your dog has eaten something and you are now very concerned,
the best way to get reliable information on if a plant is toxic to
your pet is to search the scientific name if possible. So you don't want
to just put in like, you know, maiden grass, because it's going
to be, you know, kind of muddy. It'll be confusing, So
you would want to put in miscanthus at the very least. And if it's
a hydrangea, then you would want us put in like hydrange of piniculata,
so as much scientific name as you can put it, So you would put
in hydrange of peniculata toxic, not poisonous or anything that because the official term
here is that it's toxic to the animal toxic and then dogs or cats or
rabbits or tortoises or whatever that is. And then site si te colon dot
edu. And so what this does is it limits all of your responses in
your search to only university websites. And what that means is that you're getting
results from veterinary programs where they're actually studying these things. And you know,
the really good thing about this Ateran and I were just talking about this as
well, is that it's not only just saying your dogs shouldn't eat this,
it's actually giving you These sites are giving you actual information on what the mode
of action of that potential toxin is. Is it going to be a dermal
is bothering the skin, the hair, sure stomach? What you should be
looking for, and then you can take that to the vet because you know,
if you just say, oh, he just ate this plant and it
was a hydrangea like, that's not necessarily helpful. And I know in these
times of you know, panic, it's not always easy to think straight.
So it might be useful if you have a landscape and a very very curious
dog is to just make a little list of those plants and do the research
and then just have that list to refer to. That's a great way to
do research. Of course, we also learn from each other. Being in
the garden center industry for over forty years, I've learned a lot from dog
owners. We can learn from each other and programming note today coming up in
the mail bag segment, we're going to learn from you, and there's some
great advice in there, Stacey. And then in the final segment today,
we're going to learn from our very own Adrianna Robinson. She has two dogs.
I'm gonna make sure to get this right, at Liass and Sage.
And we're going to talk about Atlas and Sage coming up in our fourth segment.
See. The other thing I've learned from folks through the years is,
of course dogs like to roam. We should have a fence or a barrier
to protect the dog, but a dog generally would like to patrol that fence
line, keeping an eye on the neighbors. I love those windows you can
purchase the ventilated windows. Yeah, peek out the fence line, but it
means moving shrubs or plants maybe a little ways away, maybe two to three
feet from the fence line, so they have that area that they can patrol
looking at things like hard scaping or maybe looking at in an elevated lookout.
And then in addition, when we talk dog scaping, Stacy, we've got
to provide an area of shade for dogs too. Oh. Absolutely, clean
water and clean water, yes, exactly, raised beds if you're going to
grow herbs, vegetables, that type of thing. Raised beds are a good
idea. And then you know, I'm gonna ask Adriana about this in our
fourth segment too, because through about the years, people have asked about mulch,
what does your dog eat? And of course there's the whole thing with
cocoa mulch attention to exactly. So anyhow, the dog show up and they're
the stars of the show. We love our dogs. As a matter of
fact, that's when the paparazzi shows up. Sorry, there's so many good
dog puns. I just can't resist. But you can train your dog.
And of course some dogs are diggers. I mean, they just want to
dig, that's their nature. And so if you have a dog like that,
also maybe providing a digging pit. So let's continue on with dogscaping.
We're going to see how Stacy ties it in with plants on trial this week
here on the Gardening Simplified Show. Proven winners Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your
success in the garden. That's why we try and test all of our shrubs
for eight to ten years, making sure they outperform everything else on the market.
Look for them and the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where the
topic of the day is dogs. And you know, a couple of weeks
ago, we did ask people to send in pictures of their dogs so that
we could show them as part of this episode. So this is one episode
I would strongly encourage you if you do not tune in on YouTube, that
you tune in this time because we are going to add all of those in
to the YouTube video. We got so many great submissions. I love them
all. Every email that I opened was like a new joy. And I'll
tell you, I don't know if other shows ask their listeners to send and
dogs, but I think our listeners have the best looking dogs out there.
Is just sayings are adorable, the landscapes are beautiful. These people give wonderful
advice. You know. I was thinking, Stacey, about all the fertilizers
that are out there that are dog safe and organic even weed controls, and
so you know, those opportunities are there, and these people are living it,
practicing it and making it work. And you know, so I don't
have a dog as Rick said, I'm also a dog free American here,
but my neighbors have two dogs, and so my main native plant garden borders
their yard as well. And my neighbors are wonderful people, and so we're
often chatting over the fence, and very often as soon as we start chatting,
the dogs run over. And they're newish puppy she's I think she's a
little over a year old now, will immediately just start nipping at every plant
that comes through the fence. Wow. So it's like and I so I
said to them last time, I said, does she always show this much
interest in the gardener? Is it only like if we're over here talking?
They said, Oh, no, it's only if she's here talking. So
it's kind of one of those things where your dog may or may not have
an inherent, you know, desire to engage with the garden, but once
you kind of draw its attention to it, then it's a totally different story.
So, you know, I feel like I have a responsibility. When
I was building this border, I certainly wasn't thinking, oh, are dogs
potentially going to you know, eat it? And you know, an important
thing to think about in terms of toxic plants and dogs. Is that toxic
plants do not you know, become toxic in an attempt to trick the animals
into eating them and then oh surprise, you've been poisoned. They taste terrible,
like there is a taste to torrent in almost all toxic plants that is
specifically there to be like, don't eat me, you will be sorry.
So you know it is something to take seriously. But also to know that,
you know, most dogs puppies of course, can be a different uh
uh, you know, situation entirely, and I know that dogs have varying
levels of interest and self awareness out there. My neighbor's dog leaves the plants
alone, but loves to steal my garden gloves, grabs my gloves and runs
with them. Bo Bo is a great dog. Well in my neighbors.
When this dog was a puppy, she loved to pick up our pine cones,
which was which was a very welcome things. Sometimes really liked chewing on
pine cones. But anyway, so that is just a little aside to our
intro and a reminder to please do check out the YouTube version to see all
of the darling dogs from our listeners. So Yeah. When I was thinking
about today's plant on trial, you know, as usual, there's so many
different directions that it could have gone in. I could have picked a dog,
would but I did not. I almost went with a pug stair butterfly
bush because it was our indeed named for the dog. Well done Pug,
because I kind of had that short, squat, little habit. But no,
I thought back to my past, and I thought of a plant when
I was a rooftop So I lived in New York City for twelve years,
I was a rooftop gardener. And when I was rooftop gardener, very often
we would also do the maintenance on the sort of small landscapes around the front
of buildings in Manhattan. And I also worked in Central Park as a public
gardener. And in New York City it's you have to be tough to be
a plant in New York City in a park or in one of those landscapes,
because what happens is, you know, have firmworks all day, the
dog finally gets to go out, and the second that dog sets foot outside
the building, that little landscape is just getting bombarded. And that's why they
call it Central Bark. They usually don't even make it to Central Park before
they immediately get to you know, that first landscape. Now they'll of course
do more business once they're in the park. But yeah, between that and
you know dogs in parks where people will take them to walk and do their
business, you know, the plants really have to stand up to a lot.
And in my years of maintaining those little front landscapes, I have seen
a lot of plants die due to Now, this is of course super usage.
This is not like your regular you know, homeowner who lets the dog
out and they one or two dogs are going out, you know, three
times a day. This is like seventy or one hundred dogs coming out multiple
time let the dogs out. So you know, I've seen a lot of
plants die, and I've seen some plants really be able to stand up to
that and consistently. One of the plants that I think is best able to
stand up to the abuses of pet ownership, especially dogs, is Abelia.
This is interesting, Stacy, because I think a lot of people aren't necessarily
familiar with it. No, certainly not in the Midwest. So Abelia is
a very interesting shrub. It is shade tolerant, which is very nice,
it's very dear resistant, it's pretty drought tolerant. Most abelias do come from
Asia, that's where they're native to. But for many, many years,
people just did not assume that abelias were hardy. So you'll see them if
you go to the south. They're a fairly popular landscape plant. But there's
actually hardy varieties down to USDA Zone four, like our sweet emotion abelia.
But this type that we're talking about today and the plant on trial today is
fun shining abelia. Even though a lot of what I'm saying just kind of
applies to these abelias in general, it's actually hardy to USDA Zone six,
and I would say potentially down to USDA Zone five if you plant it in
a proper spot, you know where it's kind of protected and not totally exposed
to the worst of the winter weather. But yeah, especially for us in
the Midwest and a little bit you know more as you go on the East
Coast, a lot of people aren't familiar with it, and you will see
it abundantly. Bilio grande flora is a very very popular park plant in New
York City for hedges and delineation and that kind of thing. So these abelias
are semi evergreen, so they keep some of their leaves in winter and lose
the rest. But the important thing about their foliage is it's very glossy.
And I think this is just a theory. I don't have proof, but
since I have seen abelia stand up to a lot of dog abuse in a
lot of different places throughout New York City, I think that that glossiness really
helps to keep it safe. You know, from when the dog earine hits
it. There's heat, there's salt, there's all of these other issues that
could potentially damage that leaf tissue. And I think that that glossy coating on
the leaf, which makes it such an attractive landscape plant, also helps to
protect it from extensive dog damage. And the glossy foliage probably makes the plant
heat resistant too, so for folks who live in warmer areas, it's a
great plant. Yeah, it's so, and I, like I said,
it's very drought tolerant as well. Another thing that's good about it in terms
of you know, dogs, is its leaves are very smooth, and so
that is minimal leaf surface. So if you think of like a hydrangea leaf,
it's got all those veins, and like thick quilting, that's a lot
of extra surface area for things to get damaged, whereas the abelia, it's
very smooth and it can roll off as well as reduce a surface area where
there could be a potential for damage. So I think it's a great plant.
And Funshine abilia is known for its colorful foliage. It is an extremely
colorful, colorful plant. So the foliage emerges bright orange, and it has
a red stem so that when that new growth comes out, it's not a
red stem, and then as that matures, it turns yellow, and then
it kind of turns to chartroot. So you're getting like three or four or
five different colors on this plant at once. So it's looking really great in
the landscape as well. And then in summer it develops sort of these small
bell shaped, purply pink flowers. In the case of so in some abelias,
the flowers are the main attraction. In the case of Funshine, I
would say the foliage completely overshadows the flowers, like you're almost like, WHOA,
that thing's flowering. You know it's the foliage. The color does so
so much, And another great thing for dog owners. The flowers are fragrant.
Oh, so you know who wouldn't benefit from a little bit of fragrance
on a hot summer day and the dog's you know, availing itself of your
nearby Abelia. This sounds like a winner to me. If you're keeping score
at home, Stacy's talking about funshine Abelia. So that's spelled If you're driving
in your car listening to a podcast or the radio version of our show,
it's spelled A B, E, L, I, A, and Stacey.
This sounds like a real winner. It is, and you know I
like it too. So you're going to find a lot of different sizes and
shapes within Abelia if you go to the garden center to buy this. Like
I mentioned, the Abelia Grande Flora that is so popular in New York City
is going to be a little bit taller, a little bit kind of twiggyar
whereas the newer varieties that we're selecting for are really more about that dense habit,
and they tend to be more rounded, so you can still use them
as like a low hedge or an edging, so they are perfect for that
IDEI referenced earlier about those little landscapes. Right when you come out the door
where you just want something low and just something to take up space. And
so I think this is a great suggestion. Abelia are non toxic. I
did verify that using my method of you know, typing in the scientific name
and site colon dot du to make sure that it is non toxic. Should
your dogs be interested in it besides just marking their spot? And it's also
deer resistant. Yeah, so that's another great thing about it. I have
abelia in my yard and the deer have never touched it, and come fall,
the hummingbirds and butterflies actually fight over it. Wow. So the flowers
really attract a ton of hummingbirds and butterflies. It seems like, especially late
in the season. I don't have to become more nectar rich at that point
or what. But yeah, I mean I have seen multiple butterflies and a
hummingbird will come along and be like, hey, out of my way,
gotta get a drink here. So it's a great plant. It's a good
looking plant. So even if you don't have a dog and you're just looking
for a really colorful shrub, funshine abilia is a great choice. We also
have a bunch of other newer varieties similar to Funshine variegated different colors. We
will put a link in the show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot com
so you can learn everything you need to know about Funshine abilia and the rest
of the proven Winter's Color Choice abelias. You can also find a retailer there
if you want to add it to your garden. And for now, we're
gonna take a little break. When we come back, we are sharing our
listeners advice on dog scaping, so please stay tuned at Proven Winner's Color Choice.
We've got a shrub for every taste and every space. Whether you're looking
for an easy care rose, an unforgettable hydrangea, or something new and unique,
you can be confident that the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed
and tested for your success. Look for them at your local garden center.
Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, the
dog themed Gardening Simplified Show. And like I said, we invited our listeners
to send us photos of their dogs in the garden and they did not disappoint.
You know, when we asked people to send in their photos, I
was wearing one of our new plank geek shirts, and I said, oh,
we'll pick a winner at random, but it turns out that I am
a softie. And since we heard from about you know, ten or twelve
different listeners, they're all getting shirts. Fantastic. So if you send us
a dog picture, uh look, check your inbox for an email from me.
If it's not there, check your spam and if you still don't see
it, then shoot me an email and I will get with you to get
your get your size and gets you your planking shot, because we do appreciate
you taking the time to write us and send us those pictures. And there
is just some yes. And that was the really cool thing is you know
we didn't say we may have said, like, hey, if you have
advice, but some people wrote in with some really really good ideas, and
I think, you know, it's so good when we learn from each other.
And you know, Rick, you and I know we can talk about
a lot of different aspects of gardening, but gardening with dogs is not one
of them. So that's why we're going to invite Adriana on camera for segment
four as our resident dog expert. And if you check us out on YouTube
again, you'll see the dog pictures, and we'll put pictures of Adrian is
adorable for babies there as well. But I did want to share some of
the information that we got from our listeners on dog gardening. So Ela writes
and that she loves to listen to the show while she's gardening, and she
says fencing has been a true game changer for me and my garden. My
sweet but clumsy ninety five pound golden doodle Marigolds the cutest name. I love
it. And there is a picture she signed, a picture of Marigold,
which is a She's an absolutely delightful dog. So Marigold used to trample all
over my plants without a care in the world. Of course, she's a
dog. I tried steaks and twine, she still broke through. Yeah,
she's ninety five pounds. Earlier this spring, I invested in sturdy metal fencing
that's about three feet tall as a perimeter around my perennial beds in my backyard.
And this has been perfect for keeping Marigold from squashing my plants and still
being able to play a game of fetch for my vegetable garden. As you
can see in the picture, I went a step further and added a four
foot picket fence. The barrier has proven to be incredibly effective in safeguarding my
veggies from her playful paws. Since installing the fencing, I can relax in
my backyard and Miss Marigold can enjoy her outdoor time. It's been a win
win for both of us. If you are dealing with a similar situation,
I highly recommend investing in some quality fencing. It's made a world of difference
for us. Elaine makes a good point there, quality fencing do it work,
you know, and quality fencing also means sturdy posts that you put the
fencing on. Just invest the time in that and both you and your dog
are going to appreciate that great Now, Yeah, you know what. That
kind of goes along with our Regrets show from last week, which is if
you don't invest in quality fencing, there you go. You will probably regret
it because then you're out the cost of the not quality fencing as well as
the cost of quality fencing. So you know, there's something to be said
about it. It looks awful and so I don't know, there's no defense.
Elaine did send an adorable picture of Marigold in front of her garden,
and then she sent a picture of her vegetable garden. And really, this
is another one that you have to check out because her picket fence, she
doesn't even she just catches. It's like, oh, I just put in
a picket fence. It's painted all different colors. And she has these colorful
flags zigzagging over her garden and it just looks like the sweetest, most delightful
place to be. So thank you so much Elaine for sending that advice and
your photos. And here's to miss Marigold. You are a good dog.
Yes, thank you, Marigold. Brianna writes to us. My name is
Brie, my husband is Marshall. We are Zone eight B gardeners in Texas.
I'm a surgery resident and my husband is a veterinarian. Attached our pictures
of our dog, Ellie, and she is the best gardening buddy. Anytime
we're out gardening, she wants to be with us. Her favorite things while
we garden are playing fetch with her favorite ball, getting pets, or snoozing
in a sunny spot. We trained her not to go in the garden beds.
To her, they are off limits. And I love this Stacy.
You know we talked about that in the first segment. Some folks are put
the time in and are very good at training the dog to stay out of
garden beds or go potty in a certain area. Early on, we did
not even let her be outside alone to get into trouble. We used a
lot of positive reinforcement boiled chicken is her favorite, and rewarded her for staying
out of the garden beds. It took time, but now even if her
favorite ball rolls into the garden beds, or if she's chasing a squirrel squirrel,
she doesn't go into the garden. That's impressive. That's impressive. She's
a very high energy dog, so we always make sure that she gets enough
exercise and mental stimulation. And then I really appreciate what Brie wrote here,
Stacy. She goes on to talk about the less toxic plans. Yes,
so she mentions tulip's hyacinth s, daffodil's chrysanthemums. Now, obviously Bree's husband,
Marshall, is a vet, so he probably has the benefit of,
you know, knowing some of these, but it's not information that you know
you need to go to veterinary school to get because veterinarians fortunately are sharing this
information on university websites and we will link. I'll link to some of my
favorites in our show notes so that you can keep those handy for if you
do need to do that. So they put less toxic plants in the garden
because the garden bed is off limits, so she doesn't dig or eat the
plants. But they do make sure to keep any dead foliage or leaves picked
up. And that's important too because I have a friend who had a dog
eat some Taxis clippings. So they had trimmed the shrup the hedge and you
know, left it and they were cleaning up, and you know, the
dog never bothered the plant itself, but as many dogs are very interested in
sticks, and you know, the dog picked up the stick. And Taxis
is one of the most toxic plants, despite the fact that somehow deer managed
to eat it, which never fails to boggle my mind. So they had
to, you know, take him to an emergency vent, which is expensive,
and you know, they had no idea of if he had consumed enough
to be a problem. So yeah, it's important to make sure that all
of that stuff is being kept up, picked up as well as you know,
just keeping them from the actual plants growing in your garden. You know,
you talk about plants they see often within the garden center. We would
get calls from people where the dog would eat the organic fertilizer if that folks
had purchases. And of course, if you think about it, it's got
bone meal in it, blind meal, it's got the corn, gluten,
ratten eggs. All that gets exactly right, everything that dogs love. And
I am aware of that, like if I spray deer repellent like that,
I don't want their dogs to be going crazy if they're you know so.
But Brianna goes on to say that there are some highly toxic plants that they
completely avoid, and Marshall, the veterinarian husband recommends that you do the same.
So she lists a couple that are common in Texas, less common for
us up here in Michigan. Sago palms oleander is one of the most toxic
plants out there for humans as well as animals and lilies. She said,
this is actually for cats, but the pollen can cause kidney failure and death,
and they specifically don't get lilies in the flower bouquets because of how toxic
they can be for cats, she says. Lastly, Marshall is very passionate
about education and it's happy to answer any questions or talk more about plant health.
So I love that. I thought we would have him on a future
show and what I thought would be you, So we didn't have time to
book it all together for the dog scaping show. What I thought would be
great to talk to Marshall about is sort of you know, if your dog
eats a plant, what should your plan of action be? What do you
need to know to go to the vet with so that they can act,
you know, defensively and in a hurry. So look for Marshall on a
future show hopefully. And thank you so much to Brianna and Marshall and Ellie.
Ellie, you are a very good dog, Julie writes to us,
Hi, I'm sending what I do to keep my garden and lawn looking good
with two dogs. After seeing the damage my male dog was doing, I
started training them both to go number one in a certain area before they get
access to the yard. They are anxious to get out, so they will
hurry up and do their business with a verbal queue. Now sometimes they will
go again a second time out in the yard, but it's very rare.
I don't mind number two, just number one that does the damage. And
like we talked about in the first segment, yes, surface areas and damage
to most notably turf. I have included a picture of the little area behind
our garage that I have playground wood chips on them for them to go,
and then also a picture of them out and about enjoying the yard. A
third picture of my son's dog last year when I was dog sitting, he
found a nice comfy spot on my annuals to lay down. It always makes
me laugh when I see that, and it is a great picture. It's
a big gray looks like a bowl mastiff or something. He's a very large
dog and he is just like, it's cool here where if I fits,
I sits. So yeah, And I think that Julie, you know,
her yard obviously looks great. It's very very neat. I think she's her
advice is a great example of, you know, how you can kind of
balance having a really beautifully tended yard and having two dogs. And so that
was really great advice too. Now, whether or not it's possible for you
to train your dog at that level, whether or not it's too late for
you to train your dog at that level, whether you can teach an old
dog new tricks as it were. But you know, if you're getting a
newer dog, a puppy or something like that, it's worth considering, you
know, how can you put the effort in to train them so it's not
an issue in the first place. Although I have heard from a number of
people who say that wood mulch is like their dog's favorite thing to chew on.
It's like the stick selection. They can just like go through and find
their favorite little chunk and chew on it. They love that exactly. You're
barking up the right tree. But you know, again, the wood mulch,
and I think we had a question about this recently, is widely believed
to be the best for the most dogs safe of all of the mulches out
there. So so thank you all so much for your advice and assistance and
your amazing photos of your beautiful dogs. Oh, I forgot, Julie didn't
tell me her dog's names, but I'm sure they are also very good dogs.
Anyway, Thank you again. We're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're going to bring on Adriana for some more dogscaping
advice, so please stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you
by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have
been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work.
Look for Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your
local garden center. Welcome back to The Gardening Simplified Show, our dog scaping
edition of The Gardening Simplified Show. And as we've mentioned previously on today's show,
both Stacy and I are not dog owners. We are plant lovers.
We are obviously gardening lovers and certainly appreciate pets. We're surrounded by them.
Our neighbors own dogs, and as I mentioned, I live near a large
dog beach on Lake Michigan. But the true dog owner here on the set
of The Gardening Simplified Show, as our wonderful engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson and
Adriana I understand two dogs, Atlas and Sage. Tell us about Atlas and
Sage. Yes, so yep. As Rick mentioned, I have a husky
named Atlas. He I think I've been saying he's eight years old for the
past like four years, but this year he is officially turning eight. And
then Sage is a little mutt pup that we got from Honduras, oh recently.
Treso Stage is a recent addition to the family. Yes, got her
in April. You know, I joked about the Papa Razzi and we were
having fun Adriana talking about the fact that both of us had visited Hawking Hills
in Ohio, and I think you brought along Atlas on that trip. Is
that correct? Yes, that is correct. We actually went with two of
our friends who had a husky and a Golden retriever with them as well.
It was super fun. Atlas loved swimming around in the area, but it
was very crowded. Yeah. Yeah, and of course they surround Atlas.
They become the stars of the show. You know. One of the things
I was thinking Stacy with dog scaping is that, again fencing in barriers,
you have to think about your neighbors. You have to think about what's safe
for your dog and also consider your neighbors and their part in this relationship with
your dog. Also, and Adriana, we have a story to post on
our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com, and that is this dog
owner who got revenge on her neighbor who was teasing her dog with a drone
and eventually the dog destroyed the drone and the neighbor was trying to get the
money back on this drone, but the judge ruled in favor of the pet
owner and the individual owned the drone ended up paying up. But again,
neighborly relations when you have a dog, pretty important thing to pay attention to.
Yeah, and you know, it's funny because I feel like normally it's
the one who owns the dog that it's like, you know, you're kind
of having to be more cautious. You don't want it to be barking in
their window or anything like that. This story was interesting. You know,
I am a drone pilot and having a husky specifically, I definitely side with
the dog owner on that. I think anytime you just start off a story
with trying to terrorize a dog, it's usually a bad idea. So I
think it was it ended the way it should have for that story. Well,
you know, dogs need a safe space too, and the yard is
their home just as much as it's yours. And if you go and start
antagonizing some poor unsuspecting dog on its home turf, I mean yeah. And
you know dogs have a natural predator sense to a degree too. So something
buzzing around, you know, kind of coming at it, it's probably panicking.
It doesn't know what's going on, so Atlas would have grabbed it to
Yeah, it doesn't know that. It's not like a hawk about to like
swoop down and you know, mess with it or something like that. So
I know you have a vegetable garden, yes, So have the dogs ever
shown any interest in the vegetable garden or any other part of your garden?
Yes? So the vegetable garden, I do have a fence around it where
you know, it's got some wood frames and also some chicken ware, so
they can't go in it unless I'm in there. And then Sage likes to
go around. She loves smelling the celery because she knows she's gonna eat it
later. And then so that's pretty much the extent of getting in the vegetable
garden. But then for my regular garden. They definitely like to explore everywhere.
I leave certain areas of the yard open for them because I know they
enjoy playing. So we have a back fence where our neighbors have two dogs
and they like to go and run around there, So I don't plant anything
there because I know it's going to get trampled. Other than that, I
do have Atlas trained to stay out of the garden beds, so he's pretty
good at that for the most part, unless there is a squirrel he's got
to chase. He never catches them, but you know he does love to
chase them. Well, instinct kicks in, you know, he's just like,
I gotta go after the squirrel. My training it all goes out the
window right exactly. And he's, you know, a protector of the yard.
So sure, but you know I have trained him to respect the garden
and training stage as well. We were talking about mulch in the last segment.
I use a shredded plane bark mulch no die, so Sage will kind
of chew on that sometimes, but not to an extent where it's been a
problem. Right, So just the shredded hardwood mulch, not something that has
a dye in it that makes it red or black or chocolate colored. Yes,
correct, yep, just a natural shredded bark. Yeah, and of
course avoiding cocoa mulch. You know, off the top of my head,
I was thinking of a word, and I think it's I think it's pronounced
smoothe or smooth. Oh, yeah, a little. You talked about that
before, Yes, m u s when you talk about Atlas chasing a squirrel,
I leave them in my yard so they can escape most Yes, the
squirrel stands a fighting chance. Yeah. Going back to maultch too. When
I was just looking up a couple different facts for this show, I had
read one of those articles too, where it was how to prevent fleas from
getting new yard and kept saying cedar bark mulch, which I was not able
to find scientific evidence that that truly supports prevention from ther yard, but mentioned
that that is interesting because you know, a little while ago, we had
a listener question who was asking about mulch to prevent fire ants, and they
were also making claims about cedar being less attractive to fire ants, but there
was also no scientific evidence that you know, the cedar mulch. It's typically
more expensive and say with a dyed mulch. So it's like what we're saying
here is just get the cheapest mulch that does the best job, and it's
better for the dogs, and it's better for you, and it's better for
the garden as well. So I'm curious about how you managed to train out
lists to not go in the beds like that. Seems like I haven't trained
a dog before, but this seems very difficult. Ye well, yes,
yes and no. So we have our lawn where it's just you know,
grass, and I'm not a huge lawn fanatic or anything, so mine doesn't
look that great. But so the garden beds edged and they are shredded bark
mulch, so it kind of is already a perimeter. And I trained to
to teach those perimeters almost like a fence, positive reinforcement. Whenever he would
stay out, you know, I'd say stay out of the garden and he
would, and I would give him some boiled chicken, which he loves as
well. Which I mean it took years, right like it's not And when
I moved, I had to it was completely new training. He knew the
phrase, but he didn't understand, like, well, is this a garden?
You know? Where am I? He's kind of he's too smart for
his own good. So when I'm not around, I know, he definitely
like casually walks around the plants and like tiptoes in there. But and then
I'll like poke my head out and he'll like screw you away or like hide
behind the garage where I can't see him. So he's not probably as trained
as Ellie, who sounds amazing, but he's he's a good boy's fair So
you know, you're like Alice, dude, you're one hundred pounds. I
can tell if you've left a foot printed, you know, And like certain
things are really cute, Like he loves smelling lilacs and lavender. So if
I see, you know, a little paw in done next to the lavender,
because I know he was stepping over to smell it, That's okay.
It's for him to enjoy too, that's great. You know, I would
think repetition is the key? Is that is the word I was looking for?
Yes, you know, one of the observations that I had and with
my neighbor, and that is when you own a dog, it gives you
the opportunity to get exercise for yourself. His dog goes busting out the back
door and goes crazy when he initially is able to get out of the house.
But I think one of the important aspects here, from my observation,
would be that if you're going to own a dog, you're going to have
to be willing to get some exercise yourself. In other words, take that
dog for a walk. Yes. Absolutely. Going back to even bad habits
that dogs have in the yard, you gotta almost look at it as from
a why is this habit happening in the first place. So a lot of
the time it does have to do with their not exerting enough energy. You
gotta take them out more, or if they're chewing a bunch of stuff,
maybe try putting different toys in the yard for them to interact with. Sure
the digging, I know a lot of dogs will do that, either because
they're anxious or the energy thing again, but some will do it like Sage
from Hondura's No doubt, she was used to doing that all the time to
get cool, so okay, so I would whenever she would do that,
and it would always be, you know, in a fresh garden bed.
I just dug up so it was like really dirty. So whenever she would
do that, I would just redirect you. I'd say no, and then
redirect her to this spot on my back patio where it's cement and in the
shade and nice and cool. So then she knows to go there now whenever
she's trying to cool down. And she picked it up really fast. And
some dogs definitely take more time. But I think that knowing why the dog
is behaving the way it is is the first step. Sure. Absolutely,
have your dogs ever brought something interesting home to you? I was reading a
thread some dog owners here, and I had so much fun reading this.
One of these individuals says, my neighbor's dog once brought home a man's bathing
suit with keys in the pocket. All we knew to do was hang the
bathing suit out on our mailbox and hopefully the owner would find it. And
then a yellow lab mix named Bailey. Her most incredible find was a tom
Blur half filled with bourbon on the rocks. Oh that kind of does.
It's hilarious. You know, my dogs, if they're bringing anything to me,
it's concerning for me because it's from my backyard and like, what did
you tear up? Or what did you do? So they're not really roaming
around too often in the neighborhood or anything like that, so mine haven't.
There was famously the Halloween We're at last fell in love with the gourd.
Oh yes, oh, hopefully I can find pictures of that. Yes,
there was a Halloween where there's just a random gourd, nothing really special about
it, but he carried it with him everywhere. He went to bed with
it for months until it started getting bad. So I tried to, you
know, be the parent that was like, I'll just replace it and hopefully
we won't he won't notice. But he did, and he never looked at
another gourd the same. That's a story, well, folks. Adriana Robinson
is our engineer and producer of The Gardening Simplified show. Just does a wonderful
job. We could not do this show without you, Adriana, and we
so appreciate you. As a matter of fact, you work so hard you
deserve a vacation. I was noticing on online that there is an airline now
called Bark Airlines. It now serves New York, La London, Paris,
Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Phoenix. So maybe
look into Bark Airlines and take at listen Sage on a trip. Ah absolutely
ute. Yes, Thanks Adriana, thank you well, Thank you all so
much for listening, and thanks so much especially to everyone who's sent in their
advice and photos of their dogs. I hope you all take the time to
enjoy the dogs of the listeners to the Gardening Simplified Show. And thanks Rick,
thanks for our resident dog and our resident dog expert, Adriana, and
thanks to all of you. We hope you have a wonderful week ahead.