My Dog .vs My Garden

This is first in a series of hubs I'll be doing on gardening and my garden. It's the other side of me aside from computers and technical training. Gardening has always brought me joy and peace. It's very therapuetic..

This is an article I originally wrote and submitted to our local newspaper, The Denver Post, in 2001. They came out and did a story on it. I'll be including pictures of the garden from that time period, and maybe a bit more recent as well.

I didn't always have the gardening bug. It first started during the last year of living in a 20 year old home with an established yard. By yard I mean lawn. It was a pretty typical suburban lot size in a Denver suburb. Nothing special. I always thought it was strange that a 20 year old home didn't have any trees in the backyard...and a backyard that faced west at that. So my gardening started by yanking out overgrown junipers from in front of the front window and creating a square flowerbed for some annuals. The lawn had been neglected, for some years I think, and with a little TLC, power raking, some aerating, fertilizer and water, it was the envy of all my neighbors. I think that is when it hit me...I had found a knack for this kind of thing. I'll bet you are wondering where the dog comes into the scene. Now, I'll introduce you to our collie, Shelby. She was an older dog, not very rambunctious, and preferred laying around to running around. The sweetest dog you'd ever meet...and a gardener's dream dog. No digging, no running through flowers, no trampling.

...my husband and I purchased a brand new home, bentonite soil and all. I was so very excited to create my own personal paradise from scratch. I could do anything I wanted. I began by purchasing a couple of gardening books. I wanted to do things right and in the right order. First, amending the soil with compost and tilling it in. Then, we installed the backyard sprinkler system and laid down the electric for some lampposts out in the yard. Next came the hardscape items: a covered deck, a wraparound covered brick patio, a corner bench arbor. My dream backyard was coming together. During this time I had begun to create the borders along the fence. Of course, I had to buy more books. The 1997 season came to an end and during the week between Christmas and New Year's our collie got quite ill and passed away. A gut wrenching time for our household. It was a first for me, I never really had a long-term pet before. Both my husband and myself took it really hard. Only a couple of weeks had passed when my husband began looking for another dog. Enter...Chyna, a 2-year-old German shepherd. Full of spit and vinegar. Energetic would be an understatement when describing this dog. Of course my husband loved and accepted her from the beginning, but as for me....I knew I was in for a struggle. She ran the fence on all three sides when there were dogs or children playing on the other side. To top it off, she loves to hunt mice. The same mice that loved to burrow in the berms I created, they loved the big logs I partially buried, they loved the sunflower seed remnants from the bird feeders...and in all of these areas were the plants I planted. And so the battle began.

Right about now you might be thinking "why don't they just put the dog in a dog run?" Believe me, I was thinking that too. But my husband feels they are cruel to the animal and that was absolutely, positively not an alternative here, and OK, OK...maybe part of me agrees. I had to figure out a better way. Chyna would go around permanent structures. OK, that was a good start. Hhhmm. How do I put more permanent structure in my borders? I bought some books on dwarf conifers. This was a viable solution...and they are green! Fat Albert, Weeping Norway Spruce, Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Cupressina, Arborvitae, and some other globe shaped ones I can't remember the name to have now taken up residence along the borders. Since then I have been experimenting with various dwarf conifers here and there. Some have died from too much water. I have a couple of low spots along a border. So I would figure out something else, like a partially buried log from a cut down tree somebody had dumped on the side of the road, or a glider bench, or some big pieces of driftwood a friend gave me, and even a couple of those big foam pots, the cool ones that look heavy. The character of the garden is now leaning more along the lines of an alpine, woodsy look...and I really like it! It's serene and comforting, not to mention stunningly beautiful in the winter snow. Next to all of these solid structures I have planted perennials (and am still in the process of planting). There are several deciduous ornamental trees for varying interest. So far, my plan is working. Chyna runs around like a crazy dog, but she goes AROUND instead of through the plants. I keep pushing my limit on where I am planting...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. She has a definite "route" that she runs and I keep my plants out of her way. You might say she has trained me well. I'm a big girl...I can take it.

I keep an eye on where she has been and if it's a place that I don't want her to trample through I put something big and solid there and I camouflage it in some way or I may plant some sort of vine that will cover it in time. It's a give and take relationship that I have with my dog, Chyna. This garden is still a work in progress. My current project for this spring of 2001 is to soften the area where the wraparound brick patio meets the lawn. Dwarf conifers and daylilies play a big part in this plan. And by the way, I have quite the impressive garden book library. Gotta love online ordering!

I'm walking a fine line between "cluttered" and "full" and I hope that when I am all done, it will be as beautiful as I imagine. It's already well on it's way. My husband says Chyna is calming down....but I just don't see it.