This dog is a natural gardener. She loves chasing critters off of my tomato plants.

My Dog Gardens + Podcast

Posted on by da-AL
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2zQMEv0QpLhyyOl41Ain5w?si=8e0d87229619455f
Photo of K-D doggie watching over pests in the garden.
K-D girlie is a natural gardener.

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What do medium-to-large-sized dogs have to do with gardening?

My gardening skills lie within the black-thumb spectrum, but they’ve improved drastically, thanks to canine assistance! I gladly shared the bounty with Los Angeles’ urban wildlife — but I drew the line when birds and rats didn’t leave anything for my family.

The dogs I’ve cared for greet fertilizer as candy, so I barely use it. Nor do I use pesticides for that, and myriad environmental reasons. All 3 of the wonder doggies I’ve had (a still-missed brother and sister, and now K-D girlie) have helped chase away vermin! K-D challenges everything from squirrels, mice, and rats, to possums, raccoons, and coyotes. Birds, too, get barked at enough to leave off nibbling more than a little of the tasty fruit and veggies.

That’s not all. Once I added dogs to our household, the hoards of snails dwindled. Ditto for legions of jumbo grasshoppers. Fortunately, beneficials such as ladybugs and pollinating non-aggressive bees and wasps aren’t bothered.

Pretty green flying beetles used to ruin the figs before they got a chance to ripen. With a dog or more to lunge and chomp at them, they’ve flow elsewhere. By the way, keeping grass short and clearing leaves also reduces fig beetles.

I’m on my own when it comes to spiders, the ones that stunted many tomato plants with their desiccating webs of red powder. Another tip: watering tomato plants only at their roots staves off mold and some bugs.

Photo of how a window screen wrapped around a tomato plant keeps off critters.
Screens keep the good in and the bad out.
Photo of how clothes pins secure flexible window screen material at base of plants.
Along with dogs, window screen and clothes pins protect plants.

Wait — back to birds and squirrels — some were extra persistent. Finally, using leftover window screen material did the trick.

Photo of a wasp working to get under a tomato plant cage.
Wasps and bees are garden helpers too. Don’t bee fooled by the wasp in this photo — pollinators such as this one and bees squeeze under mesh to work their magic.

Voila! It lets in sunlight and air. Plus it’s light enough to snip with scissors, then wrap around plants. Clothes pins keep the malleable cages snug.

Photo of 3 fresh ripe tomatoes on a piece of window screen.
Gardening goodness, screen guardian underneath.

Sure, home-grown tomatoes surpass grocery store ones. Gardening teaches me to be resourceful and optimistic. It’s also shown me that dogs are more amazing that I thought!

Is your pet a gardener?

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Published by da-AL

Happiness Between Tails speaks to and from the heart. It connects lovers — of pets, authors, books — and of my still-unreleased novels, “Flamenco + the Sitting Cat” and “Tango + the Sitting Cat.” The stories are my love letters to all who fear they're too odd, too damaged, too old, too whatever to find happiness. ContactdaAL@gmail.com • BuyMeACoffee.com/SupportHBT

53 thoughts on “My Dog Gardens + Podcast”

  1. The screen protection is BRILLIANT! Absolutely brilliant!

    I’ve refused to even try growing a home garden because we have so many rats, opossum, raccoons, skunks, as well as crows the size of cows, even coyotes, which aren’t interested in the veggies, but in the critters who like the veggies. The screens might be a solution.

    Of course, my son always says when he spots a new plant in my house: another innocent victim.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I tried sweet potatoes & had no luck. A Chinese herbalist/acupuncturist told me that in China they sautee the leaves, that they are more nutritious than the potatoes. I tried it & they are delicious!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Small, but crammed. American houses (as opposed to condominiums and apartments) typically feature a front yard without a fence around it, & a private back yard. In front we have roses & kumquats. In back yard we have a beautiful fig tree, some grapes, a few herbs like rosemary & sage, & the tomato plants that I put in each spring for the summer. Before the dogs, I tried more things, but now the dogs are often too eager to sample young plants. Do you have a garden?

      Liked by 2 people

      1. aww..lovely..i wud very much love to have a garden.. ur so lucky..i have always lived in an apartment. i have some potted flowers..jasmine, roses etc..in fact its my dream to have an organic veg farm one day with lots of veg, fruits, flowers

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Would not have embarked upon were it not for a friend who, years ago, visited with all the plantings for a first crop. Am grateful to her, as while it can be work, its quite rewarding as well.

      Liked by 1 person

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