Believe it or not, there are things you can do to promote peaceful co-existence between your pet and garden.
(Courtesy: Jiya Aggarwal at flickr.com
The word co-existence entered my vocabulary in the 1950s during the cold war with the Soviet Union. Now a day there is no Soviet Union, but there are pets and gardens and pets love to take bites out of flowers and roll on or tramp through the garden beds. If you have a garden and a pet, then you need to do things that assure that the two can peacefully co-exist.
Here are some things you can do to assure that your pet does not become a nuisance for the garden.
· Drive some short stakes into the ground of your garden to prevent dogs from lying down among the flowers.
· Place thorny branches around the ground near freshly mulched or seeded beds or soft soil.
· Use a temporary fence of chicken wire to protect your garden from your pets when they are out and about playing on the lawn. To make the fence temporary, drive several tall stakes into the ground around the garden’s perimeter and then slip a roll of chicken wire over the end stake. When your pet is present in the yard, simply unroll the wire and rest it up against the remaining stakes. Viola! You have your temporary fence.
· Cats don’t like pungent odors, so plant herbs such as rosemary and sage in the garden to keep them away.
· A pungent plant called Coleus canina can also be planted among the other flora in the garden to assure the same results as the pungent herbs.
· Spread a layer of coffee grounds and orange peels around the garden to keep the cat out.
· Cats love to dig in bare soil. However, a brick buried in the soil will teach the cat to stay away because it won’t like scratching on the hard brick as it digs up the soil.
· Create a play area for your dog in a bare place of soil that includes a large shallow hole filled with sand. Add some toys and he or she has their own little sandbox.
· Use cedar chips on pathways and in the garden to protect your pet from fleas.
· Scatter mothballs among the flowers in your garden to keep cats, dogs, and rodents away.
· Soak recycled rags in white vinegar and place them on stakes around your garden. Re-soak the rags every 7 to 10 days to assure that the odor is always present.
Finally, if you have a pet, be careful about what you use to maintain your garden. Do not include poisonous plants and leave your pet inside when you fertilize, spread cocoa mulch, or use insecticides. Moreover, if you use compost, make it without coffee, moldy food and certain kinds of fruits and vegetables that are toxic to dogs and cats. Find out more by reading about what people foods you should not feed your pet.
