A friend of mine loves to garden. I love to garden, too, but the
two of us have completely different approaches to gardening.
A friend of mine loves to garden. I love to garden, too, but the two of us have completely different approaches to gardening.
You see, she loves to dig. I mean really dig – things like uprooting entire plants, stomping on tender shoots, pulling entire perennials out of the ground. If you haven’t guessed it yet, my friend who loves to garden is our new dog, Rocko.
He is determined to reshape the backyard landscape. I truly believe Rocko has some sort of lunar theme in mind. How else would you explain craters and mounds? And he does everything with joy and passion! He’ll run around the yard with that just-uprooted bedding plant hanging from his mouth in glee.
What were we thinking? It’s as if we invited a 20-pound gopher to live with us. Rocko, a dachshund/beagle mutt, came to us innocently enough. We adopted him from an animal rescue organization, based out of San Jose. It seems he was picked up as a stray in Turlock. I tell my family that it must have been tough growing up on the mean streets of Turlock because Rocko is one tough cookie when it comes to wrecking a garden.
Rocko even raises havoc while I’m in the midst of planting. He’s been known to snatch a soon-to-be-planted bedding plant right from alongside me as I’m digging. There’s nothing like chasing a weenie dog around the yard with a trowel in hand!
He isn’t afraid of power tools either. He’ll prance about barking and chasing while I mow. He tries to catch the whirling string trimmer in his mouth. I aim the power blower at him and he only dances away barking all the time (I’ve since taken to shutting him up inside while I mow and edge the lawn).
I recently received a garden question from a man concerned about the brown spots in his lawn that his dog was creating. If only I had to deal with brown spots. By the way, I answered that a portable fence might be feasible so at least this man’s dog won’t be doing his duty in the same spot all the time. Scent deterrents like smelly stakes or darts (some soaked in coyote or wolf urine) offer only temporary solutions.
I guess I should be angry about this wanton destruction, but I’m a sucker for a wagging tail. The way I see it, gardening is all about challenges. After all, what veteran gardener do you know who is completely satisfied with their garden? Aren’t gardeners only happy when they have something to complain about? You know, complain about how hot it is, complain about trying to dig a planting hole in rock-hard adobe soil, complain about aphids or mealy bugs or snails …
Gardening is about not giving up. It’s about enjoying successes and learning from failures. It’s about trying. For me, it’s about trying to keep a decent garden with a 20-pound bundle of mischief running amok.
