"Arman" wrote in message
...

Hi All,

I usually lurk around here and this is my very first post. I have
recently taken up container gardening in my rooftop (its a rented
apartment) and I DO NOT have a green thumb. However after 3 months of
trying, I now I have reasonably good looking plants that I have managed
not to kill from watering too much or too little. In fact they had
bloomed so I presumed that I was doing well. Now my dogs have dug up
half my garden. They have dug out the plants, chewed on them (they are
canine safe), dug out all the soil from the pots and basically killed
my plants.

this isn't the first time this has happened, but usually they would
target one plant and cease such destructive activities when i moved the
offending plant to some place they don't have access too. but now this
is too much, they've dug up ALL the plants they could get their paws on
.. grrrrr!!

so i guess what i am asking is ... has anyone out there had this
problem? and what did you do about it? how do i get them to keep their
paws off my containers? i have 2 dogs and i love to death i would
rather give up gardening then my dogs, but i would love a solution that
would enable them to co-exist.


You can try putting some hardware cloth *available at any hardware store)
over the soil. The dogs probably will be put-off by the texture. Also, pet
stores sell repellant sprays to keep dogs away from areas. I'm not sure
they work very well, but they are inexpensive and you might give it a try.
My neighbors put mothballs in their container and claim it keeps the
wildlife away. I find the smell unpleasant and it drifts into my yard.
Again, you might try, but if you have close neighbors, you might talk to
them first.