Garden Fred 2010

[merledogs]

Have Googled and found it - it's an Oregon Grape shrub. It's pretty and the birds like the berries, so am going to keep it and see how it gets on. It's survived 5 years of the dogs pizzing on it, so it's obviously fairly sturdy

[blackmagic]

Otherwise known as Mahonia- tough as old boots.

[phoebejo]

I'm very pleased that the apple trees I bought are starting to grow already I have to say that trying to have any grass at all with around 25 chickens is incredibly difficult but the area I've fenced off actually looks green now

[Rumpole]

i need some pet friendly preferably evergreen shrubs/ small trees we have precious few plants in the garden because of the dogs demolishing them

 

we have just fenced an area off from the dogs so can put plants in without worrying there but have a raised bed that is still accessible to the dogs which is currently bare and id like to fill it with some dog friendly shrubs that will fill out nicely and ones that dont need me to have green fingers to manage them

 

any ideas what might be suitable?

[phoebejo]

I took lots of photos today. It'll (hopefully) be nice in a few months to compare my wonderous plants with the pathetic little stumps I have today

 

Just a few of the many, many pots of strawberries we've started off. Georgia used the bucket one of her Easter eggs came in, she's chuffed to bits with it

 

A rather pathetic looking blueberry bush. Fingers crossed it fills out a bit. Look at my grass in the background woohoo!

 

Ickle tiny buds on the blueberry:

 

Cherry blossom:

 

My honeysuckle is doing well:

 

Sadly the same cannot be said for the passionflower

 

The wild plum tree has gone rather wild It also has one tiny branch of blackberry growing amongst it near the bottom:

 

Buds on one of my apple trees:

 

I took my life in my hands to take those photos, I had Mr & Mrs Blackbird threatening to kill me They've chosen to nest amongst the bamboo in my garden and it seems over the weekend they became parents. According to them, I'm not allowed outside anymore, I'm not allowed to park my car on my driveway because Mr Blackbird stood on the gate yelling at me and woe betide any cats should look out of the back windows (closed I might add!) They are soooooooooo noisy! I thought the starlings in the roof were loud but they've got nothing on this pair!

 

Here they are on next doors garage roof swearing at me:

 

Mrs:

 

Mr on my GRASS!

[merledogs]

Mrs and Mrs Blackbird.

 

i need some pet friendly preferably evergreen shrubs/ small trees we have precious few plants in the garden because of the dogs demolishing them

 

we have just fenced an area off from the dogs so can put plants in without worrying there but have a raised bed that is still accessible to the dogs which is currently bare and id like to fill it with some dog friendly shrubs that will fill out nicely and ones that dont need me to have green fingers to manage them

 

any ideas what might be suitable?

What do you mean by dog friendly? Do you mean non poisonous to dogs? Rhododendrons are always a good choice provided you can stop the dogs pizzing on them. I'm about to plant some out in the back garden, but am going to have to keep the area fenced off for a while until they get big enough that when the dogs wee up them, it won't kill them off. In hindsight, I wish I'd invested and bought some more mature plants. They are beautiful this time of year though when they start flowering and they do give winter greenery, are easy to grow, like shady spots, and come in tons of different colours so you could take your pick.

 

 

Others you could look are are:

 

skimmia japonica rubella (they carry those purple buds through winter, which then flower in spring)

 

 

cherry laurel (or other type of laurel)

 

 

or even one which I'd never heard of which I've got in my back garden and which has been pizzed on by the dogs for years but somehow still managed to stay alive, the Oregon Grape. It has really pretty yellow flowers this time of year and then berries later on which the birds eat.

 

 

I'm sure there's lots of others which somebody more gardening minded would be able to tell you about.

Edited April 27, 2010 by merledogs

[cycas]

Define 'dog safe' ? Once you start looking, terrifying numbers of garden plants are in some way toxic. But most dogs will not be affected by them as they won't try to eat them.

 

The cherry laurel mentioned above has mildly toxic leaves and quite toxic berries, skimmia also contains a toxin. However, as both have thick evergreen bitter leaves and don't form large chewable branches*, I suspect that neither is likely to be particularly attractive to dogs. I have skimmias in my garden and the dogs don't touch them.

 

That said, my garden is swarming with poisonous plants, but as it has plenty of sweet young grass and goosegrass as well and is quite big, there's no incentive to eat the poisonous ones. However, if the plants in the beds are literally the only ones in the garden and the dogs spend a fair bit of time out there, I would have thought it would put the risk up.

 

Mahonia (oregon grape) is a good choice and is non-toxic : there are a lot of different mahonias though, so go for one that will get to the right size. I have one in my garden that is about 15 feet tall and makes a nice specimen tree, but you can get little bushy ones too. I'd go for a taller one to keep most of the leaves up away from wee.

 

There are evergreen berberis : they are relatives of the mahonia, are great for bees and so far as I know, are all non-toxic. I must say I don't care greatly for the things as they are very prickly, but that probably makes them less likely to get et! I have one that has nice small dark leaves and orange flowers, which I think is Berberis Darwinii looks like this : http://www.burncoose.co.uk/site/plants.cfm?pl_id=520&fromplants=pl_id%3D518

 

Not an evergreen, but what about a dogwood (cornus)? That would seem appropriate, and although they aren't evergreen, many of them have attractive red stems in the winter. They also have flowers and you can get ones with pretty variegated leaves, and they are pretty tough! http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/shrubs/classid.959/ might be a suitable one, though most garden centres will have them.

[Rumpole]

oooh thanks theres some to be going on with

[merledogs]

I've been gardening again - I have pulled up a few rose bushes which have probably been there for about 40 years or so. They were spindly and half dead so they came up quite easily. I have replaced them with 4 new Rhododendrons. The one closest in this pic is yellow, which will go nicely with the Mahonia next to it. The two in the middle are pink and the one furthest away behind the small apple tree is lilac.

 

 

Yellow one next to the poor pizzed on Mahonia ..

 

 

Pink ones which are starting to flower ...

 

 

As you can see I have fenced the area off so the dogs can't go and pizz on them, which will also give the Mahonia a chance to fill out a bit (Timmy had already sneaked in a cheeky pizz on one of the pink Rhododendrons before I had chance to get the fencing up )

My lilac I bought on Friday is coming into flower (and it smells gorjuss)

 

[celeste]

I have carrots and peas to plant out, they will however be going into tubs and in the greenhouse as we have a bunny visiting, who has already been munching on my geraniums .

[merledogs]

Norty bunny

 

I just had a sniff of the Mahonia and it's flowers are fragrant - I love fragrant plants. When my Wisteria starts flowering that will be fragrant too

[phoebejo]

Yesterday I helped Georgia to sow seeds for carrots & salad leaves

[Rumpole]

oooh lilac isnt poisonous fab

 

The problem is i have no grass at all in the garden (due to appalling hayfever) and several dogs who eat green stuff of any description and attempt to eat berries when we see them out on walks the only plant i do have that they dont touch is a fatsia japonica, oh and my twenty foot maple tree, i have a couple of ferns too but they nibble those

 

i had a huge laurel bush but they had a go at that and its toxic so it had to go

[blackmagic]

you could plant some herbs, which wouldn't be poisonous if nibbled.

[safneo]

Here is a link to some NOT to plant poisonous to dogs And this one!

 

I have bamboo in my garden which Neo likes to munch on in the absence of grass. It is listed as non poisonous to cats and dogs. See here! He seems to enjoy mimicking a panda pretty often!