Dog gardening.

This past Victoria Day weekend presented me with new challenges, as two areas of my life are now necessarily intersecting.

It was a long weekend, and I was determined to get some plants into the ground, dammit. Seems I've only been able to work in short, 20-minute bursts so far this season, and I was resolved to get some planting done. I went to the garden centre with my mom and spent $56 on annuals for pots, for the garden, marigolds for the veggie garden, clover seed for the lawn, and a couple of other seedy things.

On Sunday I went out in the rain and put in additional rows of lettuce, beets, spinach, and bok choi. Then, on Monday, I tied the dog to her new little stake, measuring the approximate distance so that she'd be able to enter the veggie garden, but only by about 2 feet or so.

Well.

That didn't go well. I had all my flats of marigolds sitting there and she loves the bright flowers and the crinkly plastic. There went my marigolds, across the lawn. I managed to rescue them by pointing her towards a pansy bloom that she could eat, but she ripped out the entire pansy and flung it around. Every time she saw me digging a new hole for a marigold, she would start digging too - no matter what had previously been planted. Finally I managed to distract her enough to plant the marigolds (some had to be planted near the entrance), and moved on to other things. All was well.

Then yesterday (Monday) I planted up the rest of the annuals, and another pot. Missy didn't like that very much - once she was bored of her rawhide, she started barking at me, and every time I walked past her - necessary - she bit me. Hung onto my clothing with her teeth. It was charming. Not to mention that some had to be planted near her, so as soon as she saw that little crinkly plastic flat, she'd select a plant and run off with it in her mouth. What a brat.

Later on, I made the mistake of letting her off the leash. Well. She ran right into the veggie garden and went up and down the paths like a tasmanian devil, stopping only to dig dig dig riiiight where my baby bok choi and beets were trying to come up. I think she busted a few onions, chewed on a few others, and tossed up a couple of marigolds before I caught her.

This is all aside from the other problem of her pooing in my shade garden, and running through my perennial garden to chew on the cat.

So I need a gate. It's slipped my mind (or my energy?) for the last little while but I do need a gate. A really strong one. Otherwise that $56 (and more!) will have gone down the turlet.

In good news: I don't seem to have allergies anymore. Huh. Just like that, I am breathing through my nose. You'd think adding another animal to the household (and to the bedroom) would make everything worse, but it only seems to have improved things. Rosie is magic.