To some people, the constant sound of water (among other things) is irritating. Many people prefer quiet and peaceful.

 

What you find 'irritating' has nothing to do with the thread topic. :shrug:

I'm going to get off the water feature thing, it was just a small aside comment, meant in very good will when Michelle showed the pics of her pretty property and landscaping.

How about you give Anubis some more tips since this is your area of expertise instead of telling me (with very little nuance LOL!) to be quiet on a forum?

 

The only time I don't enjoy the sound of running water is when I have to go pee

 

@ blanketback.....

:spittingcoffee::rofl:

 

FWIW, when I googled playground mulch, all I got was this rubber stuff. I would not want a dog exposed to the petrochemicals from that stuff.

What we have here is cypress playground mulch. Something like it may not be available there but it lasts a LONG time. I moved mine to the yard area since it was coated with mud and dirt from about 65 inches of rain last year.

Product Details : | Greenville, Spartanburg, Boiling Springs, SC | Southern Mulch

 

I can't use any kind of wood mulch, they all try to eat it. Just now I came outside and the darn dog was eating it out of the bag. They do not bother the rubber mulch at all. Rubber mulch is used in my area for playgrounds.

 

I believe I gave my opinion, with clear instructions or "tips" as you say. You're the one that kept browbeating everyone about the water feature. I made only one factual post about it.

 

Since you are a professional landscaper and familiar with plants in the zone Anubis lives in I thought you'd have more constructive ideas. Clearly you're more interested in drama. Knock yourself out, I know you will.

 

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Rocketdog is that an example of your landscaping ? Gorgeous .
The only problem in using thyme as a ground cover is that it attracts bees .
Have you thought about stamped concrete? https://www.google.ca/search?q=stam...=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=eZlSU4zbOoOXyATz6YFo&sqi=2&ved=0CEYQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=563

attractive. You can custom colour the concrete , if you choose a flagstone look, and it will look like natural flagstone at a fraction of the cost and without the bother of frost heaves .
To make the area pretty and soften it with greenery you could make raised planters to grow your kitchen herbs, or beautiful flowers . Nasturiums trailing over the sides are a good choice , in a bed of lemon drop mini marigolds are good for warm and dry - very little care needed.
You can contain the bale of straw in a frame like this
visit straw bale link if you are not familiar with it . The raised planters below are soil covered , but you can make it to size to fit a straw bale. You don't even need a solid bottom if you are using a bale , wire screen will do. https://www.google.ca/search?q=stra...&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=oK5SU428PIaN2gWh64HwAQ&ved=0CCgQsAQ&biw=1275&bih=519

of course you can make it more ornamental than this.

The dogs may even enjoy the shade underneath.

 

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Rocketdog is that an example of your landscaping ? Gorgeous .
The only problem in using thyme as a ground cover is that it attracts bees .
Have you thought about stamped concrete?

Oops. Didn't see this before. Yes, that's a little spot in my front yard. I have soooo many deer, so my yard is different than I would like, but it suffices. Thanks for the compliment.

 

i'm not reading all 8 pages so it might have been suggested. my wife works at a doggy day camp place and the outside dog yards are laid with little pebbles. no mud but some dogs like to eat the pebbles and some pebbles get tracked back inside.

eating the pebbles can be corrected but you will have deal with stepping on the occasional pebble inside but it's no worse than stepping on a kibble piece but it's better than mud everywhere.

 

i'm not reading all 8 pages so it might have been suggested.

Same here! I was going to suggest hgtv.com for ideas. That's where I got some of my ideas... Just reading this page it seems to be a debate about water features lol

 

Carmen, I had to fence off my garden area because Beau loves to pick vegetables. One day he got in and pulled a bunch tomatoes and I could not for the life of me figure out what happened to my lovely butternut squash until I found them in the corner of the yard with puncture marks only a dog could make. Did not even do them the honor of chewing them up! The permanent raised beds are coming along but the fence will be beefed up. That would be a lovely option for that yard though if you did not want to give them the whole thing.

Last year.

This year, just getting started...I want to be planted already but we had a hard freeze this week so its all ok.....I may have a late start to my growing season this year! Hope to have the first 6 beds in place by next weekend. Washout this weekend.

The gravel section of our yard. Eventually, we are replacing the deck and only having an upper deck with pavers below and the new deck will run the length of the house and have a pergola type roof for summer shade. The gravel will be shifted to the run section and the trail and may be covered with a finer gravel. Supervised play is in the lower section of the yard. The run actually goes a good distance around. Have to upload that one.

 

Llombardo, if you want to enjoy the sounds of trickling water without worrying about wiring, you can always just use an extension cord. Our waterfall is set up like that, so it's only running when we're out to enjoy it. It's just a simple submersible aquarium pump, with some tubing to extend the water outflow, run up the back of some rocks. It isn't anything fancy, but it makes us happy

 

Now you two, stop "browbeating" about the water features! Lol!!!


Hey btw I've seen some nice pumps that run off of solar panels.

Maybe we should start a thread in chat about water features.

 

hey , Nancy , after this long long harsh winter I am itching to get going on gardening . For the OP I suggested the planted part be off the ground, waist level , so that she could mamize the space the dogs had to run , and to create a space for eye-appeal , or kitchen bounty. I hope to start cool weather peas and spinach soon.

the raised planters were an idea for wheelchair accessibity. You could put them on casters and move them around to maximize sun exposure .

Also by raising any planted material , especially in a small enclosed area, you don't have dogs marking the bales / beds.

I love the raised containers with the corrugated metal sides !!

 

This is the run as seen from the corner of the house aimed in the opposite direction.

Then the steps which my son in law is building which will be filled with gravel

And when Beau runs down the hill there, he runs along the path to fetch his ball. We have not run him on the steps yet.....that may be interesting and we may wind up with mulch between the steps and the fence for him. But right now, he has rototilled that section of hill and it is steep. My husband has promised to make a grandkid friendly / dog friendly structure on those posts this year.

 

Very nice place. I like the run set up!

 

I really like this fence - would be a huge imposition to ask your husband how to build this? In somewhat handy female terms - I'm lousy with a saw but I can swing a hammer and work a stapler.

 

If someone would start a post for a self cleaning dog pool that is a thread I would be interested in! Right now looking at buying a stock tank with a drain because I have to empty the kiddy pool every 3 days or it gets nasty.

 

I would suggest a filtration system of some type but I don't know of any that can hold up to the German Shedder hair! :laugh:

It would clog up pretty fast. Stock tank with a drain is probably your best bet and I think I might look into that too!

You guys soaked up there? We had flood watches here, speaking of water 'feature'.

 

...and one more pic I found, from spring of last year, of how we used the gravel. We tried mulch but as others have mentioned it's got it's down sides. This is a medium mixture of river rock and calico. The stones are rounded and not sharp. This greatly helped the mud situation. Like Jocoyn it's on level area, our lot slopes down just beyond the split rail fence.


(oh not to 'brow beat' there happens to be a water fountain in the pic.....too.... )

 

We are soaked and we have been soaked for over a year now, so it seems. That's ok. We are not flooding and I would rather be soaked than dry. But it does make you rethinking your landscaping in regards to dogs and all the wetness brings out the nasties in critterville. My mosquito dunks are in nylon "footies" loaded with rocks waiting for the first bite. (We have an intermittent creek at the bottom of our property and it can sometimes breed mosquitos-I just toss them in).

 

I need to know more about these mosquito dunks. We don't have water but we have a LOT of pine trees and bushes.

 

There is far more to hardiness than just zones. Rainfall, elevation, weather pattern, etc all play into which plants perform well. Where I live is "several" miles from the OP, if you've ever looked at a map. There are many things that influence plant performance. I gave the OP advice on one of the scenarios she mentioned. She is free to pm me if she wants specifics, but since there is over 1,000 miles between us, and likely anyone else, a good reputable local nursery is a far more valuable resource and will make better use of her time and money than advice on the internet from people who don't know the specific nuances of her individual application.

 

Good idea!

I do hope some of the ideas suggested (non-plant like gravel/hard scapes) help Anubis Star out with some ideas/inspiration and get her on a path to less mud soon!

There is far more to hardiness than just zones. Rainfall, elevation, weather pattern, etc all play into which plants perform well. Where I live is "several" miles from the OP, if you've ever looked at a map. There are many things that influence plant performance. I gave the OP advice on one of the scenarios she mentioned. She is free to pm me if she wants specifics, but since there is over 1,000 miles between us, and likely anyone else, a good reputable local nursery is a far more valuable resource and will make better use of her time and money than advice on the internet from people who don't know the specific nuances of her individual application.

 

Gwenhwyfair, love the yard. I would love a hand at Anubis yard. Depending on the sun potential, some raised planters with guards to keep the dogs out and breaking that yard up into two sections or terracing could add some real interest and be rugged. Tractor supply sells some of the ponds with drains in the bottom and so does southern states. I may work towards one of each eventually and keep the bigger one covered until a good rinse off before entering.

These are the dunks

Mosquito Dunks - 20 pk | thatpetplace.com

 

Thank you. Hubs is a landscaper and he's got the 'green' thumb, I help out but it's mostly him.

BTW he looked at the pic and thought as you and jax08 did, terracing would probably be best, but might require an experienced hand at least to get it laid out and started.

(btw I'll look into those ponds with drains too, we have a tractor supply right around the corner!)

Gwenhwyfair, love the yard. I would love a hand at Anubis yard. Depending on the sun potential, some raised planters with guards to keep the dogs out and breaking that yard up into two sections or terracing could add some real interest and be rugged. Tractor supply sells some of the ponds with drains in the bottom and so does southern states. I may work towards one of each eventually and keep the bigger one covered until a good rinse off before entering.

These are the dunks

Mosquito Dunks - 20 pk | thatpetplace.com

 

the lady's mantle is gorgeous - always a fresh colour . What , though , are the little light blue flowers just in front of it , and in the front to the left of the picture?

 

No imposition. We paid someone to put up the fence posts, gates, and wooden 2x4s, then we let it sit for a month, stained it, and put on no climb horse fence.

This was woven fence which we used because of the hill, it is a more forgiving (you can rack it some to go up and down hill and it actually does go downhill from the house to the end of the fence line. It is also better quality than the welded fence we found but harder to work with.

We said a lot of choice words hanging it. I made my own fence puller with a piece of rebar and ratcheting tie down straps though. To start the fence we folded it on itself and nailed to the 4x4s with curved fence nails, then went post by post pulling it tight each time. After it was all nailed to the 4x4s, we nailed to the bottom 2x4s. Had we known better I would like to have the top horizontal boards to where we could have nailed to it as well but the fence is so tight it really does not matter.

I would do it like THIS guy if I had it to do over! No tractor to pull but those rachet straps would still work.

 

Isotoma Fluviatilis--- Blue Star Creeper. It's a zone six plant, but it needs really good drainage. Will often die out in a bad winter but should leave you some babies. I think you might be too cold for it up in Canada but I don't know what your zone is, what your cold minimum/maximum is.

Joycon, I like that fence. When people don't want deer fencing but need it, I tell them to look at things like that. Very attractive but if built higher, would do a good job keeping deer out while still preserving the view.

 

Joycon, I like that fence. When people don't want deer fencing but need it, I tell them to look at things like that. Very attractive but if built higher, would do a good job keeping deer out while still preserving the view.

I had a war over the HOA with that fence. I did not tell anyone when I did the inner fence because when I put up the outer fence they demanded that I put the picket design on the box (the sides and front facing the road are shadowbox) and that design of the inner fence is EXACTLY what I wanted to do between us and the woods. I even used the argument that the HOA retaining ponds are surrounded by split rail and wire and this looks a lot better than that! The pickets were a compromise as they wanted shadowbox in the back and I said that a picket was half a shadowbox...so they gave in. ... Our yard slopes down away from the house ........you cannot even see our back fence unless you stand in my yard.

I lost. I did it during the regime of a little Napoleon of a president. My next door neighbor recently put up an aluminum fence with chain link at the back (the back of both our yards face the woods!) . It is not lost on me that this is the NEW president of the HOA. The architectural chair has the ugliest yard in the neighborhood, BTW.

The covenants expressly state "no chain link". ........ Needless to say I still have not gotten over that one and, at some point, may start removing the pickets and replacing with woven wire or black chain link.

Honestly, I am just quietly doing my garden, doing my landscaping piecemeal, and not making waves. Hope to get in some chickens in a few years . They way I see it, all kinds of violations are already allowed and they know it. But you pick your battles. My next battle will be solar panels (not mentioned in the covenants). Our back roof faces south and a section of it has enough sun for solar. Once again, you could not see the panels from the street....I have been told they actually cannot prevent me from putting up solar panels ....doing research on that one.

Anubis. I do hear you on the money. I remember the days when I filled a large dog pen by going to the quarry and shoveling the rocks myself into my station wagon (you weigh it before and after). It was a real cheap way to get the rocks and I got them over time, but they may not allow that now and if you can do the whole thing at once delivery is not that bad but adds to the cost of the rocks. They typically charge per load. Just use the calculators and plan for a good 4-6 inches deep with any ground cover. Treated 4x4 are not that bad and not as toxic as railroad ties. (The new ones not the old ones with arsenic) if you want keep it from shifting. You can hold in place with rebar (make sure no utilities underground first).

 

Deer or marauding german shepherds. I have several coils of green wire mesh fence from when Morgan was a puppy - couldn't keep her out of the garden. Always hated the metal posts that you hook it on and it's nearly impossible to get it straight - I'm going to try something like that the goat farmer did. Use what you have, I have little boys with bikes and a pedal tractor!

This year I need to build something quasi attractive for my blueberries. Venus wants to murder the one on the end...

 

Oh my gosh, THE MOST helpful thread! :wild:

(Reading and taking notes :apple:, looking out on a sad patch of grass, weeds and dirt...)

Thank you!

 

LOL delivery charge on a pallet of rocks is way less than replacing the shocks in the rear end, been there done that wrecked a stationwagon!