As you might be aware from a previous post, we’ve had an ongoing battle between the pups and the flower gardens…with the pups winning, so far.

And from that post, you could see that in one garden we now had nothing but a potential mud bog every time it rains or we water. Well,  Ruthanna and I finally decided that something had to be done about that and soon. We finally came upon a plan! We would just fill in the holes and then cover the whole area with gravel. Then this spring we could buy / build planters to place throughout the garden area to get it back to our garden oasis.

Of course, once we got started, we realized we needed to not only fill in gravel in that garden area but to also take it all down the side of the porch since grass wasn’t growing there and something needed to be there other than dirt. This required MANY more 50lb bags of gravel than we had originally planned but that was ok as it needed to be done. Or at least we thought it would be alright. Now that our backs are not quite so sore, we are again feeling that this was a pretty good idea.

Seriously though, believe it or not, it really turned out looking pretty darn good and we actually surprised ourselves on this decision! We figured that this spring once the planters were in place, this will again look like a garden oasis! Hahahaha, foolish humans! Never underestimate the power of pups!

Now I wish we had remembered to take a picture of how nice it looked when we finished but I can tell you that at that time, my back was telling me of other things to do than take a picture. So I will try to get a picture soon and add it to this post.

Almost immediately after finishing the project, Sadie quickly decided that we were the absolutely the best parents in the whole wide world! How could we possibly have known that at the top of her list to Santa had been a private up-close-to-the-door bathroom! Now she didn’t have to go way out into the yard to poop! We were absolutely the best in her mind. No more going way out back if it was cold, night time, rainy, or near dinner time. She could jump out, poop and get back in quick so as not miss any of the action inside! "You guys are the best!"

Ursa on the other hand, obviously had a different idea about the whole situation. Her thoughts were clearly, "you think that’s going to keep me from digging? Ha, I’ll show you!"

And of course as always, Fargo’s thoughts were "Zzzzzzzzzz, huh, a new place to sleep, ok, maybe later, Zzzzzzzzz."

So as always, we’ve just ended up trading one thing for another, we now have to pickup poop everyday from the gravel area so it won’t stink and we still are having to deal with holes but at least we are not dealing with muddy dogs. Which for now, works for me!

Oh what to do this coming spring. We use to have a wonderful plan for our backyard, flowerbeds full of Butterfly bushes, Roses, Lantana, Rain Lilies and Day Lilies. The whole overall plan was starting to come together this past spring and for the first time, we were really starting to have a backyard to be proud about.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve always liked our backyard but for several years we had lived in a lease house and of course we never really did much to it because we always knew we would be leaving it. We had a small garden and a couple of rose bushes but since it wasn’t our home, we never did just a whole lot. Then two years ago we haad a chance to buy a brand new house in a brand new subdivision and we were finally going to have the backyard we had always dreamed about. We put together a plan and had been following it, pretty much and it was starting to look really good!

Tthen this summer we fell off the horticultural wagon and decided it was time again to bring a dog into the family. Of course with us, puppies or dogs, are just like potato chips. We can never have just one! And of course as you can tell from the blog, we soon were back to a multi-dog family.

Now during all of this, we kept telling ourselves, they won’t be too hard on the flower beds…yea, I hear you all giggling out there to yourselves right about now. And not having had puppies in many many years (we had had older rescue dogs for the last several years), we kept telling ourselves that it wouldn’t be bad. Heck the past dogs had all pretty much left the gardens at the old house alone, or at least that was how we rationalized all this to ourselves.

Au contraire, mon frere, we now know we were just teasing ourselves. Case in point…

The Butterfly bush when we first got Ursa…

The Butterfly bush after Fargo had been with us a couple of weeks.

One of the small flower gardens when we first got Ursa…

The garden (can I still call it that if there are no plants) now after three pups…

So now the new dilemma, how to fix the gardens so as to keep the dogs out? A plan that will most likely be a source of frustration and an on-going battle? Or just say to heck with it for a few years until they are older and not quite so destructive…yea, I know, I STILL hear you giggling out there. Man, those garden plans were soooo nice.