Since I wrote the first question I have put in Invisible Fence, and we've done the training and adjusted to it and find it works very well. I didn't have them lay out a garden plot for me because I wasn't sure where I wanted it to be (I've been nudging the boundaries to the south each year. It sounds so luxurious--to have easy access to my garden again! It probably would be worth the $89 service fee to come out to wire it.)
Do you have a vegetable garden that is somewhere other than along the side of the yard? How did you have them put the Invisible Fence around it--did they bury it or put it above ground? I'd be afraid of cutting through it with all of the digging I do. Or did you end up with a garden next to the fence to keep it easier to wire? Ideally, the placement of my garden would be such that they could still run between the garden and the fence (I think this involves twisting some wire across a space). But if that's too much trouble, I'll just lop a bunch of limbs out of the hackberry next to my fence to get more light in the garden that I'd place on that side. I also have the Invisble Fence placed so that the dogs can't approach the fence closer than about three feet. It keeps the pit bull from charging the fence and the visiting Boston Terrier who stays with the next door neighbors some weekends.
If I do this I'd probably have to put a compost heap right next to the garden so they'd only have to put in one garden zone like this. I stopped putting non-meat food in the compost last fall because the dogs were treating it like a cafeteria (and they needed more baths what with crawling under a fence and through the contents to get to what they wanted to eat).
It has been such strange weather. I didn't have a garden this winter, but I have a few volunteer onions poking up and the garlic is coming back. First sight of those and I want to be out there digging! I have young dogs, a pit bull and a catahoula, who are as energetic as the day is long. They've trampled the entire lawn area, and as you say, there won't be much in the way of great-looking turf with that kind of traffic. I've been thinking about putting down gravel or mulch beds in areas of high traffic.
Thanks for your answer--it gives me some ideas and reinforces others.
Northwesterner
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