Think you can’t have a beautiful garden that you share with your dogs – think again. My two passions are gardening and my dogs, and I want to share ideas of how the two can easily be combined.
It is perfectly possible to have your horticultural haven outside the back door and not have a separate “dog area”. These days, few of us have much land so it would be wasteful to separate humans and dogs.
Our small suburban garden is shared with our lively Welsh Springer Spaniels and is considered to be of high enough quality to be one of 3,600 gardens in the UK to open to the public under the National Garden Scheme.
Who am I? I am Finuala Barnes and I live on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, England. I have loved, shown, worked (and occasionally bred) my Barhi Welsh Springer Spaniels for over twenty years. Our current garden has been open to the public under the NGS since 2007. I have written on gardening for Dog World , the UK’s largest circulation canine newspaper.
This site consists of two sections – Articles and Posts.
- Articles cover specific topics of interest to the dog owning gardener, under two main headings of
- Posts reflect
- My Gardener’s Diary
- The development of a new canine friendly garden for my friend, Debbie.
There is now a Facebook Group dedicated to Gardening and Dogs. Come and join us.
I hope you find this blog useful and look forward to your feedback and questions.
Gardening and dogs 
August 24, 2009 at 13:07
Great idea Finuala – really interesting and practical advice for living with dogs and gardens.
August 24, 2009 at 17:47
Thanks very much Sue – watch out for more pages in the coming weeks
August 25, 2009 at 18:05
Hi Finula ! I am still crying about the fact that I did not get to come to your garden the last time I was in England! They just renwed ron’s lease on the flat in Thurnham. So I just still might get to come down! I am the adventurous type if I was in america there is nothing that would keep me from driving by myself 5 hours! BUT…………..I am scared to death to try and drive your British way lol!!! Ron scares me just riding with him!! Anyway, we share the same two passions and i have people ask me how I do it! With 5 Welshies and lots of garden beds! Bobbie
August 25, 2009 at 19:04
You’ll manage to visit some day Bobbie – and there is always the train :).
February 24, 2010 at 19:51
very good idea. Right now, I am waiting to hear if my son, daughter in law and 3 boys are coming, for us to go to Ireland (Kelly my daughter in law still has relatives in Dublin!!) So hopefully I could stay an extra week with Ron and take the train!! Would be great fun. Email me some day and give me some tips on the trainride and how I would get to your home from there. Thanks so much. B
August 25, 2009 at 18:51
Enjoyed what you’ve writern so far, keep it up. Sue
August 25, 2009 at 19:04
Thanks very much Sue – I intend to 🙂
November 12, 2009 at 05:11
Inspiring stuff. Maybe one day… NO I suspect good gardens need a level of commitment greater than my current level. It’s good to know that someone’s getting it right though! Well done.
November 12, 2009 at 20:46
You CAN do it Carolyn. It really isn’t hard. That is the whole reason that I am writing this blog – to share as much information as possible and to inspire more dog owners to have wonderful gardens. My garden gets about 2 – 3 days work a month. Though there is a real push and a lot more work just before our opening in June. I don’t have time for any more gadrneing with full time work and weekend dog shows. I’d be happy to answer specific questions – just let me know. Then we can share the answers with everyone else. I bet there are loads of people with the same issues as you. You might want to keep an eye on the progress in the “Debbie’s Garden” section too – though going into the winter, there won’t be a huge number of updates on there for a while.
February 9, 2010 at 23:14
Hi Finuala,
I loved reading what you have on this website. I found it very interesting and helpful. I am no good in the garden, but i will ask Andy to have a look at your site when he has a chance.Our garden is mostly monoblocked with a large grassed area that really needs attention and have found some great ideas on here, roll on the summer and hopefully Andy can do something with it. Although half of the grass area is taken up with Melissa’s 14ft Trampolene(shame wishing her to grow out of it) but i can hope.
Well Done it’s great
Janice
February 9, 2010 at 23:29
Thanks Janice – I hope Andy agrees :). Let me know if there are any issues that I haven’t covered yet – I am always looking to expand topics.