Gardening advice?

I think it depends on the dog...I have geraniums, lobelia, phlax, jasmine, black-eyed susannes, etc. planted all throughout my backyard, and Marley hasn't touched anything. BUT when I planted bromeliads...he pulled those up! Apparently he didn't like those in HIS landscape. So, I guess it's trial and error! []

I have a couple of suggestions.  One is to use some of the ground covers I've seen in the nurseries recently - the have special ones labelled as "steppables" or something like that.  They're supposed to tolerate foot traffic, like on paths or between stepping stones, etc.
 
The other suggestion is to check out the forum and message boards on a website that's called [linkhttp://www.gardenweb.com]www.gardenweb.com[/link]
I've used that site for all kinds of gardening research - they have a bazillion categories for the forums - you can look for anything.  If I remember correctly, I think they have a category for animal-friendly gardens.  If they don't, I'll bet you could find posts about gardening for dogs if you do a search.  Someone will probably be able to give you a list of plants that are more able to take abuse from running paws, or other yard design plans, etc.  It's a great forum.

Thank you for the suggestions, and especially for the link.  I will check that out.  We want to get it done ASAP so we can enjoy it all summer, and we just found out that our new next door neighbours dad is a landscaper so I already know he's good.  (Her garden is lovely.)  It would just be better if we could approach him with some ideas of what we like.
 
[]
 
Kate

Max doesn't seem to bother anything that's in a large pot - maybe a small assortment of large plastic plant pots or a couple of 1/2 whiskey barrels would do the trick for you.

Joyce & Max

Container gardens are easy and trample/dig proof! Here's a photo of some of my potted plants, the potted plants are on the bottom and right of the photo.





My best advice would be to make sure the plants are dog friendly. There are a lot of plants that are toxic to dogs. Here are a few good reference sites on plants that are toxic to dogs.

http://www.uexplore.com/health/poisonplants.htm

http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/comlist.html

http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/protect_your_pet_from_common_household_dangers/common_poisonous_plants.html

Zoe doesn't seem to bother any of our stuff.  We do have a border of like long pieces of wood and Zoe likes to run on them like a balance beam .

I moved a whole garden last fall because my dogs destroyed it just running through...I thought for sure that nothing would come back this year - but everything did and it's much happier to be on the "non-dog-side". *laughing* 

I second the careful choice of plants that aren't toxic.  My dobe eats everything and I had to rip out all kinds of things when we first moved here because they could make him sick.

I've had excellent luck with vines and roses in the "dog side" of my yard.  The vines are against the fence and therefore can't be trampled or "run through".  I have Silver Lace (spreads VERY fast) and 2 kinds of honeysuckle.  The roses are at the back and they've managed to do quite well even with the dogs running past them daily.  I'm actually going to add 3 more!

I also added a lilac bush this year and it's been fine.  (It's about 4' tall though ...)

I find things in the "open" get a lot more abuse than things against a wall or fence.  However, I have two dogs which makes quite a difference.  They get running around and chasing each other ... it can get messy...
 
Edited to add: I wouldn't go for anything delicate or temperamental... Delphiniums, peonies, lilies, lupines, columbines, etc.  Hostas, daylilies, and anything with any "structure" should be fine.  (I'm pretty sure you can't kill daylilies! *laughing*)  Flowering shrubs are probably easier than flowers but it depends on what you are going for.

I use monkey grass (mondo grass) as a border. Its hard to kill. And it is very easy to take care of.