dogs and coffee grounds

Because I'm a keen gardener, I was thrilled yesterday to find a cafe that allowed me to take home a big bag of coffee grounds after I ate there. I intended to put them around my blueberries, azaleas and camellias. I've read that they're really good for the soil in general, but that it can also be good to put them through a composting process first.

But...

I put the bag on the back patio and soon afterwards Penny got up from her snoozing mat in the house and went out to investigate the nice smell.

Hmmm... This might need a bit of investigating...
I decided to look on the Net for info about dogs and coffee grounds.

And it looks like it would not be a good idea to lay them on the garden beds out the back where Penny can wander at will. I'll have to mix them into the compost pile, or the wormeries (three of them) or put some in the Bokashi bins (five of them), before adding them to my soil.

Here's a site with info about dogs and coffee grounds. And this is what PetPoisonHelpline says:

Pets are more sensitive to the effects of caffeine than people are. While 1-2 laps of coffee, tea or soda will not contain enough caffeine to cause poisoning in most pets, the ingestion of moderate amounts of coffee grounds, tea bags or 1-2 diet pills can easily cause death in small dogs or cats.

I'll use the grounds neat on the camellias and azaleas, because Penny doesn't have free access to the front yard.

trapping earwigs and keeping dogs safe

Penny and I go out to the garden each night after dinner. I don't know when this routine started, but I do know she's got me well-trained. A few lengthy stares from her have me getting to my feet and unlocking the back door.

Penny inspects the garden and has a wee, and I look for slugs and snails and destroy them! We garden organically, so I use the collect-and-squash method. But what about those earwigs that are eating our baby plants? It's been quite a dilemma, because the little critters are too quick to be collected, and I'm too squeamish to stand on them, anyway.

Well, here's our new earwig trap, just set up today, as per the instructions on Deep Green Permaculture. 

Given that the ingredients are soy sauce, oil and water, with a drop of detergent to break the surface tension, I thought the instructions to cover the trap were timely. I've used a heavy bit of paver, hoping that Penny, who loves oily food, won't be inclined to push the paver aside and taste the bait in the trap.

The whole kit and caboodle is surrounded by the flimsy fence I put up when I buried lots of delicious rotten bokashi compost in this area, so I hope that will be an extra deterrent to Penny. She's good about respecting barriers. Well, usually...

Penny and the bokashi compost

Winter, and time to enrich the soil in our garden...

I usually dig the bokashi compost into the front garden, where Penny does not go, but a couple of times I've put it in the ground out the back. I usually place heavy pavers over it, so Penny can't dig for the delicious rotted stuff, and sometimes I fence it off.

Penny thinks it tastes nice. But hopefully she's older and less energetic these days and won't try to push her way through the flimsy barrier.

I don't bury the bokashi deep, because I'm too lazy to dig down, and I'd prefer to let the worms and other 'garden helpers' carry the goodness into the earth without destroying the soil structure.

Here's hoping!

keeping Penny away from buried bokashi compost

Once again I've buried some Bokashi compost in our back yard, which means it's in the part of the garden accessible to Penny.

So I've covered up the spots where the delicious-smelling muck is hidden.

I don't think Penny could get to this lot, under heavy pavers.

But I'm not so sure about this spot, where it's under a piece of timber. So I threw down a collection of sticks to make it harder for her.

Now, this one, under a flimsy piece of timber, looked a bit vulnerable…

so I added a couple of heavy pieces of brick and a big pot.

Here's hoping for the best. Luckily, we're off to Best Friend Retreat for a couple of days this week, so maybe the smell will have faded by the time we're back.

disgusting bokashi compost tastes great...to a dog

Little Princess Goody Two-shoes Penny has blotted her copybook! She was caught in flagrante delicto this very afternoon, digging away with her supposedly sore front paws in the patch of soil where I had just buried some really stinky bokashi compost.

I think the nearest equivalent to this great Latin phrase 'in flagrante delicto' would be red-handed, but since she doesn't have hands, I'd say she was caught black-mouthed.

Penny is caught black-mouthed after snaffling compost

 I was so smug last time I posted about how I keep Penny from digging up delightful messy bokashi.

BetR2 commented that her Lucy would make short work of this barrier. I should have listened, lol. I guess Penny just pushed her way through my little fence, by the look of the skew-whiff way the bamboo sticks are standing now.

A not so dog-proof  fence around the bokashi

Digging for treasure in the bokashi

The next picture shows the new set-up. The problem is that our soil is clay and I don't want to break up the structure by digging a deep hole, so the bokashi is only a tantalising ten centimetres underground. What self-respecting dog could resist?

A challenge for Penny to think her way around the coiled up wire. Will she solve the puzzle?

Another attempt to keep the dog out of the bokashi

I hope not.

how I prevent my dog eating Bokashi compost

For many years I've buried our tastiest compost in the front garden, where Penny is not permitted to go (unless she's with a human). Tasty by her standards, you understand. Disgusting, by ours.

Amongst the many forms of composting that I use, the most frequent comes out of our Bokashi bin. Because this system is anaerobic and takes everything - dairy, meat, onions, for instance - I need to be sure it is completely out of Penny's reach until it has decomposed completely. (I never put chocolate in it, because I  think even when decomposed, chocolate might still be dangerous - but then again, there's never a skerrick of chocolate left over in our house.)

For seven years, then, the front garden has been enriched by Bokashi compost but not the back yard. But our back garden is the main fruit and vegie growing spot, so I've devised a system to keep Penny out of danger.

First, I obtained - legally! - a bakery delivery tray.

I measure the area of the tray and dig a hole in the ground to match, about 10 centimetres (4 inches) deep. This is less depth than I'm supposed to, but I have a disk problem in my back, and that's all I can dig.

I collect the dug out soil in bins, or even an old cardboard box.

Most important step! Close the gate so Penny can't come out to see what I'm doing...

...because now I'm about to spread out the dee-li-cious compost. (In a Bokashi system, the ingredients get pickled, rather than actually breaking down into soil at this stage.) 

I aim to keep the 'stuff' towards the centre of the hole, in case Penny later digs around the edges.

Then cover it all by replacing the previously removed soil.

And this is the point where I learned my lesson many years ago, because Penny moseyed outside and dug up the compost, which I didn't learn about until she started vomiting.

So, now I cover it with the bakery tray and put a heavy paver on top.

And who's that in the distance having a look at what I was doing? Yep, Penny! Another household member came out to hang out the washing, and Penny appeared.

So now I'll keep an eye on the spot and make sure there's no disturbance around the edges.

Here's a photo of the last place I successfully buried the Bokashi. I've made a fence around the area to be quite, quite sure it's out of Penny's reach until plants have covered it completely.

Penny's human is in Turkey

While Penny's been resting and recovering from surgery, one of her humans has been gallivanting around Turkey. We understand that she can read this blog but not comment, so this post is specially for her, to show her how well Penny is doing. This morning we set off down the front ramp:



Notice that the ramp is now only two planks wide, instead of the previous three.

And Penny is still steadily losing weight on her restricted diet, as you can see. She is now 15.7 kg, instead of the 16.9 that she was two months ago.

Next we headed down the sideway, to relieve herself (not a stressful business these days, thank Dog). A little pause to sniff at the buried compost from the Bokashi bucket - which I had the forethought to cover with well-stamped-in soil.



And then we headed out into the street to browse the delicious fresh possum poo. (Obviously her humans aren't feeding her enough!)