Out of the doghouse: how to create a pet-friendly city garden with smart planting and a clever layout

Compact city gardens and pets don't always mix, but a few simple tricks will keep them out of the doghouse without the use of fences and barriers.
Barks and recreation: now Coco the Soft-Coated Wheaten-Terrier keeps on the path and off the plants (Alexandra Davies)
Alex Mitchell10 November 2017

People love dogs — that’s plain from the number of canines with Instagram followings to envy. But in London, whether your cockapoo loves to tear up your lawn or your pug is fond of flattening the penstemons, dogs and city gardens are often a volatile mix.

Add Mr Fox, cheeky squirrels and next door’s cat and your precious pooch is likely to act like a (miniature French) bulldog in a china shop.

Is it possible to have a beautiful garden and a happy dog? Interior designer Julia Thompson from Peckham was determined to try when she decided to remodel her long-overgrown back garden, then a chaotic hunting playground for Coco, her beloved Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier.

Coco may look more teddy bear than tiny terror but as any dog owner knows, terriers love to chase — and heaven help whatever’s in their way. “She barks at all the foxes, cats and squirrels and would race straight down to the end of the garden,” says Thompson. “There was once even a fox hanging out on our outdoor sofa. It would drive Coco mad.”

Barbara Samitier, who was asked to redesign the garden, had one aim: “To keep Coco on the path.” Rather than putting up fences or barriers, she employed more subtle arts of persuasion to manage the dog’s “desire lines”.

At bends in the path she placed large, shallow, concrete planters in the flower beds. Impossible to knock over, these prevent Coco from veering off-message. Behind the planters Samitier could then install relatively fragile beauties such as ginger lilies and salvia Amistad, still flowering in this very sheltered garden this late in the autumn.

At other points where Coco could be expected to dash straight through, Samitier planted mature, spikey cordylines, dasylirion and yucca gloriosa which, frankly, only a masochist would tangle with. Result? Coco stays on the reclaimed cobbles and the ginger lilies are saved.

At the sides of the path, strappy phormiums, fatsia japonica and euphorbia make imposing, “do not pass here” clumps that, added to the New Zealand tree ferns, bamboo and other palms all create a dramatic, escapist feel.

Other plants were chosen to shrug off dog paws. Groundcover mind-your-own-business forms a lush emerald carpet near the path and between the paving slabs and would barely notice being trampled on by an elephant, let alone a medium-sized terrier.

Out of sight: the garden reveals itself in stages so that Coco can’t spot animal intruders (Alexandra Davies )
Alexandra Davies

Ditto the ground-hugging creeping dogwood and ajuga, which knit other plants together.

Chosen because they bounce back are ornamental grasses including Japanese forest grass, and evergreen liriope muscari. Samitier has divided the long space beautifully.

There are three different seating areas — from a generous area of patterned porcelain tiles with a resplendent Gloster modular sofa and outsized Anglepoise lamp, to a dining area and smaller sun spot with covetable black chairs from Solid Soul. Large antique mirrors bounce the light around and mix up the sightlines further.

Each area is revealed as you walk along the winding cobbled path which means you can’t see the whole garden at once, and crucially, neither can Coco.

In this case neither Thompson nor Samitier wanted a lawn — lucky since dogs and a perfect sward rarely mix. But if you do want to keep a lawn, you can prevent brown patches by pouring water where your dog has just had a wee to dilute the nitrogen that otherwise acts like a bleach, scorching the grass — or the plants, if you have a territory-marking male dog.

Alternatively, consider switching to artificial grass. Here, the low-maintenance porcelain tiles and stone are easily washed if necessary.

Garden design should solve practical problems — and this one does that effortlessly. But excellent garden design is about doing this and much more, and Samitier has shown a flair here that makes this a simply beautiful space, whether or not you have a dog.

Sometimes the art of persuasion is more effective than brute force. Now they just have to work out how to keep Coco off the outdoor sofa cushions.

Garden design: Barbara Samitier

Furniture: modular sofa from Gloster; black chairs from Solid Soul Design; giant outdoor lamp from Anglepoise, reclaimed mirrors from Frost Design

Practical pots from The Nunhead Gardener