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Here is a link that might be useful: other some ideas

My first thoughs are 'what is your budget and what amount of time can you spare for the garden?
Another thought is, have you thought of low walls. This will define a path and also deter the dog from running all over the garden.

ideashare - thank you for your enthusiasm.

yourenglishgardener - alas, no budget for walls and low walls wouldn't really do a thing to slow down a large, agile German Shepherd. :-) Plus the entire yard is very small, only 60 feet wide, so I need to be careful of overwhelming the place with stone. The stone paths are about as much as I can do there, plus some boulders when I get the money. (Tail end of the project, not much money.) As for time to spend in the garden, since I am using California native plants I expect my time will be spent mostly with weeding and sometimes pruning. Hopefully not much more than that. And we're laying down cardboard with 3 inches of mini fir bark mulch so we're hoping to keep the weeds within a usable amount.

I guess I will go back and play with my own photo overlay design and see if I can get some ideas. I need to get the placement of the water stuff sorted out first since that will dictate many other things.

Thanks all.

Watch craigslist for boulders - around here they're usually free though of course you may have to pay for a way of getting them home.

I wonder if the water feature idea is somewhat inconsistent with the California natives theme? Not that I know, but I wonder if combining the two wanders into that idiosyncratic area of design where it can be great, but because it's unconventional, it's very personal? Just a thought.

KarinL

Thanks, Karin. Yes, I check craigslist every day for boulders and other garden goodies. So far people are only getting rid of lava rock which doesn't work for me.

IMHO, California natives work with water features very well. All our wildlife creatures need to get their water somewhere. :-) Ideally it would be a pond but I can't do a decent sized one at the moment so we're going with several smaller water zones throughout the yard, the bubbler, a large bird bath with a dripper and pot pond.

Might be something for you here. Multiple good points from a practicing landscape architect and garden maker with decades of experience.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Easy Garden

I live with a German Shepherd, and for gardening purposes, I wish I could lock him up somewhere (I'm not the dog's owner) - he's a tractor, not a dog! He piles dirt up the fence while chasing passing dogs and cars, digs wherever I've been digging, scares off birds and squirrels, makes straight paths through flower beds, pees preferably on dwarf conifers, and can dash through thorny gooseberry bushes without even noticing.
Adjustments I've made so far are:
1. No plantings 3 ft from the fence,
2. Big rocks to protect some shrubs,
3. Smaller, rounded rocks in flower beds (he doesn't like to step on these).
4. Just hoping he'll settle down with age...
Your yard is smaller than mine, so boulders are all I can recommend, really. Hope this doesn't sound too pessimistic.

You can solve many dog/garden conflicts by accomodating the dog's needs and routines through close observation of the dog's habits, and making as many sensible adjustments to your garden as possible, as timbu has. But with large and/or active dogs like a GS (most are intelligent, beautiful dogs), the other key aspects are training, exercise, and maturity.

Intelligent dogs like GS's need to have their minds exercised as well as their bodies or they get bored - and bored = restless, bad habits like chewing, barking, excessive digging etc. Formal training is always a good idea, often continuing to higher levels just because the dog (and owner too) enjoys the mental and physical challenges.

Exercise - walks, or active play in open spaces, or organized activities like agility training are an essential part of a happy dog's life. 'A tired dog is a good dog' is very true. Even our little 20lb. Shih Tzu mix needs (and gets - weather permitting in the winter) two 45-60 minute walks a day and often more. It's good for her - and me too! One of our regular canine 'guests' is a Border Collie that comes for a mid-week day-care/play-date to give him a break from spending the days alone during the week (too much time alone = kitchen garbage all over the house... :-)

Maturity is another important factor. The bigger breeds don't really start settling down until they are at least 2 years old and most are 3 before they're reasonably civilized! Another regular visitor here is a big Briard. At 2 1/2, the frenetic puppy-play is finally moderating and she's backed off a bit from treating little Misty as her personal squeaky-toy! (Misty loves her big buddies and is not the least intimidated by them.)

So, if you think you've made reasonable, appropriate accomodations to make your garden dog-compatible, and are still having problems consider whether the dog has some other unsatisfied need for mental and physical activity that is not being met. Or maybe you just have to do the best you can while waiting for the dog to mature.

Sorry for the long comment - gardens and dogs are two of my obsessions :-)

timbu - I'm sorry you're having to garden around someone else's dog. It's harder to deal with/forgive when it isn't your own. Sorta like kids. :-)

woodyoak - I couldn't agree with you more. Cassie is a young, 11 month old rescue dog and she is blossoming here. (We've only had her about 3 months.) She gets regular exercise and challenging brain time learning tricks as I plan to use her as a therapy dog once she matures. (and for German Shepherds, that will be about age 3)

I've changed the landscape design in several places in order to make it work better for her. Perhaps not as pleasing to the eye for some people but it works for us and it works for our big girl (68 pounds and still growing.) My hedgerow around the fence line gives her a good place to run and patrol for squirrels.

I altered the path I had designed to be less curvy because of course, she won't run in a curved line.

I'll have larger areas of mulch without plants than I had planned because she prefers that for taking care of business.

I've given up the idea of a pond because she wades right in and will make do instead with bird baths and pot ponds for wildlife.

She isn't big on digging unless I am digging, but I taught her the "dig" command because then it was easier to teach her "no dig". She enjoys it for short term but prefers to bury things by putting it down in the mulch and moving the mulch over it. I will probably give her a dig pit anyway just because it is challenging for her to have to find things I have hidden in there.

When we trucked in DG and mulch and discovered how much she loved having a hill to sit on, I altered the design again to give her a few more "high" spots, one in the shade and one in the sun. She enjoys being there and we enjoy seeing her happy.

All this means is that if you love dogs and you love gardens, you have to find a way to make them work together. That's why, after a few months of watching her, I knew I needed to give her straight path through my best view.

I've had a few branches "trimmed" by her as she runs by and I'm sure I'll have that happen more and more as the plants grow but our attitude with dogs in the garden has always been if the plants can't handle it, then we planted the wrong plants. The dog is just being a dog. :-)

As far as CA native go, have you considered manzanita? the bark is just utterly amazing. Do a google search for manzanita and see for yourself. I've seen them growing wild in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Bass Lake and they blow you away with the bark. It almost seems like if it were made of plastic.