Fyi, I dunno about Heavenly Bamboo in particular, but for bamboo in general, once you plant it you will never, ever, ever be able to get rid of it.

The pups will probably be quite happy in the shade :), that sounds like a good plan to me.

lago, heavenly bamboo is a unbamboo-like shrub not really a bamboo, related most closely to barberries.

Even more on a hot day we all like the shade. You may consider putting flags around the area you no longer want your animals to go after time they can be removed and it becomes an invisible barrier to them. They know they arenÂt to cross it.

Nandina domestica ("heavenly bamboo") will grow quite well in full shade or nearly full shade, so you can save the sunny spots for roses. It does not like to be planted too close to structures such as walls and fences--it responds by leaning outwards as far away from the fence or wall as it can. I found that out the hard way. Also it will spread by bright yellow rhyzominous roots, if the soil is loose enough, which if you want more of them is a good thing, or a bad thing, if you do not.

Makes sense. My sheltie refuses to have anything to do with the sunny parts of my backyard (we have hot, humid summers here in Chi) and always hangs out in the shadiest area near the trees. Sometimes she even burrows into the soil and lays down there to cool off. Which suits me fine because she leaves my rosebeds completely alone :D

Ah, sheltie, if I could only say the same thing. I'm three hours south of you in Decatur and suffer the same hot & humid near-hell. Our dog is a large, black Newfie-Chow mix and she also likes the cool spots. She'll find the lowest point in the shade that has the wettest grass and lay there. She comes inside as a muddy mess.

She also doesn't know the meaning of barriers. I cannot plant in the yard proper so I must construct raised, fenced beds. Any plantings require about a month of work to keep Ms. Dawg out of the area. She's broken off more canes than I care to remember....heartbreaking.

I even made a new walkway since she had worn out her own path in the grass, and now she walks ALONGSIDE the new path, wearing out another grass patch just beside the hardscape.

For this reason, I have only 1 rose bed in the backyard, and most of my gardening is reduced to containers on the deck. I'd love to have a vegetable garden but I'm afraid it would become the Doggie Diner instead.

My veggie garden is fenced to keep the dogs out, one likes to dig up freshly planted plants and the other loves to eat fertilizer *sigh.* Fortunately they leaves the roses alone because they don't like the thorns. I think the wild blackberries taught them to fear thorny canes, thank you blackberries :o)

I'm going to have a raised bed built for the roses because of heavy clay soil and some competing tree roots, and I'm thinking of adding a low, decorative iron barrier of some kind to encourage them to stay out. The dog loves rose fertilizer as much as any other, she will push the mulch out of the way with her nose and snuffle around in the dirt to get to the stuff.

flaurabunda and peachymomo: Is your doggie much older? When I got my sheltie from the shelter I already had a rose garden (regular mixed beds) and every time she tried to walk through them she got a stern NO! Shelties are very eager to please and she was only 1 yr old so she quickly caught on and knows she isn't supposed to walk/dig/eat fertilizer etc. Of course it helps that she has her own 'spot' in the shade where she can play and dig to China (and she has) :D

This is her in 'her garden'-

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Certainly looks pleased as punch ;-D

I'm sure your plan will work, peachymomo.

Lol...yes, much older. Probably 10 or 11 now? Bad thing is, we both work, and she's outside ruling the backyard from 7AM until 6PM every night. She can't stay inside because I'd have no curtains, blinds, furniture, or garbage cans left in the house.

She certainly knows what "NO!" means, and abides while we're home. It's while we're gone that the naughtiness occurs. She digs, barks at mail carriers, escapes from the fence.....and I seriously think she has a Tuesday-afternoon poker game with the other neighborhood doggies.

Hurray, Lovemysheltie, I finally get to see your beautiful doggie!

AAAAAAUGH! bye-bye doggies?????? Heaven strike me with lightning should I ever sacrifice Eluane's full frisbee run of the garden for roses! I am strictly limiting my rose count for 29 roses because of her. A border collie needs a full running range. Plus little Eluane is so sweet and never digs up plants or chews on them so she deserves the full run because border collies will run in the blasting sun as well, resting only in the shade when they are tired. Playtime is so important for a border collie.

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But to each every one has space limitations and has priorities about which hobby they love the most :D I love Eluane far better than any silly rose, so hopefully as I get to be a better rose gardener and the roses get more established, I'll be able to take less and less care of them and spend more time with Eluane.

Maybe selecting smaller roses would help in terms of space? Those that stay within the 3' range?

I'm only banishing the dogs from the one small area that gets enough sun for roses to grow. I was saving space for them because when it's cool they like to play there, although when it's hot they won't go near it.

Fear not for the doggies, for they have plenty of shady space to play in. Shady space under oaks that don't like things planted underneath them anyways.

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You folks sure have some mighty pretty dogs! I really enjoyed "meeting" them.Can`t imagine working my garden without my faithful Cavalier, Huck. They are so....helpful!!! Lesley

Eluane!! There she is! What a beaut! And peachymomo, your doggies are so handsome! Love their coats and expressions! Lucky you, I'd get two more doggies in a heartbeat but DH won't let me. Oh well, I love my sweet little sheltie :D

Here's a pic of her from the 4th of July parade :) Always so nice to interact with people who love roses AND dogs!

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i would put up a pic of mine if i could but then again, she is a border collie and we all know what they look like. Another collie factoid: collie is a gaelic term meaning 'useful' so any handy dog (and they generally are sheepdogs with brains) became a collie dog.
Another factoid, until the last 5 years when Staffies and other assorted tough types took the crown, the collie was the most abandonned dog in the UK. True, they need a LOT of time, attention and excercise and if you shout at them, they practically expire of shock. They also nip heels, have unreasonable predjudices against milkmen, postmen and policemen, mill around all day instead of sleeping some of the time and demand eternal fun and games....if only they could read. On the other hand, they can carry items or messages all round the house and neighbourhood, open and close doors (including the fridge), herd small children and chickens, help to 'dig' the garden (and plant bones) keep feet warm, fetch the newspaper and mail and deliver unconditional love and adoration 24hours a day.

Ah, milkmen....now there's a tradition lost on most of America. I really need a milkman. My son drinks nothing but milk and is capable of going through a gallon a day if left unchecked. Unfortunately, city code says I can't have my own cow in the backyard.

On a side note, we watched "Up" last night with the kids, and it's priceless for the dog humor alone.

I think our pup may be mellowing in her old age. This past week we left her unattended inside the house because of bad storms rolling through, and I'm happy to report that all curtains, carpet, pillows, and garbage cans were intact and undisturbed.

When we first moved to our house 2 years ago, we had problems with puppy digging holes in the yard. She would take her morning cookie (milk bone biscuit) outside, and promptly bury it. We curbed the bad habit by only allowing cookies after she came back inside at night. Disturbingly, the dig holes didn't stop. We couldn't figure out what was causing her to continue to dig. One day when I was on vacation & working outside, I paused to chat to the passing mail carrier, whom Midnight loved to terrorize with her "go away" bark. I told the mail carrier our puppy's name and explained that she's truly harmless. The mail carrier said, "No worries---she's my best friend now that I toss her a Milk Bone every day!"

My dogs usually won't dig but if they see a gopher all bets are off, and the combined damage of gopher and dog is terrible to behold.

I've resorted to planting almost everything in pots, gopher cages, or gopher wire lined raised beds. I also have as much as possible fenced to keep dogs out, mainly because we welcome friends' dogs into our home and yard and a lot of times they can be very hard on the plants. We've got lots of open space but I found that they always wanted to play among my favorite plants, probably because that's where I spend most of my time. So now I fence them out and we're all happier.