I was prepared to write more of my ‘information on perennials’ however there has been a new addition to the garden.  We have a dog, Winnie.  She is about 4 or 5 years old.  We are uncertain because she was adopted from our local shelter.  She weighs about 65 lbs., however she was trained to stay out of the flower beds at an early age.  She has complied.  Winnie lost her tag on a walk and I decided to re-order from the shelter (they put the usual name and phone number of the owner, as well as the city license #).  I bet you can see where this is going—I found a border terrier/jack russel mix that the shelter estimates to be 1 year old.  Madison is now a member of our family.  She and Winnie have fun and seem to share the love of chasing each other around the yard.  Teaching “Maddy” to stay out of the garden seems to be more of a challenge than teaching Winnie was.  I’m not sure if this is because, like most of us, over time you tend to forget the difficult things and only remember the end result ( a wonderful pet, loving and obedient).  I’ve used the squirt bottle method (water) with some results, however she seems to think this rule only applies when I am in the garden with her.  She does have a method to her madness—Maddy brings in rocks to chew on, which I believe come from her digging.  We’re working on the rules and the garden is getting more attention since I have to fill in the holes where she’s dug.  I promise to post the rest of my info on the new perennials I’ve been using in my next post.  Thank you for your patience, Maddy and I appreciate it.