Hi Gang,

I have a project under way in suburban Christchurch where we have been given permission plant over 40 fruit trees over a 2 hectare piece of land!  YAY COUNCIL!

We will be sharing the land with a well established, modern children's playground down one end of the park and a 'dog park' type area thru the middle...

Has anyone ever had experience in developing gardens that are dog friendly or point me in the direction of some content on the topic?

Interesting question. I also wonder, ...if you plant trees in a "dog park" will the dogs relieve themselves against the trees, and will that eventually hurt the trees? Also, if you plant trees where lots of kids and dogs roam, will the ground get hard packed and will that hurt/stunt the trees? And, ...if you plant a food forest where kids play, and the trees drop fruit or nuts, could some of the parents complain about possible hazards or allergies? And would possible rotten, unpicked up fruit be a mess, nuisance or hazard because of flies and/or manure left by foraging "wild" animals? Seems like maybe you would have to have a very dedicated group of folks in order for a food forest/play area/dog park to stay neat and clean. But, since I've never been involved in such an effort, I have no idea. Best of luck.

Jim Fry wrote: Seems like maybe you would have to have a very dedicated group of folks in order for a food forest/play area/dog park to stay neat and clean. But, since I've never been involved in such an effort, I have no idea. Best of luck.

We are looking to basically take ownership over the park, with a part time caretaker employed, hopefully paid by the council, instead of the current contractors who just come in a mow within an inch of the lawns life and spray the hell out of everything. We also want the local primary school to be involved with learning about trees and gardening so with a bit of good design and intent we will have the committed people. Kiwi's love a free feed, like most, and with that in mind there has been discussions around community barbeques / working bees...

It borders on a river of significance also which we are hoping to get involved in riparian planting to help the local whitebait population thrive.

It is a large area, and using zones will are trying to keep the childrens playground/rugby field and dog park fairly separate from the orchard part... 



From my rough base map you can hopefully spot the shaded area where the actual 'dog park' part is and the playground is to eastern end..

The red dots are roughly 5m to scale conceptual placements of fruit trees and the red squares in the western end conceptual raised beds, etc for planting..

I guess there must some literature around about dog friendly gardens...