Dogs love organic gardening too

Yesterday I scratched some pelletized organic fertilizer into the soil around many of the plants in my raised beds. Last time I did this, they took off with wild abandon, as the box predicted they would. So when it advised that I reapply after first blooms appear, I was more than happy to oblige.

I scooted the mulch away from the plants, scratched the chicken poo fertilizer around the plant base, and reapplied the mulch. I then watered HEAVILY.

Imagine my surprise today when I came home for lunch and the dog had gotten up into the beds to lick the fertilizer off of the dirt. So I scared him to within an inch of his life and called it even, but put some plastic Adirondack chairs in the 8 foot opening to the side yard for good measure. But when I got home from some errands this evening, I noticed that the cat made a spooked move to look towards the back window where I had the chairs stacked. Sure enough, the dog had jumped the chairs and the same thing happened again but this time I lost 2 soybean plants. I was furious.


#1) We had used a bone and blood meal fertilizer on our citrus trees, only to find the dog licked the dirt off all of such nutrients once we went inside and he was all alone. So we stacked the plastic chairs all around the plants, and still do to this day when we apply that fertilizer.

#2) I had fertilized some bulbs that had just finished flowering with some organic meal-type fertilizer, and I should mention that the mulch for this potted plant was small pebbles. When I went to pick up the dog crap to mow the lawn, guess what I found. Yum.

#3) Before we purchased a used gas grill, we used a charcoal grill. We had to make a physical barrier around the thing after we BBQ'd so the dog wouldn't eat the ashes.

I can understand that at a biological level, he is attracted to the smell of these fertilizers because of their components, and that he will never understand why I get frustrated and upset with him when he eats/licks it all up. But I'm about at my wits end trying to keep him away from these things without using the plastic Adirondack chairs, and I'm far too tired to try and think of a real barrier solution.

Advice?