2 minute read
Pet safe landscaping
By Jan Cashman
Bozeman is a dog-loving town. Many of us own dogs. And many of us want to have a beautiful landscape, but one in which our dogs and pets can be safe. It is not difficult to make yours a pet-friendly yard and garden. 1) An enclosed fence might be your first step. A hedge, which my husband Jerry calls “the friendly fence” is seldom thick enough to keep a pet from sneaking through, but can be planted inside the fence itself for a beautiful visual barrier. 2) Plant shade trees. Pets need shade in the summer when it is hot. 3) Puppies and kittens can be damaging to your landscape. They like to dig and chew and will eat almost anything. Train
your puppy not to dig in your
yard. Other ways to keep your pet from digging include wire barriers such as chicken wire, and strong smelling pet repellants, and avoid fertilizers containing bone and blood meal. 4) Make your cat happy; plant catnip in your flower beds or herb garden. 5) Give your cat an outdoor scratching post so it won’t use your tree trunks. 6) Make sure your pet has fresh water outside at all times and a place to shelter from rain and weather. 7) Use only organic garden
herbicides, insecticides and
fertilizers—follow label directions and keep pets out of your yard until after applications have dried or been watered in. 8) Wild animals naturally avoid toxic plants such as daffodils. Domestic animals will usually avoid these plants, but may not have as strong instincts as the wild animals do to stay away from poisonous plants. Here are some
outdoor plants that are
toxic to dogs and cats if ingested: hydrangea, daffodils, gladiolus, baby’s breath, milkweed, mums, begonias, lilies, azalea and rhododendrons, foxglove, yew, the leaves, stems, and roots of tomato and potato plants and anything else in the nightshade family. 9) Dog urine is damaging to plants, especially upright arborvitae, junipers, and other
evergreens. Use dog repellants Jan or just avoid planting these
Cashman plants in your yard if you have a has operated Cashman male dog. Nursery in Bozeman 10) Most of our pets spend with her husband, time indoors. There are some
Jerry, since 1975. houseplants which are toxic if ingested by pets, including poinsettias, aloe, cyclamen, amaryllis bulbs, philodendron, birds of paradise, dieffenbachia, sago palm, peace lily and the popular fiddle leaf fig. Avoid these plants in your house or keep them out of reach of pets. When making your yard pet friendly, just use common sense, go organic with pesticides, and avoid toxic plants.
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