Pet Friendly Garden

With the warmer weather ahead and the last frost (hopefully) behind us, I'm excited to start planting our garden. Last year we were fairly successful with our little pizza garden of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalepinos, garlic, onions, and herbs.

2012 Pizza Garden

Joel couldn't wait to take a bite of our delicious home grown bell pepper

But when Vesper joined the family, it was a different story. Shortly after her arrival, my beautiful garden was quickly demolished. Our little Springer's instinct makes her love the brush, so she's rummaging through the yard and plants and chewing on them every chance she gets, so I wanted to make sure her yard can be a safe and relaxing space for all of us.

To deter any digging or over-curiosity in general, I will probably put up some sort of little fence or make it a raised garden bed (still need to figure out how!) Also since becoming a puppy mommy again I have come to learn that there are numerous house plants and outdoor plants that are toxic to dogs. I learned that Peace Lillis were toxic to dogs after we inherited a beautiful large plant from Joel's grandmother's memorial service. It now has a happy place in my office.

A beautiful peace lily, although toxic to both dogs and cats.

I also learned that both aloe plants and jade are poisonous to dogs, and fortunately these are the other two plants living in my office! We've often heard that poinsettia, grapes, onions, and garlic are toxic to dogs, but here's a few I was surprised to learn about

• All bulbs (daffodil, tulip, etc)
• All citrus trees
• Tomatoes
• Sweet Pea
• Wysteria
• Trumpet Vine-we have 2 in our yard and now I'm a little paranoid about this one. 
• Yucca-who would have thought 

This certainly isn't an exhaustive list, and depending on the plant and the severity of the ingestion the effects can range from GI upset to lethargy and difficulty breathing and even coma and death. Yikers puppies! ASPCA has a wonderful list of toxic and non-toxic plants for pets:

http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/poison-control/Plants

So this year our garden will not only include some Vesper-proof plants, but even a few that she can munch on that are actually beneficial.

• Mint-Not only for delicious ice tea and mojitos, mint can repel fleas and leave puppy's coat minty fresh if she happens toromp through it
• Lavender- Smells lovely, and also repels fleas, mosquitoes, and moths. If the pup takes a chomp out of it she will have good breath and it might even calm her down a little bit.

Since tomatoes are on the toxic list, I'm going to try to do the hanging vines and see how that works. The rest are all safe but will go behind the fence.

• Basil 
• Rosemary
• Bell peppers
• Jalepinos- are not toxic, but her little mouth would probably be on fire if she ate one, so this will be behind the fence
• Green Chili-behind the fence
• Green Beans
• Petunia

According to ASPCA, our butterfly bush is also a safe bet, and I'd also like to try jasmine or sunflowers in a large pot.
I can't wait to get started, more pictures to come. Happy Gardening!

Easter and Puppy Update

Spring is finally here! I'm so glad it's finally getting warmer and we can do more of the many awaited outdoor activities! We had a beautiful Easter, and it was so much fun watching my niece and nephew (and Vesper) find Easter eggs. It was so nice to have all of our family together for brunch.

I also thought I would post on Vesper's 10 month stats! She is growing up so fast! She is basically full grown now at 42 pounds. She's still a skinny-minnny and should fill out a little more and get some more feathers on her arms and legs and more fur. She is happy all the time, as her day-care counselor said "it's impossible to not have a smile on your face when she's around!" She loves to greet all people and other dogs, though she has learned better boundaries as far as dogs who don't want to play with her after a scuffle a few weeks ago that left her with a scrape on the nose :(

Joel loves to say her ears are like a helicopter, and often jokes that she might blow away with her big ears on a windy day. Her favorite play-time activities are playing chase, swimming, fetch, playing rope, and trying to get Jane Cat to play. After a romp in the pool she likes to roll in the dirt, but as a water dog she's dry within 30 minutes.

She's still eating puppy food and of course loves occasional treats of frozen Greek yogurt, carrots, blueberries (which she mainly rolls around with her nose), doggie cookies, and bacon drippings on her food as an extra special treat.

She's learned to walk nicely on a leash, and all the basics too, including sit, stay, down, speak, shake, roll over, leave it, come, "get the bird", heel, wait, let's go, no, and find it. She's excited to improve her off leash skills to go camping or swimming in the river this summer and soon we will start agility training.

Our Vesper loves to roll on her back and "talk" to us

She loves her daddy

I had to post this picture of this goat because as we were watching "The Amazing Race" last night they had to capture and carry a goat across a river, and the little adorable goats totally reminded me of our Vesparoni. (Not only that, but they totally fit in with my plan of moving to Jamaica and raising goats and making goat milk and goat cheese.)

She let me pick her up just like a little goat when she was a baby