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!