Designing Your Garden to be Positively Pet-Friendly!
If you are an animal lover and want your beloved pet(s) to be as comfortable in your garden as you are, then you need to design a garden that is pet-friendly. If you are thinking about a formal looking garden, then you need to step back and reconsider. If you wish to share your garden with your cat or dog, you need an informal garden. Pets are like kids, so bear that in mind.
When it comes to your choice of plants for your garden choose larger sized perennials, shrubs and trees, as they are less likely to become sources of munching or play for your pets. If you have a newer planting area that you don’t want disturbed, then place a temporary chicken wire enclosure around it to discourage your pets from bothering it. The same holds true if you have plants that are on the sensitive side.
Mass planting, such as planting shrubs together or planting ornamental grass, lends itself to having pets because they are more inclined to go around these plants as opposed to going through them. If you do have a rambunctious pet, then grasses are very good because they are tough and will not be harmed by the playful frolicking of your dog or cat.
When it comes to soil, having bare soil is likely to encourage your pet to want to dig. To prevent this, plant your flowers close together and choose plants that are pet-friendly such as thyme, periwinkle or cotoneaster. These plants are best if planted in among bigger plants that are woody. The pet-friendly plants you choose must be non-toxic as well. Some good options include bamboo, blue-eyed daisies, and spider plants.
Cats adore the smell of catnip as well as cat mint. If you wish to keep your cat happy when the two of you are out in the garden, then considering planting one or both of these plants. They are both very hardy plants that can withstand plenty of attention from your feline. The only downside is that these plants might also attract the attention of other curious felines in your neighborhood.
Inorganic mulch is best for a garden that will have an animal visitor from time to time. Good options include pea gravel or potato stones.
We have had 5 Pekingese over the years (two currently) and we had a patch of ornamental grass planted in one of our beds. For whatever reason they made a narrow path through the grass bed, our guess was the path was a shortcut to the fence. When running through the bed you couldn’t see them at all and they never deviated from the path. Over the years we have thought about redoing the bed but their paw imprints on both our hearts and ornamental grass bed bringing back so many past memories. And new memories are being created every day. You are correct though with some thought you can have a great landscape and pets to.
Comment made by jeff-nhn on October 28, 2009 @ 10:23 am