A little planning can make sharing your home garden with pets safer and more enjoyable for everyone, pets included. Pet-friendly gardens combine beauty, function, and productivity with practical placements and plantings. Whether starting from a blank slate or working to improve the pet-friendliness of your existing garden, little improvements can make a big difference.
Plans, Plants, Pups, Puppies...
It’s no secret that our pets run the show around here. From the garden to the furniture, what’s ours is theirs. In planning our garden at the new house (now old – we’ve moved again since this post was first published), we currently have a puppy in the mix. Hello, baby Humphrey! Puppies need extra consideration for security and safety. In addition to being smaller and harder to contain, they’re still learning boundaries, behaviours, and have a tendency to taste the world.
Being safety conscious doesn’t necessarily mean eliminating all potential hazards from your pet-friendly garden. It can be a balance of placement, access control, supervision, and maintenance. In our case, we have opted for a balance of supervision and maintenance for some varieties (including our fruit trees), while other plants have been relegated to safer positions in the garden. For the plant’s safety, our pets’ safety, and a bit of both in some cases!
Garden Access and Security for Pets
Safety first! Secure fencing and gates will help ensure your pet stays safely inside your property. Barriers, permanent or temporary, can also be used within the garden to protect vulnerable new plantings, limit traffic in special areas, or restrict access to hazards. Check out our pet-friendly home garden guest post at Dalmatian DIY for more garden access and security tips.
If you’re starting from scratch, you can try to pet-proof you garden in the planning stages. If you have existing fences and/or gates, you might need to make changes for completeness, height, and/or strength to help keep your pet secure. For diggers and other escape artists, you may also need to reinforce the base at the ground. Talk with your neighbours about any potential changes to shared boundaries and fencing, and check local covenants and rules before starting work.
Planning Pet-Friendly Boundaries:
- Make sure that your pet is safe and secure while in your garden.
- Inspect your existing boundary fences and gates to ensure they’re suitable (size, height, strength, gaps, etc.). The same applies to patio railings, pool fences, or other safety barriers within your garden. Check them regularly to make sure they’re in good condition.
- Plan any new fences, gates, and other barriers with your pet in mind.
Pet-Friendly Garden Layout and Design
Sharing a garden with pets requires balance, consideration and compromise. Planting choices and placement may need to differ a little, but you can still have a beautiful shared space. I love hanging out with our pets in the garden, and they enjoy mooching around as I do the chores.
Planning and Designing a Pet-Friendly Garden
Consider including gaps or paths through plantings so that your pet can patrol without trampling garden beds. In existing gardens, you pet may already have some natural routes. Work with these, if possible. In new gardens, consider how your pet is likely to move between points of interest. Border patrol is always high on the list for our boys.
Include some open space or grassy play areas, if possible. Choose materials for other shared spaces that are gentle on paws, avoiding sharp or uncomfortably hot materials. Ensure that your design includes shade and shelter for your pets, especially if they spend a lot of time outdoors. If your furniture is off limits, consider adding durable weather-proof outdoor pet beds.
If you’re keen to attract bees, birds, and butterflies to your garden, include areas where visiting birds can perch out of reach and water sources other than your pets drinking bowls. Tiger has spent many happy hours watching the bird life in our garden from a safe distance.
If you have potentially dangerous wildlife in your area, determine what, if any measures are needed to help keep your pets (and family) safe. Thankfully, dangerous wildlife isn’t a significant concern in our part of New Zealand, but when we lived in Australia it was a very different story for keeping our pets safe. Yikes for snakes, spiders, and other creepy crawly dangers.
Plant Placement and Protection
When planning your plantings and layout, select tough plants for high-traffic areas. Avoid the frustration and save your delicate specimens for more protected positions elsewhere. Resilient plants work well for ground covers and in borders and other areas where they may be frequently brushed, trampled, or (like my dogs) used as comfy nesting locations!
Depending on your plans and space, you might even want to include a few special plants just for your pets. Catnip, anyone? Remember that neighbourhood cats might find it just as alluring, though! We’ve included some plants for the dogs to brush against for scent and walk through for pleasure. I also plant their favourites in our edible garden for sharing.
If your pet is a garden raider (my dogs are berry fiends), you may need to protect edibles with barriers and/or raised beds. I added the photo below to our post years after it was first shared. Humphrey has gotten bigger, but the rest of their antics are much the same. Haha! Cheeky rascals. Barriers can also be used to protect vulnerable young plants, as noted above, or limit free access to potential hazards. This can be especially helpful if your pet is prone to eating random plants and/or objects. Eeek!
Planning a Pet-Friendly Garden:
- See above with respect to fencing, if you don’t already have suitable secure boundaries.
- Consider paths, play spaces, and shelter areas. Include these in plans, where feasible.
- For paths and other commonly walked areas, select materials that are gentle on paws, where possible. See more about groundcovers and mulches below.
- Consider any extra planning factors for visiting local wildlife, whether to protect the wildlife from your pets, your pets from the wildlife, or both.
- When planning your plant selection and placement, be aware of potentially hazardous plants (read more below). Choose safe/safer and durable plants for accessible areas, especially if they might be stepped on or used as a comfy nappy nest.
- When planting out small seedlings, restrict access during establishment, if needed.
- Consider whether you need to have access controls to other areas, like edible gardens.
Be Aware of Toxic Plants
Many common plants can be toxic if eaten and/or cause contact irritation, for people and/or pets. The effects can range from mild to severe, and some plants are more potentially appealing (and therefore risky) than others. The planting and positioning aspect of pet-friendly gardening has been a much bigger part of our recent plans than past gardening. Our new puppy still has an unhealthy desire to gnaw and taste the world. The ASPCA has a handy site for checking for potential pet-toxic plants.
Planning an edible garden? Consider carefully when choosing plants and planting locations. Some garden vegetables, fruits, and berries are deliciously safe for humans, but can be toxic, hazardous, or both to pets. Grapes are particularly risky for dogs. Some edibles are safe for snacking in moderation, but you still might not want your pet to have unlimited access to pick or forage freely. Be mindful of other hazards too. For example, stones and pips can be a choking and obstruction hazard even the flesh of the fruit is safe.
Pets and Plant Safety:
- Be aware of plants that may be toxic or harmful if eaten, or cause contact irritation.
- Be conscious of planting and access to edibles that your pet might raid or self-harvest.
- Depending on the plant and the pet, you might avoid planting, alter placement, restrict access, or adapt your maintenance and/or clean-up for enhanced pet safety.
Mulches and Groundcovers
Bare dirt is very tempting for digging dogs and (nasty) neighbourhood cats looking for a convenient toilet area. Try to avoid bare soil at ground level, where possible, by using plants, mulches, and other ground covers. If you have an outdoor cat, consider creating a convenient outdoor toilet area to lower the chances of it choosing your garden beds (or the neighbours). Sand is a popular choice.
Bark mulches can be tempting for dogs to chew, not unlike sticks. It’s best to train your dog not to chew it, if possible. Be careful with the type of material you select, especially if you have a puppy or a known nibbler. If cocoa bean mulch is sold in your area, don’t use it in your garden. Its scent is attractive and it can be harmful if eaten.
We’re loving living mulches, like carpet thyme, in our garden. Ground covers and any other low-growing plants should be tough enough to handle occasional trampling paws, especially in areas that pets are likely to transit through. Be careful with placement on heavily flowering ground covers to reduce the risk of pets or people being stung whilst walking through.
Safer Mulching and Groundcovers for Pets:
- Choose pet-friendly materials that are soft under paws for walking, if applicable, and avoid anything that’s toxic or treated with potentially risky chemicals.
- For steppables, groundcovers, and other plants that are low enough for pets to walk across (or curl up on) pick durable plants and stay bee-conscious for safety.
- Try to train your pet for safer behaviours, especially if they’re prone to digging or chewing.
Garden Chemicals, Tools, and Equipment
Protect your pets from fertilisers, insecticides, baits, fungicides, and other garden chemicals. Remember, organic, eco-friendly, or natural products can still be very toxic. Read labels carefully, try to select safe alternatives, and store with care. Be cautious with fertilisers, as these often smell irresistibly delicious. Even natural fertilisers like blood, bone, seaweed, manure, or compost can be risky for rolling or eating.
Training can be just as important outdoors as indoors. When Humphrey was a wee pup, we were working on the old garden from bare ground up in many areas. It was far too tempting digging territory for the little man, but fortunately he learned quickly that it was a no-no.
Training can help with annoying issues like digging, but also to avoid risky behaviours around potentially dangerous garden tools, like lawnmowers and string-trimmers. Remember that in addition to contact risks, there are noise hazards and potential objects being flicked about when you are using power tools and equipment. Safety first, for you and your pets.
Garden Safety Around Pets:
- Ensure that your pet can’t access any chemicals, fertilisers, or compost (read more about safer composting around pets below) during storage or use in your garden.
- Don’t spray while pets are in the vicinity, and restrict access after applications, if needed.
- Take care when applying fertilisers, compost, etc. that might interest sniffing, digging, or taste-testing garden companions. Restrict access or cover areas, if needed.
- Train your pet for safer behaviours around the garden, especially around tools and equipment, if possible. Restrict access while you’re working, if needed, for extra safety.
Compost Piles and Bins
Mmm…Stinky! Compost piles and bins may smell great (to dogs), but rotting materials may contain dangerous moulds and other pathogens. Make sure that your pet does have access to dig in or scavenge from your compost. Compost can be deadly for pets.
We’ve started using a worm farm in the years since this post was written and the dogs (fortunately) aren’t too interested in sniffing around. More recently, we added a three-bay composter and I make sure that the front is always up on the active fresh bay so that the dogs (and any other animals that might be about) can’t get access. Easy as, and works great.
Compost Safety Around Pets:
- Ensure that your pet can’t access any compost piles or get into your bins.
- Take care when applying compost (or other top-dressings) that might interest sniffing, digging, or taste-testing garden companions. Restrict access or cover areas, if needed.
Lawn and Garden Pee Patches
Urine is high in nitrogen, which can burn or kill plants, similar to over-fertilising, and the pH can also affect plants and soil. Unfortunately, with two big dogs and occasional doggy guests, pee patches are part of the pet-friendly compromises in our garden. You can read more about dog pee patches in our detailed post, including tips for reducing the damage to your lawn. Or trying!
Oh, and scoop that poop, too. Direct piles of dog poop will also cause burning and patching on the grass if left too long, but much more importantly, a clean garden is a key part of protecting your pet’s health and your family’s well-being. Tiger is mostly an indoor cat and prefers his litterbox, but keeping other neighbourhood cats out of our gardens is an ongoing issue…
Perfectly Imperfect Pet-Friendly Lawns:
- Choose durable varieties of grass, and keep your lawn healthy and hydrated for better resilience to pee, poo, and playful paws. Read more about pee patches and prevention.
- Scoop poop regularly to protect your lawn and maintain general hygiene.
- Expect a little imperfection. It’s worth it for the joy our pets bring!
Pet-Friendly Gardening Idea Sheet
The follow-on infographic idea-sheet was created many years ago, before Green in Real Life transitioned from Blogger’s blogspot to our home here at greeninreallife.com. The branding and design are outdated, but good ideas are always in fashion, so we’ve kept it with our pet-friendly gardening post so that readers can still revisit an old fav or stumble across it for the first time.
Additional Pet-Friendly Gardening Ideas
