Pet Safe Gardening: Identifying and Avoiding Toxic Plants for Dogs and Cats

Getting Started with Pet Safe Gardening

Introduction

As loving pet owners, we do everything we can to keep our pets out of harms way. We take the time to buy the best foods, the best toys and proof our homes to keep our loving dogs and cats safe and happy. But even our beautiful landscapes and pretty cut flowers can be harmful to our loving furry family. That is why it is important to understand which plants are best for pet safe gardening and which ones to avoid. There are precautions you can take at home to effectively achieve pet safe gardening.

In this article, I will be discussing the common indoor and outdoor toxic plants, symptoms of plant poisoning in your pets, creating a safe plant environment and pet safe gardening. It is important to keep in mind that this is only for educational purposes. If you believe your pet has ingested a toxic plant, consult your veterinarian on next steps to take.

What is Pet Safe Gardening?

Let’s talk about what pet safe gardening is. Pet safe gardening is understanding and identifying plants that are toxic to your dogs and cats and what effects they may have. It is important to be able to identify the toxic and non toxic plants and do your research if you have pets and are looking to purchase different plants. I will be going into some common plants that are toxic to plants, where to go to identify plants that are pet safe and those that are toxic and I will be discussing different ways to keep your pets safe while enjoying the wonderful world of gardening.

Common Indoor Toxic Plants

So, lets get into it. It is first important to be able to recognize those commonly used, but toxic plants to be able to ensure pet safe gardening. Each plant has their own toxicity level from being life threatening to causing gastrointestinal upset. I am dividing the plants into indoor and outdoor plants as they are most commonly seen but each plant is not only seen in the location that I am discussing.

For those of you that have cats that do not know they are carnivores (my cat) and eat all of your plants regardless if they are toxic or not, there are cat friendly plants like cat grass or cat nip that you may consider keeping in your house for them to chew on. Just note, you may not have a plant for very long. I got some cat grass for my cat once and it was gone within the hour. He is a literal lawn mower. Below are some of the commonly seen indoor plants that are toxic to your cats and dogs. You can reference more toxic plants here.

Common Outdoor Toxic Plants

Creating a Pet Safe Gardening Plant Environment

There are a number of ways to create a pet safe environment when creating your botanical design. For my pet’s I do still have plants that are toxic to my pets but know the effects they may have. I use my environment to keep my pets safe so it is still possible to have plants that you do not want your furry family ingesting if you are diligent in keeping the environment safe in other ways. Here is a list of your different options to do so.

Identify Your Plants

Let us start with the basics, know your plants. This tactic can be considered if you already have a garden and are looking to introduce an animal into the environment you already have set up. There are apps you can use to identify your plants in your home or if you have the labels in your plants, of course, you can identify them that way. You can also label your plants on your own with these, which are my favorite labels. You can also consider the plants you are shopping for. Every plant at a nursery is labeled and taking a look at the label rather than just the beauty may be the right choice for you.

So, you’ve identified the plants you have or are needing to buy. How do you know if the plant is toxic? Well, there is a great website that the ASPCA has put together to help identify the plants that are toxic to your pets. Visit their site here.

Consider Your Environment

Everyone has a different environment and house, of course and it is important to consider your environment for for placing your plants in their perspective locations to keep pet safe gardening in mind. Certain plants need more light and others need less so also taking into account where your pets have access to is something to be considered. In my house, as I had stated, I have some plants that I keep my pets far away from.

My cat, Sterling, will eat whatever plant is put in front of him so I am diligent in keeping the toxic plants away. In my household, we use our bathrooms for plants that I do not want my pets around. We close the doors to our bathrooms so we know that the pets are not able to get to the plants. We also use our guest room for the same reason. The door is always shut until we have guests, so the plants are just moved for the time- being if we think that the visitor will leave the door to the room open.

In all honesty, I didn’t know that some of the plants I had were toxic to pets. We had also gotten my pets after we had gotten some of the plants. With all of my plants I had gotten after knowing what I know now, I consider the plants I am buying knowing that my cat will try to eat them and that I can just not have them in my house.

Outdoors you can put up things like chicken wire to deter your cats that go outdoors or your dogs from ingesting the toxic plants.

Remove the Toxic Plants

Yes, this is sometimes the sad truth. To keep your pets safe, sometimes it is necessary to just remove the toxic plants from your environment. You don’t necessarily need to kill the toxic plants, you can rehome them, but sometimes that is the only way to keep the area safe. Let’s face it, a rehomed $20 plant is a lot cheaper than an overnight veterinary bill.

Take it from me, we veterinary technicians do not get paid for your pet to come into the hospital. We would much prefer not see them, ever, in the hospital. We don’t want your money and we do not want to meet your pet at the hospital either.

Consult Your Veterinarian

If you believe your pet has ingested a toxic plant, it is best to consult your veterinarian about what to do and the effects it may have. The ASPCA actually also has a poison control hotline that charges a fee to determine the toxicity level of the ingested plant (or toxin). They are trained to give you and your vet exact recommendations of what to do in these circumstances.

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