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Pet-Friendly Gardening and Landscaping Making sure Fido, Fifi and Garfield stay out of trouble when it comes to garden plants and pesticides From "Dirt On Gardening" episode DDOG-103

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Figure C

Pesticides and Your Pet

The most dangerous types of pesticides include snail and slug bait, ant and roach bait, ant and roach traps and mouse baits. Metaldehyde, one of the poisonous ingredients in many baits, is often appealing to dogs. Metaldehyde poisoning can cause increased heart rate, breathing complications and seizures, leading to liver complications and death.

• Eliminating the use of poisonous pesticides and heavy fertilizers is the best way to make your garden safer for your pets.
  
• Pet paws are often irritated by lawn and garden chemicals, and pets can get very ill from inhaling or ingesting chemicals by licking their paws or fur.
  
• Keep pets away from treated areas until the treatments have dried completely.
  
• Use caution when purchasing lawn and garden products, always read the labels (even if you used a particular product in the past, since formulas often change), and consider switching to natural alternatives.
  
• Check with your garden supplier. Many companies now offer pet-safe pesticides and pest deterrents (figure C). Mint oil is used in some products that help keep insects away from your plants. Concentrated corn oil is used in some rodent-control products, but is relatively harmless to dogs or cats. Diatomaceous earth is a natural substance that deters insects but is relatively innocuous to pets.
  

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Does your yellow lab take pleasure in digging up your newly planted Japanese maple? Do you have a mastiff who makes a bed on top of your ornamental hostas? Here's a simple suggestion: elevate. Planting raised beds is one way to discourage destructive digging and keep your prized plants "out of sight and out of mind" when it comes to your four-footed friends.

Raised beds may also be effective in keeping potentially harmful plants less accessible to pets. Wooden raised beds (figures D and E) , elevated to a level of 18 inches, keep plants above "paw level," and it's easier to train most dogs to stay out of a raised bed than ones at ground level. Rock borders can also be used to create barriers or raise the level of beds.

Go to next article in DIY's "Green Gardener" series.

Figure D

Figure E

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