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Hello! Garden dangers

Shay

Having kicked this discussion off - God knows what the sensible attitude to all this is - I am seriously beginning to wonder. I think it's really hard to take a measured line on 'poisonous plants' and over the last few weeks I have lurched from a scorched earth policy (which I would do if we only had a small yard, but which would frankly leave us with bare ground in our acre of garden...) to trying to be a bit more rational.

I have been speaking to vet friends and practically all my friends (90% of whom have had dogs for years), and they take a very dismissive line, especially those who live in the country. Yes of course the danger is there, but in a situation where one's dogs are running free in a very large garden or out in the countryside one has no control over what they investigate and incidences of poisoning are rare.

When we moved from London to this house where we have a big garden with mature trees and shrubs, some of my scaremongering London friends were telling me then that I should take the yew and laburnum out, because of my children. I told my children never to eat plants and watched them like a hawk when they were very young - as I will do with my puppy. It would have been far more serious after all if my children had munched them however precious the dog is, and I chose to take the risk. I love my kids to bits, but life is a risk after all. Education, training and vigilance have to be the way to go I reckon.
 
Katie said:
Shay

Having kicked this discussion off - God knows what the sensible attitude to all this is - I am seriously beginning to wonder. I think it's really hard to take a measured line on 'poisonous plants' and over the last few weeks I have lurched from a scorched earth policy (which I would do if we only had a small yard, but which would frankly leave us with bare ground in our acre of garden...) to trying to be a bit more rational.
quote]

I guess I need to clarify. My plants are in pots on my screened porch. The English ivy and the asparagus fern are sitting on the floor, and I have seen Lily nibble at them and caught her with a couple of dropped off leaves in her mouth. The geranium is on a plant stand that she can't get to, but again leaves and petals have fallen on the floor. It was easy for me just to move them to the outside part of the deck where she can't get to them. I never thought about those plant being poisonous until reading your post prompted me to check. When I checked, I was amazed that these plants were poisonous. Especially the English ivy, which is deadly.

I would never dig up my garden if I had poisonous plants there, which according to the list I do (azaleas) I will just have to watch her. As a matter of fact it seems like almost every plant I have ever heard of was on the list.

It just made sense for me to move the bad ones from the deck so she could play out there without me having to watch her every second
Click to expand...
 
Shay -I'd have done exactly what you did if they were moveable. Practically everything in our garden seems to be poisonous to some degree. I was having sleepless nights about it last week, thinking we should never have risked having a puppy with our garden; but this week I am being a bit more sanguine about it, thinking about how everyone else manages. I just have to pray she turns out sensible in that department. She loves chasing all the leaves on the ground, but so far hasn't stopped to chew them much.
 
Katie......Lily loves leaves! Every kind. Every time I take her out, she stops to pick up leaves and starts chewing them. We took her to the park yesterday, and much to my husband's dismay, she was more interested in the leaves, than chasing the ball. :lol:
 
Sharon, who bred my younger three, has a very exotic garden for this country. She solves the problem by fencing the garden so the dogs can only go on the patio area, which is decorated with hanging baskets of non-poisonous plants.

I didn't think I had a nibbler, after having five previous dogs, until Joly came in with a mouthful of lily and gave me a scare.

I still have potted azaleas, but they are on the kitchen window ledge, so anyleaves etc fall onto the worktop or into the sink and not the floor.
 
Barbara

We've considered fencing our patio area but judging by the comments on this thread already, we'd need 7ft high fence to keep her in, and then we couldn't see the rest of the garden! What sort of fence do you have round your patio?
 
Cav's can jump but I will say the jumping has only been when he is trying to get to us....we have a very short fence out back that neither of my dogs have considered jumping. A fense may help to contain your pup unless you were in the garden :)
 
We don't have a patio or a garden; just a muddy grassy area , at the moment. We killed 75% of the grass/weeds, ready for a revamp, then the man din't come to give an estimate.

My husband is trying to contact an ex work colleague who used to do hard landsacaping, to come and have a look. However, as the garden is empty, we have no poisonous plants. The plan is for a patio by the house, to retain the dogs in wet weather and a lawned area, surrounded by raised flowerbeds, enclosed in low walls. As keeping off mud, rather than safety is the aim, we don't need anything high.

Sharon's exotic garden is on a slope going down from the house, so she can't see it anyway. It's separated by a 4' ? fence of vertical wooden slats (no horizontal footholds). The fence makes the garden, which is quite small, cosy and private.
 
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