A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 pet safe plants for kennel

hi, we have a 10 ft by 6 ft kennel attached to our home in zone 5. It is mostly sunny with a little shade. I want to plant around here to beautify the area with maybe some evergreens and flowers. Unfortunately everything I have come up with about 40 plants turned out to be poisonous. Can anyone offer help?One expert reccommended three poisonous plants and when told they were poisonous said oh she would have to eat a cabbage head amount to be in danger. I want no danger...She is important to us and I have the rest of the yard to plant to my desire.

Check these pages and see if they're any help...
Non-toxic Plants for a Shaded Foundation
Links to Toxic Plant Lists

Hi Bill, thanks for the response. I had noticed that posting but believed it to be mostly for a shaded area. Plus I was a little concerned about the staying azealas. I guess right now I have to much information of what is poisonous and that is crowding out what is ok. I was hoping someone out there had a similiar set up and could say what they were using. It is a mostly sunny area. And as my dog is only 10 lbs I wouldn't want much higher then 3ft. She has a deck in there attached to our home with a house on it, so this enables her to see above her 15 inch height.

Can I ask a question Turtlemama?

Is the dog in the habit of eating the plants??

I won't speak for all dogs, but mostly they
stick to eating grass if they are so inclined to eat something.????


Also, are you planting on the inside of the kennel, or the outside???


Maybe leave the inside just for the dog, and put some grass..
Then on the outside, plant your plants, I would even say, the one's that are "harmful" can go on the outside of the kennel with out any effects to the dog??????

Is the dog a digger????

What do you have now around the area that you have planted??? Just curious?????????

Weezie

P.S. Great name by the way, how did you get it if I may ask?????

Be careful...some lawn grasses are poisonous to animals

turtlemama
weezie has some good points there, also how old is your dog? dog dont usualy have a habit of chewing on things unless there puppies still teething. you have a small dog so it should only teeth for its first year & ahalf. give it some rawhide to chew on, it will like that more than a plant. my rotten girl teethed for 3 years! ive never kept her in a kenel,dont have a fence, she roames the yard at her free will, ive never had her eat any of my plants, just the grass when she has a sour stumic, theres certian grasses dogs look for kinda like we look for the pepdo!
sibyl

Hi Everyone, Sorry about the delay in posting, life has been crazy here. Zephyr is a four year old Coton de Tulear. I believe that breed is very curious and likes to experiment with tasting things. We just got her a month ago and noticed she doesn't seem to discriminate about what goes in her mouth. I'm not concerned about the rest of the yard because I'll be with her. The kennel I want to plant only on the outside to beautify the area. I'm only worried bcause she has free range to this area because of the doggie door that allows her to come and go as she pleases. I was now beginning to think of planting some I believe it's called Kallineum shrubs they supposedly flower from June to Sept. with yellow like star flowers or maybe even some Little Henry Itea shrubs. I don't know yet some nurseries describe both as evergreens and some don't. I don't know. That's what I'm hoping you guys can all offer some great suggestions. I also thought about the grasses but several all poisonous and it seems several get quite tall. The dog is only about 12 inches high and on her mini deck she can probably see about 3 or 4 ft high. I guess I want to stick in the 2 - 4 ft high range so she can see out a bit. Thanks a bunch for all your help.

I just reread all the posts so now I can answer a little more. The Coton breed goes back somehow to the Island of Magdsascar and there is Terrier blood involved. So because of that she is a digger and also smart enough to try to plan escape routes. Her kennel is attached to the very back of our home. She has a doggie door out from our kitchen onto her deck into her kennel. The kennel is facing our childrens playscape area with about three feet in between them. to the left of the kennel are two huge garden areas. One is all veggies and fruits. The other is a very long and wide curving border garden full of shrubs and cottage like perrenials. To the right of the kennel is our family shed, another raised planter garden of herbs and one other garden on a slopey hill of other perrenials. The left side gardens are full of reds, yellows and blues. The right side gardens are full of purples and pinks, and whites. Hopefully someday soon the shed will be removed and a goldfish pond installed. Overall the yard is a big lush cottage like garden with a big ugly kennel smack in the middle. On a more personal note I suffered a horrible injury in college and was beginning to feel like I was falling behind my peers in the success department, when a close friend gave me a turtle statue and said slow and steady wins all the time. So that was the beginning of my collection of turtles. Once I had my three children they all seemed fond of turtles also so I got the nickname of turtle mama. Well hope this info is helpful.