How to ensure that your garden is both child friendly and pet friendly

Dangers include toxic plants, your pond, stinging nettles, thistles and thorny plants but there are other potential dangers you may not be totally aware of.

There are many plants with toxic leaves, flowers and berries but the list is too extensive to go into detail here, these are however covered in more detail in my up-coming ebook. For example plants such as ‘lily-of-the-valley’ and the berries of ‘honeysuckle’ are very toxic, but there are many more. Check with a horticultural professional for more details or do an internet search.

A simple low fence of any type around your pond area will certainly go a long way to prevent young children and household pets from entering.

Stinging nettles are a nuisance to get rid of, when you think you have managed to get them out by their roots you are often surprised to find them re-appearing in your garden a few weeks later.

It’s much easier just to keep chopping them down and disposing of the stalks and leaves, even very small nettles can cause a severe rash and although in most cases nettle stings are not a serious matter they are however very uncomfortable.

Thistles often contain tiny thorns that will easily penetrate the skin. The problem comes from them being too small or thin to be seen easily making them difficult to find in order to remove them. They can also prove to be rather painful with no obvious sign of the cause of the irritation.

Other thorny plants such as roses, brambles, hawthorn etc. are obvious causes of injury. These often cause a rather nasty bloody scratch resulting in scarred skin tissue. Plus have you ever tried trying to get a thorn out of your dog or cats paw, not an easy task; that is if you can find the culprit in the first place.

Be sure to wear protective gloves when handling any of the above plants.

Also ensure you do not leave any sharp objects or tools in the garden for children or pets to injure themselves on.

The same also applied to garden and plant related chemicals such as weed killers, fertilisers, pest control substances etc. Glass based greenhouses and cold frames also provide another potential hazard you need to be aware of, broken glass can cause a serious injury.

Of course any children or pets should be supervised at all times whilst in the garden.

Apart from the dangers that can be caused to children or pets there is also some risk with the damage that children or pets can cause to your garden.

Children, especially the very young, absolutely love flowers but are often unaware of the damage they are causing when they present you with the wonderful gift of a flower head from one of your prize dahlias for example. They think they are being kind and appreciative, (bless ‘em!) so of course you don’t have the heart to tell them off for giving you a present. I’m sure you see my point, picking flowers in the garden is not always a great idea! Young children can have a very destructive effect on your flower garden, so do not let them go out there unsupervised.

Also try not to let young children go outside with the bucket and spade you bought them at the seaside, they will undoubtedly fill their bucket with soil; but where are they getting that soil from? Maybe a few uprooted plants will allow them to fill the bucket with ease!

Household pets can also have a detrimental effect on your garden. Cats love to leave their faeces all over the lawn as do dogs. This can be difficult to clean up from the grass so it’s perhaps best to try and keep them off the lawn wherever possible, and their mess is much easier to clean up from concrete or slabs (flagstones). Also if you have a female dog here’s a word of caution; bitch urine can cause damage to you lawn as it tends to produce horrible brown patches on your otherwise plush green grass area.

Dogs and cats love to chew on plant life (so much for being carnivorous) and dogs especially enjoy digging, but you can guarantee that they will choose to dig right where you don’t want them to.

A small fence of any type to section off any area you would rather your dog did not go will offer them some reluctance.

Of course there is other damage children and pets can do to your otherwise beautiful garden so the above is by no means a complete list. The best advice I can offer is to supervise them at all times whilst they are in the garden.

Enjoy your garden and be safe!