How to Make Your Garden Safe for Pets

(Music Playing) David Epstein: Welcome to GrowingWisdom.com and as you know we talk a lot about plants and today we brought in Dr. Drellich and we are going to talk specifically about some of the plants which can be harmful to some of our cats and I want to start outside. (Music Playing) Dr. Sharon Drellich And it is like Foxglove which has cardiac glycoside in it like, monkshood or Aconitum and even Rhubarb, the leaves of Rhubarb can be toxic and then there are some weeds Caster bean and Jimson weed. David Epstein: I have the Monkshood, so I have three dogs but they do not seem to go for it right. Dr. Sharon Drellich: Right. David Epstein: So, how would or why would a dog eat that. Like, how would this happen? Dr. Sharon Drellich: Because dogs are curious and dogs have the tendency to taste things of course for whatever reason I do not really know. They do not have tendency to eat plants. Some of those things are more of a problem if there is livestock around. That might be more of a problem. David Epstein: How about cats? Dr. Sharon Drellich: So, there problem is again not usually so much to the plants that they eat outside as the rodents that they might try to kill for in just. David Epstein: Is there a toxicity with that with those small animals for them or? Dr. Sharon Drellich: No, the main problem we would see there would be if a dog was to fight or attack a porcupine and then they will get quilt. For cats, the problem would be if they got a hold of let us say a mouse or a rat and that had eaten rat poison. David Epstein: Yes. Dr. Sharon Drellich: Because, while those things are labeled as toxic to the rodents that you are trying to get rid off. The fact is they are toxic to every mammal out there. David Epstein: I also use and other people use fertilizer, what is the problem or potential problem if they ingest that? Dr. Sharon Drellich: Fertilizers in general are not a problem, where the toxicity is coming or some of the mulches and particularly the one that we talked about as a Cocoa Bean Mulch. David Epstein: So, with the Cocoa Mulch would you advice people with dogs just do not even use it. Dr. Sharon Drellich: Do not use it. David Epstein: Let us say a dog did ingest one the things that you are talking about. What will you do? Dr. Sharon Drellich: There is an animal poison control site that you can call and that phone number is 1-877 the number 2ANGELL. David Epstein: Great, we have got a lot of great information from Dr. Drellich. Come back often for all our tips here at GrowingWisdom.com [Music playing]