Garden Safety – Safe Plants for Children and Pets

For children and pets, the garden is a huge adventure landscape. Colorful blossoms, strangely shaped leaves, and fragrant plant parts are everywhere, enticing them to touch and taste everything!

If toxic plants grow in the garden, sooner or later a visit to the pediatrician or vet will be unavoidable. To prevent this, there should be no poisonous plants in the garden if it's accessible to children and pets.

The garden is an incredibly exciting place. Every corner smells different, every plant looks more intriguing than the last, and all those sounds! While this eventually becomes normal for children of a certain age, for animals, the discovery never really stops. No wonder, since there's always something new to find each day. That right leaf on the third branch wasn't there yesterday, was it?

Children are also incredibly curious and need to examine everything closely. And because kids don't always think before they act, a hand can quickly end up in an eye or mouth after touching a foxglove. And how is your dog, Bello, supposed to know that those funny-looking trumpet flowers don't make music and are actually poisonous?

To prevent such incidents, as a garden owner, you should refrain from planting toxic plants in your garden. Sure, foxglove (Fingerhut), laburnum (Goldregen), and monkshood (Eisenhut) look beautiful, and deadly nightshade (Tollkirsche) has pretty berries, but just three berries from deadly nightshade can be fatal for children. Therefore, it's not just for children: keep your hands off toxic plants! They have no place in a garden shared with kids and pets.

To ensure kids still have plenty to explore in the garden and that dogs and cats can roam safely through the beds, fortunately, there are plenty of plants that are completely non-toxic, and some even taste quite good!

In the flowerbed, to name just a few, you can safely plant marigolds (Tagetes), lavender, nasturtiums, sunflowers, pansies, dahlias, and calendula. While marigolds, lavender, and sunflowers might not be very flavorful, they are non-toxic. The other plants, however, bring some unique tastes to the table.

Nasturtiums in salad are well-known, but how about pansy blossoms on a cake or in a salad? Dahlias also boast an unusual flavor that's slightly spicy and tart. And since calendula is commonly used in creams and ointments, it's completely harmless and was even used as a saffron substitute in the past. With these safe plants, your flowerbed certainly won't be boring, and children and pets can explore the big wide world undisturbed.

Of course, it's not just about safe plants for flowerbeds. Among shrubs and trees, there are also some excellent choices for a child and pet-friendly garden.

One such option is the corkscrew hazel (Korkenzieherhasel). Not only is it non-toxic, but it also looks incredibly fascinating. Its twisted, spiraling branches make it a popular addition to gardens. Corkscrew hazels can grow up to 12 meters tall, and rodents like rabbits and guinea pigs particularly benefit from them. The twisted twigs are delicious for gnawing animals and perfect for them to chew on.

The linden tree (Linde) also belongs in a risk-free garden. Even though it can reach heights of up to 40 meters, making it suitable only for large gardens, linden blossoms are a popular ingredient for teas and infusions.

And for those who find a regular apple tree too boring, consider planting an ornamental apple tree (Zierapfel). It, along with its fruits, is completely harmless for children and pets.