VICKY OUR VET HAS BEEN TO CHELSEA…

So what was your Holistic Vet doing at the Chelsea Flower Show? Well, as you can imagine a vet who works with herbs also likes gardening and took a day off to visit arguably the World’s most famous flower show.

Vicky was really impressed to see many of the gardens using wild flowers and culinary and medicinal herbs with one of the Artisan gardens having a natural apothecary theme. But on the whole the gardens didn’t look like a place to relax with your pets and few had any lawn for playing or grazing.

SO WHAT’S IN IT FOR OUR PETS?

Chelsea show gardens aren’t very pet friendly on the whole but Vicky did pick up a catalogue from a company who make seed mixes specifically for pets! Not only the pets you may think of such as rabbits and guinea pigs but also fresh food for hamsters, cats, dogs, cage and aviary birds and tortoises as well as wildlife mixes.

GARDENS FOR PETS

Vicky thinks you can have a beautiful garden AND a pet friendly garden at the same time (she thinks hers ticks both boxes anyway) and that access to a garden can be important to your pets health. Cats can scratch, climb and hunt; dogs can sniff, dig and roll and rabbits and guinea pigs can forage and run. Proud gardeners should make special digging pits and scratching posts to keep the pets off the prize petunias and mesh tunnels can provide safe passage to different runs for the small herbivores. Take care when planning for a pet friendly garden to avoid toxic plants such as foxglove and those irritant to skin such as euphorbia; garden centre labels will usually carry warnings. Avoid cocoa shell mulches which can be toxic if eaten by dogs and use and store garden chemicals safely. Maybe even devote a small patch to growing these innovative seed mixes for your pets!