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Cat-safe wildflower border coverage

joannemalamjoannemalam Posts: 1
in Plants
Hi I would like to plant wildflowers or something that will give colourful coverage in the side borders of my garden, to fill in the gaps between bushes & trees. I have an elderly cat who spends a lot of time in the garden so don't want to poison her! Ideally low maintenance and fairly robust - I have 2 boys who play a lot of football in the garden! One side is in the sun, the other in the shade. Many thanks!

Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    All (wild) flowers will be pretty unlikely to hurt the cat.
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    I have had cats  (as many as 6 together at one time) and a wide variety of plants of all sorts together for well over 40 years and never had a problem from plants. 
    The only ones I choose to steer clear of, or use with especial caution are lilies, as their pollen, which is toxic to cats, can get on their fur without you or them realising and then get licked off.
    Thinking of your boys, in your case I would also avoid Euphorbias as the sap can cause skin irritation and blistering and intense irritation if it gets in eyes and they could easily make contact when retrieving an off course football. There are of course many other plants that are poisonous if leaves or fruit are eaten. Depending on the age of your sons and how sensible they are, you may choose to grow them or not; the RHS website will give you the relevant information for each plant.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    There are lists of plants to avoid on the internet. I remember foxgloves being one, but I've never actually seen a cat try to eat a foxglove.
  • debs64debs64 Posts: 5,184
    Many plants are toxic to cats and other animals but cats are not stupid enough to eat them, I also cut pollen stamens from lilies before bringing them indoors as I have cats and that could accidentally get onto their fur and also find the yellow stains from pollen rather irritating but otherwise you should be fine. 
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