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How to create a pet-friendly garden

How to keep your garden safe and fun for your pets to explore, with tips from show garden designers Paul Hervey-Brookes and Martyn Wilson, and plant advice from RHS advisor Chris Taylor

Making an outdoor space that works for both you and the furry members of your family is easy and simple. Just putting some extra thought into what will keep your dogs, cats and other four-legged friends happy can help them get the most out of your garden.

Five ideas for a pet-friendly garden

1) Secure your space

Fences are a simple solution to keeping curious pets in
You need to make sure you don’t provide any accidental escape routes for those pets who don’t know how to make it back home. Creating boundaries using fencing, walls and hedging is an easy way to ensure they don’t make an unexpected exit when you aren’t looking. Just make sure your boundaries don’t have any gaps for pets to squeeze through. You can even use boundaries to create a pet-free zone and protect areas of planting.

2) Choose plants carefully

Sunflowers are non-toxic to cats
While your pets may think some plants look good enough to eat, not all of them are safe to do so. The Blue Cross notes that toxic plants can lead to a range of problems for pets when ingested or touched, from vomiting to skin irritation and more serious illness. It is important to always research when choosing new plants for your garden to make sure they are safe for your animals.

3) Create shady spots

You can use plants to create shade for a place to cool off
​It can be tempting for animals to spend hours outside when the sun is shining so it is a good idea to provide cooler spots for them to retreat to avoid overheating. Shade be created in many ways, such as using trees or shelters, but it might also occur from buildings. It doesn’t have to limit your planting either, as there are many ways to work with shade in the garden.

4) Incorporate play

Dogs can explore RHS Gardens at Walkies events
It’s natural for pets to be adventurous in the garden and there are lots of features you can add to keep them entertained. Hiding spots can be created using pathways between shrubs and long grasses, while providing benches and other surfaces with height, like boulders, can give them something to climb on. Having some open space for pets to run around in will also allow them to burn off energy, but visiting a local park is a great alternative if you have a smaller garden. Remember that RHS Gardens also offer different Walkies evenings for dog owners throughout the year.

5) Introduce different textures

Incorporate a range of plants for snouts to explore
Sensory stimulation in the garden can bring pets as much enjoyment as us. Including things like a range of grasses to roll around in, different types of path to walk on, plants you don’t mind them sniffing in and shallow water features to splash in can keep them interested for hours. Just be careful to avoid sharper edges and surfaces that could cause injuries.

Dog Garden at RHS Chelsea 2025

At the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May, Monty Don is creating his first Feature Garden for the RHS, with Radio Two. With the nation’s dog owners wanting beautiful spaces for them and their furry friends, The RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden will inspire the millions of dog lovers at home to create green havens for them and their pets. 

​What do garden designers suggest?

Back in 2016, long-standing RHS show designer and judge Paul Hervey-Brookes celebrated the 125th anniversary of the Dogs Trust with his A Dog’s Life Garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival.

It’s all about understanding your dog’s behaviour and needs in the garden, as well as what you want from your outdoor space.

Paul Hervey-Brookes
The aim was to create a safe space for dogs needing rehoming to meet potential owners in a garden that functioned for them. “It had a very simple layout with a long stretch of shallow water for dogs to play and cool off in and a quiet enclosed seating area at the back for dogs and people to sit together,” he said.

Paul’s top three features for a dog-friendly garden

  • Shallow water, like a rill, for drinking and splashing in. This is also good for garden wildlife like birds and hedgehogs.
  • Dens and hiding spots to provide dogs with their own space in the garden and to encourage them to only dig around in allocated areas.
  • Fruit and vegetable interest that dogs can eat, like raspberries.

Inspiration from A Dog’s Life Garden

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A water rill to splash in and drink from
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Tall plants for pets to hide in
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An open space for pets to run around
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A water rill to splash in and drink from
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Tall plants for pets to hide in
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An open space for pets to run around
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In the RSPCA Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023, designer Martyn Wilson demonstrated how to encourage wildlife in the garden while also taking domestic animals into consideration.

While we do want to encourage our pets into our gardens, we need to protect wildlife too. Things as simple as a bell on a cat’s collar can help alarm birds to keep them out of reach of paws.

Martyn Wilson
To mark the 200th birthday of the RSPCA, the garden included many wildlife features, including dead hedge boxes, a dry-stone wall and nesting boxes, as well as a hide to observe wildlife from. A dog water bowl from the 1920s was also placed in the garden to represent those that the charity put out at the time for working dogs.

What the RSPCA suggest for pet-friendly gardens…

  • For rabbits and guinea pigs, attach a large run onto their shelter for exercise.
  • For cats, include trees to scratch and climb.
  • For dogs, designate digging areas.

The RSPCA Garden was designed to encourage wildlife and welcome pets
Plant advice

Although most domesticated animals aren’t directly interested in plants, avoid growing those below if you are aware that your pet chews, scratches or rubs against plants. Puppies and kittens are in particularly inquisitive at teething age. Rabbits, guinea pigs and tortoises should ideally be kept in an enclosure when outdoors to protect them. 

These plants are toxic if eaten by animals. Please seek veterinary assistance if you suspect your pet of coming into contact with these. 

Ornamental plants 

Aconitum (monkshood, wolfsbane) – spires of purple or white flowers with a characteristic hood-like petal and dark green leaves. 
Allium (ornamental onion) – purple or white spherical flowers on thin stems. Leaves die back in summer. 
Arum mamoratum, Arum italicum (cuckoo pint, lords and ladies, Italian lords and ladies) – green spearhead-shaped leaves. Leaves are either plain green or marbled white. Grows in gardens, woodland and beneath hedgerows.
Asarum europeaum (wild ginger, asarabacca) – a low-growing ground cover with mid-to dark green leaves. Inconspicuous red-brown flowers near ground level. 
Brugmansia (angel’s trumpet, tree datura) – a frost-tender plant with large trumpet-shaped pendulous flowers in pink, yellow, orange, red, cream or white. 

Aconitum (monkshood, wolfsbane)
Arum italicum (Italian lords and ladies)
Brugmansia (angel’s trumpet)
​​Colchicum (autumn crocus, meadow saffron, naked ladies) – white or pink-purple crocus-like flowers (appear in late summer autumn). Rosettes of wide strap leaves in summer, die back before flowers.  
Convallaria (lily-of-the-valley) – a low-growing leafy groundcover plant in shady places. In spring highly scented, spherical-shaped clusters of white, or pale pink, flowers emerge on short stalks. 
Daphne (spurge laurel, wood laurel, copse laurel) – widely-grown evergreen (occasionally deciduous) shrubs, with small clusters of highly scented pink, purple or white flowers in spring and summer. 
Datura (thornapple, jimsonweed) – a frost-tender plant with ornamental varieties similar to brugmansia but with upright trumpet-shaped flowers in purple and white. Jimsonweed with narrow white-cream flowers appears as a casual weed on disturbed ground. All have spherical, spined seed capsules.  
Dictamnus (burning bush, gas plant, dittany, fraxinella) – an upright perennial with spires of butterfly-shaped flowers (not to be confused with gaura) in white, pink and purple. Stems die back in winter. 
Convallaria (lily-of-the-valley)
Daphne (wood laurel)
Dictamnus (dittany)
Digitalis (foxglove) – spires of tubular purple flowers in late spring-early summer often spotted inside emerge from a low growing rosette of leaves. A biennial which usually dies after flowering has finished. 
Euphorbia (spurge) – bracts surround acid yellow or lime green flowers in spring and summer. Upright or trailing habit with characteristic milky sap. Toxic when ingested but also irritant of skin and eyes. 
Ginkgo biloba (ginkgo, maidenhair tree) – usually an upright deciduous tree, although dwarf forms exist. Distinctive fan-shaped leaf with central notch. Seeds are toxic.   
Gourds (ornamental varieties of squash) – a scrambling annual, with small egg-or teardrop shaped fruit, striped variously yellow, orange, green and white. Some have blistered skin. 
Hemerocallis (daylily) – an herbaceous perennial with trumpet-shaped flowers each lasting for a day emerge from clumps of grassy foliage. Toxic to cats in particular.
Digitalis (foxglove)
Euphorbia (spurge)
Hemerocallis (daylily)
Heracleum (hogweed) – large rough-surfaced leaves emerge in spring, followed by flattened, white umbel-shaped flowers. A deep-rooted occasional garden weed in sun and part-shade. Sap is toxic to skin in sunlight.   
Humulus lupulus (hop, golden hop) – a scrambling climber with bristly, rough-textured green or golden leaves. In late summer-autumn strings of papery, flowers with distinctive smell are present.    
Lilium (lily, Easter lily, tiger lily) – large six petalled flowers in pink, red, yellow and white, often highly scented. Prominent stamens with orange pollen that stains. Poisonous to cats. 
Lupinus (lupin) – spires of pea-like flowers in blue, purple, yellow, red and white, emerge from herbaceous clumps. Leaves are soft, with multiple leaflets arranged around a central stalk. 
Nerium oleander (oleander, rose bay, rose laurel) a frost-tender evergreen shrub, which may survive outdoors in coastal areas. Red, pink and white ruffled flowers are produced atop thin stems with spear-shaped leaves. 
Lilium (lily)
Lupinus (lupin)
Nerium oleander (oleander)
Oenanthe (water dropwort, hemlock water dropwort) a wildflower of damp places such as river banks and ditches. Similar to cow parsley but more robust stems. White umbels flower in mid-late summer. 
Ornithogalum (star-of-Bethlehem, chincherinchee, wonder flower) A bulbous plant which flowers from late spring to summer. Star-shaped white or orange flowers. 
Phytolacca (pokeweed, pokeroot, pokeberry, inkweed, inkberry, pigeonberry) an herbaceous plant with large oval leaves, flowers in summer are followed by round shiny black fruit on pink stems. 
Polygonatum (Solomon’s seal) – an herbaceous plant with paired leaves ascending on arching stems. Pendulous white-green flowers are seen beneath the foliage in spring. 
Ricinus communis (castor oil plant, caster bean, palma Christi) – an annual plant often grown for exotic bedding displays. Upright stems of large palmate leaves coloured red or green are topped by flowers and spikey round fruit in summer. 
Phytolacca (pokeweed)

Polygonatum (Solomon’s seal)

Ricinus communis (castor oil plant)
Ruta (rue, garden rue, herb of grace, Jackman’s blue) – a low growing, mound-forming plant, sometimes seen in herb gardens. Has well divided blue-green leaves and sulphur yellow flowers in summer.  Toxic to skin in sunlight. 
Taxus (yew) – a bushy tree with dark green leaves, red-brown bark and red berries in late summer, autumn. Commonly grown as a hedging plant, or topiary specimen. 
Veratrum (false hellebore, false helleborine) a herbaceous plant with large pleated leaves that emerge in spring. These are followed by branched panicles of dark-reddish brown or white-green flowers. 

Edible plants

Plants in the onion family such as garlic, chives and onions are best avoided, or grown in an fenced area. 

There are more resources about garden safety for pets available from animal charities such as the Dogs Trust, Blue Cross, HTA, the PDSA, and the RSPCA.

About the author - Tenielle Jordison

Tenielle is a journalist and dog owner who spends a lot of time in the garden with her dog.

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