As you begin thinking about backyard landscaping, a world of options is available for you. Many people often worry whether they will have to give up beautiful landscape design in favor of giving their pets enough space to roam and play. But, these concerns can be addressed with a variety of residential landscaping ideas. Keep reading and find the perfect set-up for you, your family, and your beloved furry friends with pet-friendly landscape designs.
Diving into backyard landscaping, questions guide the process and allow you to make decisions that serve your needs. Depending on the specific kind of pet you’re hoping to invite into your backyard, you may need to make a number of compromises. This process doesn’t have to be a painful one. With the right personnel, the proper expertise, and the necessary know-how, your pet-friendly backyard design can be achieved. As you begin to consider plants, space design, what features to include, what spaces to cordon off, and everything right down to the fence, these pointers will help you make a backyard you and your pet will love.
Pick Friendly Plants
As soon as you begin designing your space, you might enlist the help of landscapers. However, the responsibility to plant friendly plants stops with you. It is important to ensure that the visual value of your plant choices is not negated by the toxicity of these plants to your animals. Plants to avoid include those with thorns and plants that spread their seeds through stickers. Taking time to research the specific plants that are toxic to your specific pet would be a good idea, just to be sure and avoid any unfortunate events in the future.
Arborists can be a valuable resource as you do your own research. Together with experienced professionals, you can design a backyard that is sustainable for the plants, pets, and people included in the household. Tree arborists help your pet-friendly landscape design by walking you through the necessary steps for healthy, luscious trees. As your backyard matures, having the right kind of plants will make the space wonderful for you and your pets.
Add Features for Your Pets’ Needs
Let’s say you’ve got a water-loving pup. The sprinkler system installation you end up choosing can take this into consideration. But either way, dogs don’t need fancy setups to have a good bit of fun. However, a fountain or a moving water feature can give your pet the satisfying sensation of a river or a stream without the great outdoors.
If you do decide to install something more permanent, taking a tight budget into account, a kiddie pool is a great idea. Your landscape designing company can help you decide which materials should be used for this process. Some people opt to use a ready-made pool, while others choose to create something with more longevity.
During the heat of summer, your pup will have a cool environment to relax in. As they cool off, this allows them to get in some exercise and enjoy the splashing. To make sure these water features are safe, installing a ramp or ensuring it has sloping sides makes it accessible. Your dog will have a great time getting in and out of the water without a problem.
If you know your cat loves to go digging, save your yard and install a sandbox to allow your pet to dig to its heart’s contentment. Landscapers have a wide array of techniques to ensure the sandbox fits naturally into the design of your backyard. The sandbox also adds an extra layer of fun and adventure to the roaming animals. Cats are well-known for their early-onset boredom with toys. Giving your beloved feline a space to explore outside can help combat this boredom.
Adding features that serve your pet’s specific needs ensures that your hard work will not go to waste when your pet decides to fit its plans into your pristine backyard. If you don’t make the arrangements for them, you risk your pet taking matters into their own paws, so to speak. Getting ahead of this curve allows you to save on future landscaping services.
Create Paths for Your Pets
In keeping with being considerate of your pet’s needs, adding special paths for your animals is a great way to ensure a pet-friendly landscape design. Paths allow for the efficient flow of people and pets through the yard and into the house. When paths are designed in an intuitive way, it can take a sprawling backyard and turn it into a relaxing, engaging stroll. Efficient paths also reduce the number of accidents that are prone to happen when certain areas of your backyard are too far from one another. Creating designated potty corners only works if your pet can reach them as quickly as needed.
Especially for older pets, having a path eases their movement around your space. These paths can also serve as cozy resting places from time to time.
Designated paths help your pets avoid areas of the backyard where you’d rather not have them habitually tracking through. Without these paths, you’ll begin to notice beaten paths flowing through the backyard where the pets have decided it is easiest for them to walk. Over time, these unofficial paths can yellow and the grass in these spots could completely die, leaving unsightly patches in your backyard landscaping. When your pet has a quick, clear route through the yard and back to the house or its resting area, you will be able to avoid your landscaping being marred.
Plan for Shade and Shelter
With the heat of the past few summers, investing in shade and shelter is necessary not only for pet-friendly landscape design but for the people in your household as well. These spaces will provide your precious pets with a resting place when the temperatures rise. It is important for the health of your animals that they have a space to seek shelter when it’s time to beat the heat.
These spaces allow you to incorporate tree service seamlessly into the backyard of your dreams. When it comes to shelter, your chosen provider of landscaping services can advise whether you should utilize tarps or more permanent solutions.
Think About Your Grass
What’s more beautiful than a backyard with thick, soft, green grass? Everyone wants their backyard landscaping to include this inviting feature. And for people with pets, grass provides a comfy cushion for your animals to frolic and rest on. With the help of arborists, you can choose the perfect kind of grass for this purpose.
No one wants to acknowledge it, but everyone knows that most dogs and cats love to eat a little grass to help their digestive systems. While dealing with the mess is often an annoying affair, the grass you and your landscapers choose for your backyard could create an entire set of different problems. Taking this aspect of your pet’s health into account will allow them to continue with their natural way of doing things while avoiding the likelihood of digestive issues arising from the kind of grass you’ve grown.
For grass that aligns with a pet-friendly backyard design, you must be careful to choose a type of grass that puts up well with motion and friction. If you have especially playful pets, it would be a shame to get grass that prefers more gentle handling, only for it not to serve your needs. Looking for a grass variety that is soft, tummy-friendly, and resilient against wear and tear is in your best interests.
Get Good Fences
The saying goes that good fences make good neighbors. While you get to decide what type of neighbor you want to be, your pet might need more than a good fence to live peacefully in your space and neighborhood. Fences don’t have to be ornate to get the job done, but adding a few features to your fences can take them to the next level of efficiency for your pet-friendly backyard design.
Deciding whether you should fence a portion of your backyard or the entire thing can be difficult. Usually, fencing a portion of the backyard helps designate play areas for your pets. This is a great strategy when your backyard covers a large portion of your property. It is also necessary when your backyard is not just yard space, but including workshops, gardens, and whatever else you’ve chosen to add to that area. But if you aren’t working with too much space, fencing a portion of the backyard can create an eye sore; it is not an efficient demarcation of space. Taking these conditions into account will help you make the best decision for your specific situation.
The purpose of a fence in a pet-friendly backyard design is to keep your pet safe. For this reason, it is important to ensure that it can be easily maintained in case a part of it breaks down. Your fence should also take your pet’s personality into account. If you have an escape artist, is your fence built to prevent as many breakouts as possible? If you have a cat that roams the neighborhood, coming and going as it pleases, is your fence built to allow it this freedom? Most people think first of the aesthetic purpose of a fence, but as someone who values their pet, looks come second.
Once you’ve invested in a good fence that’s easily maintained and suitable for the specific needs of your pets, then arborists can enter into the picture to help choose plants that enhance the chosen fence as desired. Whether you’re a person who appreciates climbing vines on your fence or someone who prefers a shrubby, flowery fence, using this guidance will allow your space to blossom into one that serves you and the ones you treasure so deeply.
Keep Trash Areas Separate
How infuriating is it to realize your pets have gotten into the trash? Yet these bins often hold temptations too great for your animals to say no to, no matter how much training or discipline you have instilled into them. A pet-friendly backyard design requires you to take this into account. In the same way, your house is designed to keep the pets out of the trash, your backyard must be just as accommodating.
Installing a boundary around the trash space outside can help you avoid those tough moments when your pet decides to rummage. While some people employ the use of deterrents and trainers, preventing physical access to the trash areas might be your best bet to avoid any kind of frustration.
If your landscapers know about plants that dogs hate to smell, this could also save you the work of keeping the trash area separate. However, sometimes, what’s in the trash could be a greater reward than the threat of a plant surrounding the trash. Using physical boundaries and applying what deterrents you can to the space will allow you to establish a harmonious pet-friendly backyard design.
Conclusion
When everything is taken into account, achieving the backyard of your dreams is within reach. Ensuring you have no toxic plants in your backyard can be achieved with the help of arborists. Quality landscaping services will help you set up the best kinds of water features and play areas to enhance your pet’s happiness in the space. With clear paths, you never have to worry about your yard looking tracked over. Shade and shelter can help your pets stay cool in the heat while providing you with a beautiful space to rest and relax. Choosing grass and fences that work for you also makes sure your pet-friendly backyard design is a success. And once you’ve taken care of your trash area, and designed it efficiently, you and your beloved animals will have a backyard full of fun, relaxation, and space for you all.