If you have both dogs and a garden, you will need to keep an eye on what you grow to keep your pets safe from any harm if they ingest something.
Have you been wondering “Is green alkanet poisonous to dogs?” If so, then read on for everything that we know about this plant, to hopefully set your mind at rest!
What You'll Learn Today
Is Green Alkanet Poisonous To Dogs?
Dogs, like toddlers, do have a habit of sneaking things into their mouths – and if you spot them and try to stop them they tend to swallow it faster!
If you have dogs and alkanet in your garden, you may be concerned about the health of your precious puppies – but you don’t have to worry.
Although this plant is related to comfrey, which contains compounds that can damage the liver, it is not actually harmful (but not edible either).
Your pet would have to consume huge amounts of green alkanet to suffer any problems, so you can wipe that worry from your mind.
Also, the hairy leaves are not comfortable to have in a sensitive part like the mouth, so you will likely find that your dogs leave this plant alone anyway.
If you have a young dog or a puppy you may find that they like to nibble on your plants, so make sure that none of your garden is poisonous to dogs.
Should I Remove Green Alkanet?
If you like a pretty, undemanding plant in your garden, then leave your alkanet well alone. It will just grow and do its thing, and attract a lot of insects.
However, if you want to keep your garden from turning into a wild meadow, you should definitely keep an eye on your alkanet patch!
This hardy, tenacious little plant is often known as a weed, because it is very good at spreading and taking over.
If you need to remove it because it is taking over, ensure that you do so thoroughly to prevent it coming back:
- Wait until the soil is moist, as it will be much easier to dig up the plants.
- You should wear gloves when removing alkanet, as the stems and leaves have bristly hairs which can be irritating to the skin.
- Using a garden fork or a sharp spade, dig into the soil a little way back from the plant in order to get all the roots.
- Ease the plant out of the soil, and try to ensure that you get every piece of root as alkanet can grow back from just a small piece.
- Use the dug up plants as part of your compost heap, or place them in a bucket with some water to make a “green fertilizer.”
- Keep a close eye on the patch after you have dug up the plants, and remove any plants that sprout up from a missed root.
Here is a good article telling you all about green alkanet, and why it can become such a nuisance in gardens.
Is Green Alkanet Good For Wildlife?
In a word, yes! This little plant is a great favorite among our beloved pollinators, like bees and butterflies.
Nectar drinkers will feast on the sweet nectar; there are generally a great many flowers on alkanet, so even a small patch will help your local insect population.
There are other creatures that eat the plant itself too – many species of butterfly, and in particular the Scarlet Tiger Moth, love to munch on this plant.
You can make alkanet into a great feed for your other plants too, so even when it is dead it is still benefitting wildlife.
Even if you don’t particularly need this plant in your garden, leaving it in the soil is great for the ecosystem.
Just remember to keep an eye on it, as this plant sends out runners from the roots and it can quickly take over!
Will Dogs Stay Away From Toxic Plants?
It would be nice to think that dogs would avoid anything that is toxic to them – sadly, this is not always the case!
Many older dogs will be suspicious of eating things that are not in their food bowls, but some puppies and young dogs can be curious.
Of course, there are plants which are fine for people but not so great for dogs (grapevine, we’re looking at you!) So it’s always wise to check your garden for plants that would disagree with your dog were they to eat them.
Thankfully green alkanet is not toxic to dogs, and they will most likely avoid eating it anyway due to the bristly leaves.
Is Green Alkanet The Same As Comfrey?
Green alkanet has a great many similarities to comfrey, although they are not the exact same plant.
Both comfrey and alkanet belong to the Boraginacaea family, meaning that they share characteristics – you may confuse them the first few times you see them!
Both plants have hairy leaves and little blue flowers, but the shape of both leaves and flowers are different.
Comfrey leaves are wide, long and grow up from the central crown. Alkanet has smaller leaves that grow from a main stem.
Alkanet flowers are small and blue and look a little like large forget-me-nots, while comfrey’s are more bell shaped and are often lilac or pink as well as blue.
Comfrey is used in a lot of health remedies, whereas alkanet is not as widely used – although it has some reported benefits.
Both plants make excellent green fertilizer, either added to the compost heap or steeped in water to make plant food.
This useful video is a little comparison of green alkanet and comfrey:
As a pet owner, we would do anything and everything to keep our pets safe, right? Well done to you, for finding out if your garden could be harming your pets!
As you can see, you are fairly safe with green alkanet – but do ensure that you do your research and check out other plants in your garden.
