My Garden

childproofing your garden

Last post 19-08-2009 6:41 PM by Lisa MTT. 8 replies.

• 18/08/2009 12:48 PM

  JamesA Location: Peterborough Joined on: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 160

  Reply | Contact Our twins will be running round the garden come spring. I wonder how far people have gone with childproofing their garden? We have no pond. The shed will be locked. We have no Foxgloves. The main question is should you remove all plants with inedible berries? My plants have been kindly identified as Mahonia http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/forums/t/23461.aspx and Hypericum http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/forums/t/23450.aspx I suppose you could just remove the berries instead. I'd have thought it's a case of teaching your kids about gardening, rather than wholesale deforestation.

• 18/08/2009 01:25 PM

  In reply to

  pinkschmink Location: Surrey Joined on: 18 Aug 2009 Posts: 2

  Reply | Contact  My personal opinion is that provided young children are supervised and educated as to not playing with/near dangerous plants, you don't need to go removing everything that might pose a threat.  I am quite happy for my two-and-half-year-old daughter to go rambling about in the garden as long as I or someone else responsible is there with her, seeing as we have lords-and-ladies growing in an easily-accessible bed, plus any number of shrubs with poisonous berries and/or thorns.  But she has been told and seems to understand that they are dangerous and she doesn't go near them, even though the bright red berries are probably a very attractive prospect to a toddler. In our garden, I worry more about her falling down the steps - it's a terraced affair, built onto a 1 in 4 slope, and it's fairly covered in concrete steps, stone slabs and brick walls with plenty of steep drops.  But again, she knows she has to be careful and not go up/down steps by herself.  I think it's probably wiser, and in the long term easier, to educate children from a very early age than to try and protect them from everything. :o

• 18/08/2009 02:54 PM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,977

  Reply | Contact I agree with pinkschmink that it's better to teach children about the outside world, rather than try to make everything safe. If they grow up with a healthy regard for any dangers, they will be the better for it and a few cuts and bruises will teach them to be more careful. By all means tell them not to eat the plants but, thinking on it, I can't remember really wanting to eat garden plants as a child. They just didn't look that tasty and there was better fare in the kitchen.

• 18/08/2009 03:05 PM	In reply to
  JamesA Location: Peterborough Joined on: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 160	Reply | Contact Personally, I agree and I don't really think anything needs doing. The wife gets a bit over the top with these things. We've found they try and scare parents into buying baby products they don't need and sterilising everything. Besides, I need some help with my weeding

• 18/08/2009 05:05 PM

  In reply to

  geoff51 Location: Totton, Hampshire Joined on: 13 Feb 2009 Posts: 67

  Reply | Contact When I was a kid over 50 years ago! we ate dirt, dug for worms, raced snails and slugs, and generally had FUN in the garden. Todays generation seems to be sanitised indoors and out. I have enjoyed good health for many years, will todays children build up any immunity like my generation? Just teach them to love and respect the garden, they are the next generation of gardeners. Geoff51 Pond life!?!

• 18/08/2009 09:10 PM	In reply to
  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,977	Reply | Contact Ever eat a mud pie? It must rank as the most disappointing culinary experience of my life to discover that it was so gritty and tasteless, especially after all the hype.

• 18/08/2009 11:00 PM

  In reply to

  Phot's-Moll Location: The sunny South coast. Joined on: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 3,347

  Reply | Contact  We put blackberries in ours, Miranda. It didn't improve it by much. I agree that it's best to teach the kids and keep an eye on them than to try to make a garden safe. Even tomato, potato and rhubarb plants are poisonous, any kind of twig could cause an injury, people can have allergies to almost anything so the task is pretty impossible. If you make your own garden safe, they won't know to be careful in other people's gardens, so will be at even greater risk there. It makes sense to keep tools and chemicals safely out of reach, but that's no more important in the garden than in the kitchen. I hope your kids spend many happy hours playing in the garden and suffer nothing worse than grazed knees. Whether you think you can do a thing, or think you cannot, you are right.

• 18/08/2009 11:23 PM	In reply to
  Aging Misery Location: woking Joined on: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 78	Reply | Contact The quickest way to mayhem is to point out and forbid the key to the gun cupboard. Be active & always point out the good and emphasise the edible - the rest will teach their own lessons if idleness permits. beetle Beetling ahead....maybe.........?

• 19/08/2009 06:41 PM

  In reply to

  Lisa MTT Location: Cambs Joined on: 08 Mar 2009 Posts: 42

  Reply | Contact My children are 5 and 8, and the garden was here first. I'd echo what others have said about not needing to remove specific plants. I've found it's more things like tops of canes that you need to watch, and trip/fall hazards. And of course accepting that your flowers may be deadheaded whether you like it or not and not at a time of your choosing! Lisa "Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is." H Jackson Browne