Poisonous plants?

[cel0908]

Hi, not sure if this is the right section for this question - I am currently trying to prepare my house and garden for my first ofsted inspection (I'm not registered yet), I have lots of foxgloves in the garden and have just learnt that they are poisonous, do I have do dig them up or fence them off? Would it be enough to include them in my risk assessment and say that I will be supervising to ensure children don't go near them? Any advice appreciated
Thanks

[christine e]

Hi, not sure if this is the right section for this question - I am currently trying to prepare my house and garden for my first ofsted inspection (I'm not registered yet), I have lots of foxgloves in the garden and have just learnt that they are poisonous, do I have do dig them up or fence them off? Would it be enough to include them in my risk assessment and say that I will be supervising to ensure children don't go near them? Any advice appreciated
Thanks

There are many poisonous plants in gardens including potato plants, rhubarb, daffodils. I think the important thing to do is a risk assessment and say what you would do to prevent children eating them. As a friend of mine said to her Ofsted inspector re foxgloves 'I can't get them to eat their dinners never mind the flowers in the garden'. Do a bit of research and see what the effects are. Many plants would have to be eaten in large quantities to have any effect and many apparently taste bitter so the likelyhood of them being eaten is low.

Cx

[WibbleWobble]

we dug ours up.....we had a castor oil plant!!!! and we had it when my kids were young too...:blush:


i am such a rubbish mum


mandy x

[cel0908]

Thanks for your replies, I'm thinking of putting a low fence around borders anyway to protect my plants - my two passions gardening and childcare don't mix well!!

[Mrs Pootle]

I too have foxgloves and I'm reluctant to dig them up as I think they are pretty. I'm including the plants in a risk assessment of the garden as I feel it is more beneficial to the children to learn not to touch/eat certain things than just to remove them all together. How can they learn if all the "dangers" are removed. My garden is also split level with just the od step here & there, but having brought my own children up without incident I think as long as littleones are closely supervised and a risk assement carried out we should be ok. (fingers crossed):)

[Blaze]

If you don't want to remove plants then RA, RA, RA.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/garden-plants-in-poison-alert-1571561.html

http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/atoz.htm

http://www.safegardening.co.uk/PoisonousShrubs.html

http://www.rhs.org.uk/RHSWebsite/files/52/527fef45-6dd2-4974-ab21-1e4585b99a36.pdf

HTH:)

[sweets]

i chopped down all my lovely foxgloves a few days before my inspection :( . when the inspector was looking in the garden i told her i had done this and hers words were

" what a shame i bet they were lovely, children have to learn not to touch things you know, i grew up with a laburnam tree in our garden which we used to climb and not of us ever died ".

ive not removed my foxgloves since!

[mama2three]

As with everything else there is no consistency from Ofsted on this one. I has no problem with an abundance of ivy , others have needed to dig it all out. wait and see what she says before removing it , and make sure you have ra'd too.

[Pauline]

If you don't want to remove plants then RA, RA, RA.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/garden-plants-in-poison-alert-1571561.html

http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/atoz.htm

http://www.safegardening.co.uk/PoisonousShrubs.html

http://www.rhs.org.uk/RHSWebsite/files/52/527fef45-6dd2-4974-ab21-1e4585b99a36.pdf

HTH:)

Thanks Blaze, as requested I've now put all these in the free downloads :thumbsup:

[Blaze]

Thank you Pauline - you are a star!:clapping:

[PixiePetal]

Glad this was posted, DH wants to keep the foxgloves which are coming up. I wanted them out. Now I will take them out in areas where mindees play all the time but leave in other parts of the garden and RA them:thumbsup:

[margaret]

I risk assessed my plants rhubarb,foxgloves etc and showed ofsted my RA for allotment and told ofsted that children have to learn the dangers and have to be involved and learn to risk assess themselves ,she was 100% happy with that.showed her photos of what kids did at allotments and she was happy.

[thepoisongarden]

Thanks to Blaze for the mention.

My own view is that there are so many poisonous plants around that trying to remove them from your own garden doesn't make a lot of difference. They will still be all around.

For example, parsleypetal, many local authorities grow Ricinus communis, the castor oil plant, in parks and on verges.

I don't know if OFSTED has updated its information but the September 2001 publication I have misses off a number of common poison plants, like daffodils, which indicates how difficult it would be to completely sanitise a garden.

For what it's worth, I think that, as soon as a child is capable of understanding, they should be told not to touch anything they don't know to be OK. Teaching a 3-year old not to touch is the first step in teaching the 13-year old not to take a pill from someone who says it will give them a good time.

[Pauline]

Hi Poison Garden, thanks for joining us and giving some good advice :thumbsup:

[thepoisongarden]

Hi Pauline,

I've just heard that Kew Gardens is publishing 'Poisonous Plants: A Guide for Childcare Providers' by Dr Elizabeth Dauncey in July.

You should tap them up for a review copy.

[Pauline]

Hi Pauline,

I've just heard that Kew Gardens is publishing 'Poisonous Plants: A Guide for Childcare Providers' by Dr Elizabeth Dauncey in July.

You should tap them up for a review copy.

Well thank you, I will do just that! :thumbsup:

[Blaze]

Hi Pauline,

I've just heard that Kew Gardens is publishing 'Poisonous Plants: A Guide for Childcare Providers' by Dr Elizabeth Dauncey in July.

You should tap them up for a review copy.

Ohhh - thank you:thumbsup:

[CHUNKY MONKEY]

Has a copy been found from Kew Gardens?

[Pauline]

Has a copy been found from Kew Gardens?

I have emailed them and am awaiting a reply.

Watch this space :)

[thepoisongarden]

Hi Pauline,

My understanding is that the book won't be available for review until the end of May.

If you don't hear from Kew, please send me an email address (you can contact me via my website) and I'll pass it on to the author.

[Pauline]

Hi Pauline,

My understanding is that the book won't be available for review until the end of May.

If you don't hear from Kew, please send me an email address (you can contact me via my website) and I'll pass it on to the author.

Thanks for that :thumbsup:

[Pauline]

I've now got a review copy of the book from Kew and also John has kindly sent a copy of his too.

The full reviews of both books will be on the main Childminding Help website at the end of this month.

Thanks John :thumbsup:

[Hebs]

:eek: :eek: :panic:

i didnt know daffodils are poisonious :blush:


dont schools encourage kids to grow them? so i wouldnt remove them from my garden (if i had any..... nowt grows in my garden hahahahaha i'm rubbish at gardening!!!)

[Blaze]

dafs are life threatening if digested...& the bulbs are v. similar looking to onions - every year loads of people are admitted to A & E after confusing a daf bulb with an onion!:rolleyes:

[thepoisongarden]

dafs are life threatening if digested...& the bulbs are v. similar looking to onions - every year loads of people are admitted to A & E after confusing a daf bulb with an onion!:rolleyes:

Hi Blaze,

I've never come across a case of fatal daffodil poisoning. In fact, most of the people I've spoken to say they just had a tummy upset which got better after a day or two so they didn't feel ill enough to go to hospital. One family did attend A & E but were just told to stay in the waiting room for six hours because if they didn't get any worse there was no need for treatment. They were all fully recovered in that time.

The thing about mistaking daffodils for onions is one very good reason for NOT digging them up. Most incidents occur when bulbs are out of the ground and being stored in the shed/garage.

[Blaze]

Hi Blaze,

I've never come across a case of fatal daffodil poisoning. In fact, most of the people I've spoken to say they just had a tummy upset which got better after a day or two so they didn't feel ill enough to go to hospital. One family did attend A & E but were just told to stay in the waiting room for six hours because if they didn't get any worse there was no need for treatment. They were all fully recovered in that time.

The thing about mistaking daffodils for onions is one very good reason for NOT digging them up. Most incidents occur when bulbs are out of the ground and being stored in the shed/garage.

The bulbs are disease-resilient and indigestible to gnawing animals like rabbits. They are also poisonous; in fact all parts of the daffodil are poisonous, not just the bulbs. There have been some reported causes of death by daffodil poisoning when the bulbs had been mistaken for onions. Dogs should be prevented from digging the bulbs up to eat them.

taken from here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A21989901

...I can't post the link I want to as it is a legal website & you have to be a paid up member to view.

:)

[thepoisongarden]

'There have been some reported causes of death by daffodil poisoning when the bulbs had been mistaken for onions.'

If you have any details of actual cases I would be really interested to see them.

Kew Gardens CD Ron 'Poisonous plants and Fungi in Britain and Ireland' has a number of case reports on Narcissus poisoning but none is fatal. And the 'International Poison Plants Checklist' doesn't cite any papers involving death.

In 1989, a pocket guide to poisonous plants in southern Africa, apparently, stated that there had been deaths due to daffodil poisoning but I don't know if that was just a throwaway remark.

[Pauline]

I've now got a review copy of the book from Kew and also John has kindly sent a copy of his too.

The full reviews of both books will be on the main Childminding Help website at the end of this month.

Thanks John :thumbsup:

The reviews of both books can now be read here:

http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/productreviews.html

[jumpinjen]

If you don't want to remove plants then RA, RA, RA.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/garden-plants-in-poison-alert-1571561.html

http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/atoz.htm

http://www.safegardening.co.uk/PoisonousShrubs.html

http://www.rhs.org.uk/RHSWebsite/files/52/527fef45-6dd2-4974-ab21-1e4585b99a36.pdf

HTH:)

I can only say thankyou so much for bringing these to my attention.... although I have risk assessed the garden plants, I did it on the list in the old standards and had not idea that the privet hedge that actually surrounds my garden is in fact..... poisenous!!! I have always tought the children not to pick flowers, only herbs...... and the hedge for potions..... eeeeek, will be reviewing it and re-writing tonight!!!!

have also allowed the children to touch any of the veg they like, including the potatoes and we have sweet peas growing with the beans..... can't believe I didn't realise all this!

:eek:

Thankyou!!

[Happy Monkeys]

Thanks for this it has really helped. Going to do my risk assessment shortly!!!

Ive looked into most of my plants already established in my garden using ispot. you just take a photograph and post it on ispot and people identify them for you!! Unfortunately most of them are poisonous and I dont want a completely bare garden cause where will all the birds and bugs go!!