Safety-first tactics are simply child’s play
A B
REGULAR worry for parents with small children is poisonous plants. Speaking as one who’s brought up two daughters without mishap in a “gardener’s garden” I think it’s fair to say that the biggest risks are not usually toxic plants but physical hazards.
So either keep your pond fenced off or fill it in (maybe turn it into a bog garden) just until the children are old enough to take care of themselves. And keep garden products and sharp tools locked away in the shed.
And since small kids race around without looking where they are going you might feel it is wise to avoid using garden canes, due to their sharp points, and put off growing prickly or sharp-edged plants such as pyracantha and bamboos until kids are older.
You might also want to delay buying a greenhouse since bikes, footballs and glass don’t mix.
But coming back to plants, very few popular species are quite as dangerous as the stuff you keep in the cupboard under the kitchen sink. The one to watch is laburnum since all parts are poisonous and the big attraction for kids is the pods which look to them like small pea pods and may tempt very young ones to have a taste.
Worried parents with a resident laburnum often ask if they should cut it down. It’s up to you. Unless you can fence it off for a few years then yes. You can always plant another one later.
The other really poisonous plant is aconite (monkshood). It’s a herbaceous perennial with hooded blue flowers but it’s not that common.
Seeds of castor oil plant (Ricinus) are also poisonous; they look a bit like broad beans so kids might feel tempted to try one.
Most “poisonous” plants are poisonous only if eaten and since they usually taste dreadful it’s unlikely anyone would swallow enough to do much harm. But eating any parts of hyacinths and daffodils can make you sick, as can the oleander and angels trumpet (brugmansia) that are sometimes grown in conservatories. ERRIES are a big attraction to kids and just because birds eat them doesn’t mean they are safe for us to swallow.
Since children can hardly be expected to know the difference between decorative and edible kinds, I’d grow culinary fruit in a separate kitchen garden to underline the difference – and teach them not to put things into their mouths unless they’re adult-approved.
But some plants can cause problems even if you don’t actually eat them.
Euphorbias (spurges) have milky sap that can irritate skin and which you don’t want to get into eyes.
But it pays to keep worries in proportion. Gardens hold far fewer hazards for small children than the sort of things most of us keep in our medicine cabinets. Just take sensible precautions.
KEEP OFF THE GRASS WHILE THE LAWN IS WET
THE golden rule for a sodden lawn is to keep off – walking on it, pushing a wheelbarrow or letting the kids ride their bikes is the worst thing you can do.
You will be left with ruts, dents and wheel marks that will set like concrete in summer and give you a very bumpy lawn.
And as if that was not bad enough, your mower will scalp the high points and leave long grass growing in the dips, giving the lawn a piebald appearance.
You can expect lots of moss, worm casts and tussocks of coarse grasses and moisture-loving weeds. So however much the grass needs cutting, wait until the ground is firm and dry enough to walk on without messing up your shoes.
Then top it lightly with the blades raised to their highest setting – use shears if it is really long or you have a small mower not powerful enough to tackle longish grass and then rake up the clippings.
After a few days cut the grass again, this time with the blades set slightly lower. Don’t attempt to cut it short all in one go or the whole lot will just turn yellow.
By the end of April you should be able to give the grass a good going over with a rake again. Wait until just after you have mowed it, so the grass is at its shortest, and rake vigorously to remove moss and redistribute worm casts.
If you have patches of broadleaved weeds that pass safely under the mower, winkle them out by hand with a daisy grubber or squirt them individually with a spot of weedkiller. Choose one specially for lawns as it will not kill any grass with which it comes into contact.
But tufts of coarse grass do not respond to lawn weedkiller and leave a big gap if dug out. Instead cut into them with a sharp spade, by the time you have given the lawn a good feed at the end of April and started cutting the lawn weekly they tend to vanish to be replaced by “proper” lawn species.