I'm watching Instant Gardener and am concerned that the gardener is suggesting planting foxgloves in a garden for kids aged 7 months to 17 years. Am I confused or are foxgloves not incredibly poisonous?
Only if you eat them. Very young children must be supervised in the garden, older ones can be taught not to put things in their mouths unless they know it's edible.
Lots of things are poisonous. Landgirl is right - children should be supervised in gardens not just left to do as they please. My children grew up surrounded by them - and not just in their own garden. We also had a pond and various other so called 'poisonous' plants. They also grew up in a house with paint, weedkiller, white spirit, pans of boiling pasta, power tools, saws, blowtorches.......
Common sense is all that's required.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
As for Foxgloves I've grown up with them and never had the urge to eat them. As long as kids are supervised and taught what they can and can't eat I don't see the problem.
There are so many poisonous plants everywhere that I think all children should be exposed to the risk (and educated to it) as early as possible. There is no way to keep them risk-free.
A couple of summers ago, I was working at a holiday villa close here, and the summer guests, seeing that I was tending the garden, asked me if there were plants that the children should know about. The garden was directly attached to the nearby forest, not as much as a fence, so from where I was standing on the terrace I could see foxgloves, nightshade, the arum's red berries.... not to mention oleanders in the pots, the laurel hedge, sweet peas, and hell, even the hydrangeas can make you sick if you eat them.
I told them never mind the plants, just mind the children! They should be taught to eat nothing in the garden unless you tell them explicitely that it is ok.
I agree with all of the above but the program recommended planting them in a child friendly garden with no mention of 'but they are poisonous so you need to tell the kids not to eat them'. As this program is more populist I was concerned that the uninitiated would consider the plants as child friendly as the BBC were recommending them for a child friendly garden.
I spent hours each summer from the age of 4 upwards playing in my granny's garden, with foxglove flowers on my fingers being a fairy (little folks' gloves) - I knew I shouldn't eat them and was was never tempted to try, and I knew to wash my hands when I went indoors - Child Friendly Garden? Of course it is - Child Friendly doesn't mean safe and anodyne - Child Friendly includes 'stimulating the imagination'.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ok well I'm obviously too concerned. I know that I need to tell my kids not to eat foxgloves. Some may not. I just thought the program gave the wrong impression about the plants.....the whole thing was about child friendly gardens and laboured the point by making everything safe (rubber matting under swing) etc so it seemed odd to then say 'here's a lovely foxglove for this child safe garden'
I think that's a case of comparing apples with oranges - you can't really say to a child 'don't fall off the swing' - well you can, but you know that the child will fall off at some stage ......... whereas you can say to a child 'don't eat that it will make you very sick' and if the child is old enough to understand it won't eat the foxglove.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ok I'm wrong! The BBC should crack on filling kiddie gardens with poisonous plants and hope no child is unfortunate enough to have parents who aren't aware the plants are poisonous or are too incompetent to tell their kids not to eat them or unfortunate enough for an accident to happen.....licking fingers after playing with a foxglove could be enough to do harm.
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Only if you eat them. Very young children must be supervised in the garden, older ones can be taught not to put things in their mouths unless they know it's edible.
Lots of things are poisonous. Landgirl is right - children should be supervised in gardens not just left to do as they please. My children grew up surrounded by them - and not just in their own garden. We also had a pond and various other so called 'poisonous' plants. They also grew up in a house with paint, weedkiller, white spirit, pans of boiling pasta, power tools, saws, blowtorches.......
Common sense is all that's required.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
As for Foxgloves I've grown up with them and never had the urge to eat them.
As long as kids are supervised and taught what they can and can't eat I don't see the problem.
There are so many poisonous plants everywhere that I think all children should be exposed to the risk (and educated to it) as early as possible. There is no way to keep them risk-free.
A couple of summers ago, I was working at a holiday villa close here, and the summer guests, seeing that I was tending the garden, asked me if there were plants that the children should know about. The garden was directly attached to the nearby forest, not as much as a fence, so from where I was standing on the terrace I could see foxgloves, nightshade, the arum's red berries.... not to mention oleanders in the pots, the laurel hedge, sweet peas, and hell, even the hydrangeas can make you sick if you eat them.
I told them never mind the plants, just mind the children! They should be taught to eat nothing in the garden unless you tell them explicitely that it is ok.
I spent hours each summer from the age of 4 upwards playing in my granny's garden, with foxglove flowers on my fingers being a fairy (little folks' gloves) - I knew I shouldn't eat them and was was never tempted to try, and I knew to wash my hands when I went indoors - Child Friendly Garden? Of course it is - Child Friendly doesn't mean safe and anodyne - Child Friendly includes 'stimulating the imagination'.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I think that's a case of comparing apples with oranges - you can't really say to a child 'don't fall off the swing' - well you can, but you know that the child will fall off at some stage ......... whereas you can say to a child 'don't eat that it will make you very sick' and if the child is old enough to understand it won't eat the foxglove.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.