Dove, I never knew privet was toxic; I spent several happy months when I was about 5 eating the bright green shoots from privet hedges, but then I also used to eat wax crayons in the days BEFORE they were non-toxic.
Scented-leaf geraniums? This is supposed to be a wildlife garden!
Many schools are adopting outside learning, where the pupils are out in all weathers, playing in mud, climbing trees, making dens, using knives, building fires and cooking on them. Mucking around in streams and making dams.
Get a grip Moira 2! Unless the pupils are boiling up the toxic plants to make tea they are safe. It would seem you are inexperienced in these things. There are training manuals within your profession about outside learning; get hold of one. Fast.
PS. Somewhere on this thread someone mentioned bluebells. Toxic, I'm afraid, as is bracken!!
Dove, I never knew privet was toxic; I spent several happy months when I was about 5 eating the bright green shoots from privet hedges, but then I also used to eat wax crayons in the days BEFORE they were non-toxic.
Welshonion, I take your point. I am a teacher with experience of forest schools. They are a wonderful and liberating experience for children, they learn so much from exploring a natural environment.
But Moira hasn't been asked to develop a forest school, she's been asked to create a risk-free environment, which in this litigious age many schools feel far more comfortable with. I currently work in an inner city school, where the children's knowledge of anything green is limited, and behaviour issues mean that a safe environment is paramount, from a management point of view.
I don't think you should be antagonising and attacking Moira for trying to create something that doesn't fit in with your personal beliefs, she should be praised for trying her best with a limited brief.
As for geraniums, bees love the flowers on my scented leaf geraniums! They're not woodland plants, certainly, I was just trying to think of something children would find engaging.
My point was that Moira 2 had a brief to create a wildlife garden that was free of toxic plants, and she needed advice as seemingly most plants are toxic. Well, yes, up to a point, but you can go too, too far down that road.
If we took a really hard look at our own gardens would we find toxic plants in them? Of course. Even rhubarb leaves, potato haulm, laburnum (looking fantastic at the moment), most bulbs,foxgloves, ivy, hellibores, euphorbias, buttercup,etc, etc. Or 'dangerous' as in thorny plants.Or stingy as in that wonderful wildlife plant - the nettle. But in reality they are not a problem.
Posts
Dove, I never knew privet was toxic; I spent several happy months when I was about 5 eating the bright green shoots from privet hedges, but then I also used to eat wax crayons in the days BEFORE they were non-toxic.
Scented-leaf geraniums? This is supposed to be a wildlife garden!
Many schools are adopting outside learning, where the pupils are out in all weathers, playing in mud, climbing trees, making dens, using knives, building fires and cooking on them. Mucking around in streams and making dams.
Get a grip Moira 2! Unless the pupils are boiling up the toxic plants to make tea they are safe. It would seem you are inexperienced in these things. There are training manuals within your profession about outside learning; get hold of one. Fast.
PS. Somewhere on this thread someone mentioned bluebells. Toxic, I'm afraid, as is bracken!!
Good job you're not a cow Artjak, it's fatal for them http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10592950
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Welshonion, I take your point. I am a teacher with experience of forest schools. They are a wonderful and liberating experience for children, they learn so much from exploring a natural environment.
But Moira hasn't been asked to develop a forest school, she's been asked to create a risk-free environment, which in this litigious age many schools feel far more comfortable with. I currently work in an inner city school, where the children's knowledge of anything green is limited, and behaviour issues mean that a safe environment is paramount, from a management point of view.
I don't think you should be antagonising and attacking Moira for trying to create something that doesn't fit in with your personal beliefs, she should be praised for trying her best with a limited brief.
As for geraniums, bees love the flowers on my scented leaf geraniums! They're not woodland plants, certainly, I was just trying to think of something children would find engaging.
My point was that Moira 2 had a brief to create a wildlife garden that was free of toxic plants, and she needed advice as seemingly most plants are toxic. Well, yes, up to a point, but you can go too, too far down that road.
If we took a really hard look at our own gardens would we find toxic plants in them? Of course. Even rhubarb leaves, potato haulm, laburnum (looking fantastic at the moment), most bulbs,foxgloves, ivy, hellibores, euphorbias, buttercup,etc, etc. Or 'dangerous' as in thorny plants.Or stingy as in that wonderful wildlife plant - the nettle. But in reality they are not a problem.