Agree, car accidents and falls & cuts are biggest cause of accidental deaths. Poisoning actually features quite high in statistics, but because it includes drug overdoses this skews things.
We taught the kids not to eat things from the wild/garden without checking. And our dog know instinctively the difference between a blackberry and a yew berry. There is a long list of plants that are poisonous/can cause allergies / have spines and prickles that I never included in plans for play areas and public spaces used a lot by children, but apart from that…
I love these plants and have not had any problems up to now. thankfully.
In recent weeks I heard I should use secateurs and gloves… as I am used to pinching off bits (as necessary) with my bare hands… but now I do take a bit more care…
@Fenman
Growing up on the Cote d’Azur they were everywhere as were prickly pears, plants with spikes, saw-like leaves etc etc I was told not to touch those particular plants and why, so I didn’t. Plenty of plants I could touch sniff pick eat… that was over half a century ago and I have suffered no ill effects. Wild parsnip, for instance, in your French garden is even worse, the juice is photosensitising and so you can get terrible burns when mowing…
There’s no need to go overboard about Laurier Rose (nerium oleander) they aren’t going to jump out of their pots and raven around and murder you while you sleep you know.
Hi Vero
As I said to Stella, if you can get over to 61, you are welcome to them. I’m thinking of guests with small children as well as (maybe one day) grandchildren.)
ha ha… I still find myself pinching out bits of the oleander … then go and wash my hands and look for my gardening gloves (which I use normally when pulling prickly stuff).
I’ve made it to a decent age without worrying about touching any plants… so I shan’t lose too much sleep…
When I was little, my brothers tumbled me into a stinging nettle patch (by mistake I hasten to add)… the result was very painful at the time (in spite of the liberal use of dock leaves)… but left me immune to minor stuff like that for many, many years…
But, now that I know about the oleander … it seems reasonable to take care…
I’ve decided I do them an injustice. I’ve a small datura growing in my veg patch right now and the leaves are still young and soft. Nothing like as lush as the summer spinach in the picture above, but if it was among the spinach I think it could be picked by mistake while its leaves are tiny.
Small children all over the south of France manage to survive no obviously you must do what is best for you, there’s no point having something pretty in your garden which is a constant source of worry.
no obviously you must do what is best for you, there’s no point having something pretty in your garden which is a constant source of worry.