Childminders - ivy in your garden

[DangerousMouse]

Is it complete no no? I'm in the process of registering and have quite a lot of ivy on the part of my garden which we be for free access for the children. Do I have to dig it out or can i just risk assess it? I know it is pretty poisonous

I have quite a lot of ivy in my garden. There is so much that it would be impossible to dig up without completely removing all of my hedges and several large trees. The Ofsted inspector didn't mention it at all.

My LA advisor told us at our briefing session that it would ALL have to go if we had any.

Like mamamaisie, Ofsted didn't mention it at my pre-reg, my grading inspection or when I finally registered the garden (didn't register it at first as it needed other work doing)

Poison ivy is found in the US but not here, the ivy we have here can cause a skin reaction (if you pull some up you might get itchy hands, that sort of thing) but generally you'd need to ingest a fair bit to cause a major problem and if you're supervising the children properly then it should be fine If a bit is eaten it might cause a stomach upset but that's about it.

apps.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening/uploads/documents/HTA_poisonous_plants_600.pdf

The Horticultural Trades Association have produced this leaflet - Ivy (Hedera) is a 'Class C' plant for their purposes, and it states that it is harmful if eaten (which is the stomach upset part) and is a skin irritant

don't get rid of it.Its all about supervision-and thats what you tell Ofsted if they ask.Oh and risk assess it.loads of plants can make little ones ill-but in 12 years of minding I've never known a child to eat any of them!

I have ivy in the garden but only in the border. Mindees are all taught not to put anything in their mouths from the garden, not to go on the border and are supervised. They very quickly learn the rules.

If you start worrying about the potential damge of plants, you'd end up with a concrete garden. The inspector didn't even go in the garden on my last inspection.