Should I cut down my yew tree?

[Jane3455678]

We've just moved into a new house which has a beautiful large yew tree at the bottom of the garden. I would say that it's pretty old...
However, we have a 1.5 year old who likes putting things in his mouth on occasion.
My family are saying we should cut it down asap before he poisons himself but I'm very sad to get rid of such a beautiful tree! Would you cut it down?

@NeverDropYourMooncup That is a wonderful post!

It made me think of The Detectorists (my all-time favourite TV programme)

A local churchyard has 99 yew trees. Many village events are held here including picnics etc. no child has ever been poisoned as far as I'm aware....

Have it pruned nicely and go with the no eating/licking training (and maybe a temporary fence if you are super worried)

Yeah, because those poor churchwardens make sure that all berries are swept away.

99 is excessive. Hard to believe, really.

Unlikely a garden yew is 1000 years old. That would put it into the same group as the Ankerwyke Yew.

@CraftyGin I'm pretty sure they don't sweep them up! It's very famous as apparently every time they tried to plant a 100th tree one died......

It would never even cross my mind.

If you have a child who puts things in their mouths you watch them, otherwise you might as well lock them in an empty room.

Ok, let's stop with the '1000 years old' histrionics.

As a (very) rough estimate, a yew with 100cm cirth is 100 years old - that trunk doesn't look more than 20cm wide, so probably about 60 years old. Certainly not a particularly ancient one.

ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/how-to-record/species-guides/yew/

A thousand years old?! 😂

Thanks so much for this insight. I had no idea about male and female trees!

OP, I’m planning on cutting mine down in the spring. It’s awful. Mine is about 30 years old.

Always dropping berries and leaves, leaving everything underneath shaded and so nothing apart from weeds can grow under it.

www.gardenersworld.com/plants/20-plants-for-dry-shade/

Every growing condition is an opportunity!

Please don't cut the Yew down.

Oh please don’t. It’s highly unlikely your child will pick up and eat enough of a dose of yew to be harmed.

Yews are so slow growing its a shame to cut it down. I work in a children's garden surrounded by yew hedges and none of the children have ever eaten the foliage or berries. You also may have a male yew there which won't have berries, and if it's female with berries the birds will eat them before your child :)

Another vote for no.

We were told that 2 of those berries could kill a child and there isn’t a clear antidote. With that in mind I would personally cut it down or get mush under it, we are the kinds of people who let our lawns grow wild and consider nature. We do let our kids go out by themselves, even my two year old while I’m sat in the living room that looks over the garden for example, if I’m reading a book I dont watch his every move. My husband comes from a culture where a lot of people say ‘it will be fine,’ but then in the same breath have stories of things happening that weren’t fine at all. One of his family members had a picnic somewhat close to a cliff and they kept saying the 3 year old would be fine to run about a bit, and that they would call her or get her if she got too close to the edge, unfortunately she ran to the edge of the cliff in a moment that went unnoticed, her dad ran after her and in trying to catch her they both lost their lives that day. This is definitely not to fear monger or encourage micro managing our kids lives, but sometimes there are situations where keeping kids safe takes priority.

The local birds eat all the berries, more like.

@Jane3455678 OP - can you post a more close-up pic of the foliage please, because I wonder if it might not be a yew. I can't tell because I can't zoom in enough on this device.

Doesn’t look very Yew to me. More golden Scot’s pine?
I agree a better photo is needed.

Our children grew up with a yew tree in the garden. It wasn't a problem. It would only be the berries that presented a significant danger of being scoffed by children, so that is only one time of the year when you would need much vigilance.
It would be a HUGE shame to lose a yew tree. It might not even be legal to cut it down without permssion

We have massive long yew hedges all the way along our back garden. My kids nursery school garden has them too. We have had babies and toddlers. Due to it being a hedge it was easily within reach of kids.

We would also trim them and you could never pick every single clipping.

We never had a single issue.

The leaves do not smell nor taste particularly of anything and have never attracted my kids. Nor the kids of the local school.

In order to get a fatal dose from leaves you have to chew and ingest quite a deliberate quantity, much more than one or two leaves which you would spit out, as they are bitter.

So now, I would not chop it down.

For the berries to poison you, you have to really chew down on the seed to release the poison, swallow it and do that for more than one berry. So again unlikely to ever happen by accident due to the taste.

Bloody deer in our garden have stripped the bark off a yew I estimate to be 50 years old and killed it dead! I genuinely couldn’t believe it!! Hoping it will grow back from the roots.

Don’t get rid OP. It would be an awful shame. Might as well have an astroturf lawn like I imagine belongs to the pp who cut theirs down!!

No I wouldn’t. I grew up in a house with a Laburnum tree, my mother told us very clearly how poisonous the seed pods were, how they look rather like peas in a pod so might seem edible. It made me wary of the tree, I kept away from the pods and wouldn’t touch them at all.
Yew is very toxic but so are a multitude of garden plants and flowers, and wild flowers . It is better to teach children to never ever put random plants or fungi into their mouths . Any country walk can bring you into contact with toxic fungi, hemlock, foxgloves and all manner of dangerous plants.