kids and plants!... too cautious?

ok, bear with me here, it's a little long.....

we like to grow things here, and the girls love getting little seedlings of pansies etc and growing them out front in their special pots... it's nice to see them as we come up the driveway all nice and bright by our front door.

Anyway, mike has decided to build a planter box to go there, and so we went and got some seeds in packets... the girls chose 1 pack each. funnily enough miss wild child ayja chose wildflower mix, and prim and proper paris chose a cottage garden mix.

we grab them, amidst getting seeds for vege garden out back which was really the main project... and i look at them on the way home.   

HA!.. not only do these two mixes contain the EXACT SAME flowers in them - apart from 1 or 2 different ones added to each one. but i then look and see "digitalis"... foxglove.. which i know to be poisonous.. the seeds, the leaves, the flowers, the whole lot!. I then also see delphinium.. also another hazardous plant.   of course, I have now had to tell the girls that indeed, as we cannot distinguish which seeds are which from the 125 mixed seeds of 12 different varieties in each pack, we will now not be planting these seeds.

ARGH!. I am right aren't i - I am not being too cautious....I know the answer really. ... I feel some part of me thinking - well they are old enough not to touch etc, and its not like they are little and eat flowers etc any more. but the other part of me... the mum side tells me no, no no, kids are kids, why have such a dangerous plant in the garden, especially what is supposed to be THEIR garden.

So, the seeds are probably destined for the garden of one of my workmates who has no young children, grandies or such like.

(I really do think that packets of seeds containing poinsonous plants should have a notice on them saying this)

Right. So after all that - what can i now buy - what would others recommend for us to grow in our planter box... something bright, fast growing and not the type that takes over the whole garden... and obviously - not poisonous.... lol.

I thought little bush roses, mikes not so keen on that.

any suggestions?    

Okay some ides of safe plants- snapdragons, sunflowers ( I am sure you can get ones that grow shorter than usual), sweetpeas ( though you will need to stake them) poppies, cosmos and nasturtiams ( bright orange but spread pretty readily).

These were just some I found when I googled safe plants.

Hope this helps

i seeee.
I thought the caterpillars were but couldn't remember.

yeah we have some sunflowers int he back garden along the fence.

I did think about snapdragons actually because i love them, cosmos were in the packets of seeds... dunno what they look like though lol.

I love the look of lavender and it reminds me of my nana as she always wore lavender perfume, but it makes me sneeeeze so badly.

Edited by mum2paris

LOL Janine, you have babies at work not at home!! Why don't you just tell them that they are going to grow pretty flowers but they are not for eating or they will get very sick? It probably hasn't even occurred to Paris Ayja is almost 4 years old and in a year could well be expected to walk to school - but you don't expect that she will eat bits of the neighbours' front gardens on the way, do you?

Go ahead - plant the seeds! If they really get into gardening after that, you could plant some veges or herbs in spring.

There are lots of plants that are considered posionous while some a re toxic there is a big difference between the two. Toxic is likely to cause major harm and may kill while posionous is more likely to be less severe. You would be surprised how many plants have the potential to cause harm.

Daffidols are posionous too.

Personally i think you have over reacted your kids are going to come accross these plants in friends gardens or in local parks. They are old enough to know the difference as someone lese mentioned why not plant the seeds anyway under the understanding from the kids that they are to look at not to eat.
I see you have planted roses hmm i remember falling into them as a kid several times before they were removed from the garden they were beside some steps and i was taking a plastic bike up them when i fell.

Fair enough, only you know your chldren best and what they may or may not do. go the safe way for now you can always change your mind in a few years if you want to. we have foxgloves that pop up in our garden all the time the birds bring them they are a neuiance.

I can understand your concern i have a cat that to be honest i trat like my own child and i worry when he goes out and the lilies are in flower as they are toxic to them.