The message
from "Soup" contains these words:

I didn't say ban Holly I just said be careful of it.
Holly may well be "easy" to look after but the person who had this
house before us was an old widower who had no interest in his garden,
talking to the other next door neighbour she said the hedge was
planted by the original tenants wife to spite the local children
(grown up with children of there own now)
Must admit to being biased as having two kids of my own I was
continually scared of them falling/being pushed into this 'hedge' and
scratching
themselves or poking eyes out, and the leaves didn't seem to biodegrade
when off the parent plant, just lay wherever they had been blown 'jagging'
the unwary.
Had lots of scrapes/cuts/bruises as a child seemed to hurt myself
a million ways, wouldn't ban these things just because they might
be dangerous, however I see no percentage in deliberately courting danger,
by planting one of these things.
NOTE this minor rant isn't against Holly per se but putting in plants with
no regard for what they will grow into or how they will grow if untended.

When I was at boarding school aged about nine, there was a holly hedge
just under our dormitory window.

It was de rigeur (from time to time) to leap out of the window dressed
only in pyjamas and land in the hedge on one's back.

The first time I did it I was surprised to find how little the prickles
penetrated. And, before someone chips in with the observation that the
higher leaves of holly don't have so many prickles, the hedge grew on a
bank and the dormitory was on a first floor mezzanine level, so it was
just as prickly on top as low down.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
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