On 19/4/05 14:47, in article ,
"paulwilks" wrote:


As we have children, anything that attracts bees & wasps is a no go!

To be honest, you're striking out having a garden at all, really. There
are certain things you can avoid, like Escallonia and Echiums which are bee
heaven and ivy because wasps seem to go mad when it flowers. But on the
whole, the chances of your children being stung are very small indeed. We
kept a bee hive in the garden all of my 3 children's young years (they're
now in their twenties) and one of them was stung for disobeying 'rules'.
The rules were not to walk right in front of the beehive's landing area at
the hive and not to walk on the lawn barefoot because we had a lot of white
clover, which bees love. It was the clover that was the downfall for one
small child's foot and one dog's paw. OTOH, I've seen them using their bare
hands to fish out bees that had fallen into the pond without any ill effects
whatsoever. I am extremely allergic to bee stings but take reasonable
precautions like not working in any area of the garden that's particularly
busy with bees at that time and so far, so good. A wasp stung me about two
years ago and I had a mild swelling and some short-lived pain and itching
which was gone by the next day.
I never, ever worried about what I planted with regard to my children
getting stung or not, so unless your children have a severe allergic
reaction that you know about already, I think you'll find that they will
enjoy watching these marvellous creatures if you teach the children to
respect them, keep clear of their flight paths and don't touch them. If
you're lucky, you'll have a bee keeping society near you with an observation
hive and you could take your children along to watch a colony at work. It's
the most fascinating thing to see and I recommend it highly for all of you.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)