Safety/Liability Disclaimer

Please Read This. (It’s important)

I have four children, two grandchildren, and countless pets. I’ve “kidscaped” my yards for 25 years and I enjoy sharing ideas and tips with other parents and grandparents. That said, I cannot be held responsible for what is placed into a yard or garden…and here’s why.

While researching and writing about kid and pet safe landscaping, I’ve done my very best to share plants, play things, water features, and ornaments that are as safe as they possibly can be. That said, any child or pet can have an allergy to any type of plant and the reactions can be unpredictable.

For instance, bees aren’t considered necessarily “toxic”. But, if your child is allergic to bee stings, this can change the situation to life-threatening. In this case, it’s up to the parent to know this and not plant flowers that are overly attractive to bees (or maybe no flowering plants at all).

The plants listed here are not known to be toxic, but as I said, that doesn’t account for unforeseeable and individual allergies. There are situations that I can’t possibly predict (and neither can you).

For ultimate safety, both children and pets should be supervised 100% of the time in any yard or garden to be certain that plants, play equipment, and anything else in the environment is utilized safely and correctly.

Children should never be allowed to place any plant parts into their mouths unless the plant is known (or grown) as an edible food. Even then, in the case of young children, even real foods should be offered to them properly to ensure safety (such as chopped into small pieces, etc).

Children and pets should never, ever be left alone in a yard or garden that has a water feature of any kind. Any water feature invited into the yard is potential for disaster — or worse — just by the sheer nature of what it is. Still, from time-to-time, we may discuss on Kids Safe Landscape “safer” ways to enjoy water features if you’d like to have them, but nothing takes the place of eliminating water altogether or supervision 100% of the time.

When landscaping your yard, I urge you to consider the ages of your child(ren), and your individual pets when you choose plants, hardscaping, play equipment, and ornaments for your yard or garden. Only you know what feels safe and comfortable for you and your family’s unique situation.

Before bringing any plants, play yards, ornaments, or hardscaping into the yard, please do some specific research on your own so you can make the best decision possible for the kids and pets in your life.

~ Chris