Spring Sale On Now - Big Savings Sitewide

Healthy Plants, Guaranteed. If your plant doesn’t thrive, we’ll replace it.

No minimum order - buy a single plant or a whole garden, delivered Australia wide.
Australian Natives, Edible Plants, Garden Design, Shade

Safe Plants for Childcare Centres, Kindergartens and School Gardens

Lomandra longifolia, a soft strappy native grass that survives trampling and digging, recommended in this guide for childcare centre and school garden play spaces

Nursery Near Me |

Young children put things in their mouths, grab whatever is in reach and fall into garden beds. That is what makes a garden valuable to them, and it is also why the plant list at an early learning centre or school deserves more care than the one at home. The idea that matters most is simple: nearly all of the serious plant poisonings and injuries in young children come from a short list of familiar garden plants, and once those are gone the rest of the garden can be as natural, scented and diggable as you like.

This guide gathers what Australian poisons information centres, a children's hospital network, Kidsafe and the early childhood regulator publish on the subject, and sets beside it the plants we grow that sit comfortably inside their advice. It summarises their guidance and is no substitute for it. The sources are linked at the end, and your state regulatory authority, your own risk assessment and the Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26 remain the authorities.

Quick facts

Poisons Information Centre 13 11 26, 24 hours, every state. Call as soon as you suspect a poisoning, before symptoms appear
What the regulator expects Outdoor spaces that are safe, in good condition and include natural elements (National Quality Standard, Quality Area 3)
Four hazards to check Poisonous if eaten; sap, crystals or hairs that burn skin and eyes; thorns and spines; berries and seeds that look like food
Remove first Oleander, angel's trumpet, brunfelsia, cycads, castor oil plant, foxglove, rhus, and any mushroom
Plant instead Soft natives that regrow after trampling, culinary herbs, an edible bed the adults tend, and an evergreen shade tree
The one rule to teach Nothing from a plant or the ground goes in the mouth unless an adult says so

What the regulator expects

Every long day care centre, kindergarten, preschool and family day care service in Australia is assessed against the National Quality Standard. Its third quality area is the physical environment. ACECQA's family site, Starting Blocks, describes the expectation as indoor and outdoor spaces that give each child accessible, age-appropriate opportunities to learn, play and develop, in play spaces that are safe and in good condition. Kidsafe NSW adds that the Standard expects outdoor spaces to include natural elements and materials that allow for multiple uses. The National Regulations that sit under the Standard require outdoor spaces that let children explore and experience the natural environment, adequate shade, and premises kept safe and in good repair.

In practice this means the plants on site belong in the service's hazard identification and risk assessment alongside gates, surfaces and water. A service needs to know what each plant is, check it against a published list, and record whether it was removed, fenced off or kept. Kidsafe NSW's advice for natural play spaces is short: choose non-toxic plants and avoid anything with sharp or spiky features. Schools sit outside the Standard, but the same lists and the same logic apply to a prep playground or a kitchen garden, and a P&C working bee is the moment to apply them.

The four hazards

The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network factsheet, the one the NSW Poisons Information Centre points readers to, sorts harmful plants into a few groups. They are worth holding in mind as you walk a site.

  • Poisonous if eaten. The dangerous ones act on the heart or the nervous system: pink and yellow oleander, foxglove, angel's trumpet and datura, castor oil plant, deadly nightshade and white cedar. The NSW centre's rule of thumb is that a bitter taste, an odd smell, milky sap, or red seeds and berries can all signal a poisonous plant.
  • Sap, crystals and hairs. The euphorbia family, including poinsettia, croton and crown of thorns, carries a milky sap that the hospital sheet says can cause severe pain and injury to the eye. Arum lily, dumb cane (dieffenbachia), cunjevoi and other oxalate plants burn the mouth and swell the lips and tongue. Stinging trees and nettles drive their hairs into skin.
  • Thorns and spines. Yucca and agave leaves pierce skin and, at a child's height, eyes and eardrums. Cactus, bougainvillea and rose thorns cause puncture wounds that infect. Kidsafe NSW says plainly to keep sharp or spiky features out of a play space.
  • Berries and seeds that look like food. Kidsafe NSW notes that brightly coloured berries look like lollies to a toddler and are a choking hazard as well as a poisoning one. Its Grow Me Safely resource says the children who do reach hospital have mostly eaten mushrooms, bright berries, or bulbs mistaken for onions.

A fifth group is allergy. The hospital factsheet lists rhus, grevilleas and asthma weed as plants that trigger dermatitis, hay fever or asthma in susceptible people. Rhus is dangerous enough to remove outright. Grevilleas are a milder case: most children never react, but enough people do that many centres simply choose another native, or keep them on the far side of the fence where nobody handles the flowers.

Keep the risk in proportion. Kidsafe NSW says plant poisoning in children is not common, that most incidents end with nausea or a sore stomach, and that toxic parts usually taste bad enough to be spat out. Kidsafe Australia's poisoning sheet says most childhood poisoning admissions involve medicines, with plants further down the list, and Kidsafe SA cites 1,185 hospital admissions for accidental poisoning of all kinds in under-fives in 2021/22. The aim is not a bare yard. It is to remove the handful of plants that do real harm and then plant generously.

What makes a plant right for a play space

  • No known toxicity in any part. Leaves, flowers, fruit, sap and bulbs all count, because a two year old does not distinguish between them. If you cannot confirm a plant, leave it out.
  • Soft to handle. Children pick, crush, strip and sit on plants. Fine strappy leaves, felted foliage and herbs tolerate that and hurt nobody.
  • Something for the senses. Kidsafe NSW's sensory garden list runs to lavender, rosemary, thyme, lemon balm, sage, native mint, bottlebrush and banksias: scent on the fingers, texture, colour, and the birds and lizards they bring in.
  • Tough enough to be trampled and dug. Plants that regrow from the base after being flattened are the ones that last. Give digging its own patch and accept that bed edges will wear.
  • Shade. Kidsafe NSW calls adequate shade an important element of any children's service sun protection strategy. An evergreen tree with a dense canopy is the cheapest shade a centre will ever buy, provided it goes in early and away from paving and pipes.
  • Something to harvest. An edible bed teaches the rule better than any sign: food comes from the bed the adults tend, and nothing else goes in the mouth. Kidsafe NSW's veggie patch list is deliberately ordinary, sunflowers, parsley, basil, carrots, lettuce, peas, beans and strawberries, and it advises teaching children to check with an adult before eating anything from the garden.

Climate shifts the answer. Tuckeroo, lemon myrtle and midyim berry belong to the subtropical and warm temperate coasts from Queensland to Sydney and Perth. Water gum, kangaroo paw and the culinary herbs carry the list through Adelaide, Melbourne and the cool south. Inland, lean on the drought-hardy natives and give everything mulch and a drip line.

Plants that fit

The plants below are widely regarded as free of poisonous parts and are already common in Australian centres and school grounds. Most are in our Australian natives collection, and many overlap with the list in our pet-friendly plants guide, which is no coincidence: a plant that is safe for a puppy that chews everything is usually safe for a toddler who does the same.

Shade trees

  • Tuckeroo (Cupaniopsis anacardioides): dense evergreen canopy, salt and wind tolerant, the standard playground shade tree on the Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australian coasts. Frost tender, and it drops fruit capsules, so plant it over mulch or lawn rather than paving.
  • Water gum (Tristaniopsis laurina) in its compact form: smooth bark, glossy leaves, no spines or toxic parts, and it copes with wet feet. Suits Sydney through Melbourne and Adelaide.
  • Lilly pilly (Syzygium australe): edible pink fruit, soft foliage, and it can be a small shade tree, a clipped hedge or a tunnel. Grows in every mainland state outside the dry inland and hard frost.
  • Lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora): crush a leaf and the whole class smells it, and the leaves make a tea. Best from Brisbane to Sydney and in Perth; protect it from frost further south.

Shrubs

  • Coastal rosemary (Westringia fruticosa): soft grey foliage, flowers most of the year, shrugs off wind, salt and neglect. Good in Perth and Adelaide as well as the east coast.
  • Bottlebrush (Callistemon) in a compact form: on Kidsafe NSW's sensory list, and the brush flowers bring honeyeaters within a metre of a window. Bees work the flowers, so keep it a step back from the main path.

Strappy plants and grasses

  • Lomandra (Lomandra longifolia): the plant that survives being sat on, ridden over and dug beside. The species' flower stems carry small prickly bracts, so trim them where toddlers crawl, or choose a fine-leafed form. Our lomandra care guide covers pruning.
  • Flax lily (Dianella caerulea): soft blue-green strap leaves and blue berries that birds take. Treat the berries as decorative, not for eating, and use the plant to teach the rule.
  • Kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos): furry flowers children cannot stop touching, no toxic parts. Happiest in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney; in humid Queensland summers treat it as short-lived.

Ground covers

Herbs and the edible bed

These belong in a raised bed at child height, which Kidsafe NSW recommends where digging on site is not possible, and they sit within our edible plants collection.

What to keep away

The plants below appear on the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network factsheet, Kidsafe NSW's plants to avoid brochure, or both, or are the subtropical garden staples that poisons centres and early learning regulators in the warmer states most often flag. Remove them, or fence them beyond reach and record the decision.

  • Oleander (pink and yellow). Every part is poisonous, including smoke from burning it. Kidsafe NSW says one yellow oleander kernel can be lethal to an infant.
  • Angel's trumpet and datura, foxglove, castor oil plant, deadly nightshade, lily of the valley, delphinium. All on the NSW lists as plants that can put a child's life at risk. Castor oil seeds are dangerous only when chewed, and two or three can kill.
  • White cedar. A common street tree whose fallen fruit is toxic; Kidsafe NSW gives six to eight fruits as a fatal dose for a child.
  • Brunfelsia (yesterday, today and tomorrow), cestrum, duranta, lantana. Widely planted in Queensland and northern New South Wales, all with poisonous parts, and the last three carry the tempting berries the poisons centres warn about.
  • Cycads and sago palm. The seeds are highly toxic and look like nuts.
  • Arum lily, cunjevoi, dieffenbachia, peace lily, devil's ivy. Oxalate plants that burn the mouth on contact. Arum lily grows wild across southern Australia.
  • Euphorbias including poinsettia. Milky sap that injures eyes and skin; the whole plant is poisonous if eaten.
  • Agave, yucca, bougainvillea, cactus, ochna. Spikes and thorns at eye height, and ochna's black berries on red calyces are exactly the lolly-coloured fruit toddlers reach for.
  • Rhus, chillies and daphne. Rhus causes severe dermatitis; chilli fruit burns eyes and mouths; daphne berries are poisonous.
  • Any mushroom. The NSW Poisons Information Centre says never to eat wild mushrooms because they are hard to identify. Kidsafe NSW says all wild mushrooms must be removed from an outdoor learning environment, so check lawns and mulch after rain.
  • Bulbs and seed. Kidsafe NSW warns that stored bulbs are mistaken for onions. Keep bulbs, seed and fertiliser labelled and locked away from the children's gardening kit.

The sources do not agree on everything. Kidsafe NSW's own sensory list includes agave, while the hospital factsheet warns about spiked leaves and eyes, and it includes fountain grass, which is an environmental weed in several states. Our view is that agave has no place inside a toddler yard, whatever its texture, and that a strappy native does the same job without the risk.

Getting it right

  • Audit what is already there. Photograph every plant and identify it. Kidsafe NSW suggests taking a leaf or photo to a nursery, forestry or botanic gardens service; Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria will identify plants suspected in poisonings. Add the list to the risk assessment.
  • Remove or fence, then record. The NSW Poisons Information Centre's advice is to fence off or remove known poisonous or dangerous plants. Dig out roots and bulbs, not just tops.
  • Keep a plant register. One page, names and locations, updated whenever a plant is added. Donated plants from families go on the register before they go in the ground.
  • Handle potting mix carefully. Kidsafe NSW's gardening tips: open bags slowly, dampen the mix, wear gloves, wash hands afterwards, and store bags sealed and away from children.
  • Mulch and edges. Use chunky woodchip, sugar cane or pea straw on beds, but never treat garden mulch as playground softfall; fall zones under equipment are governed by the playground standards, and Kidsafe NSW asks that rocks and edging have rounded edges.
  • Plant for the wear you expect. Put the tough strappy plants and ground covers where feet go, the herbs along paths where hands go, and the edible bed where an adult is always nearby.
  • Teach the rule and repeat it. Nothing from the garden goes in the mouth without asking. Kidsafe NSW adds a second one for the sensory garden: do not touch the bees.
  • Keep 13 11 26 by the phone. The Sydney Children's Hospitals Network says to call as soon as a poisoning is suspected rather than waiting for symptoms, wash skin and flush eyes with running water, and call triple zero if a child has trouble breathing or collapses.

A word of caution

This is a summary written by growers, not a medical or regulatory document. Plant names are confusing, cultivars vary and toxicity lists differ between states, so check any plant you are unsure of with your state poisons information centre on 13 11 26 and with your regulatory authority's guidance. Your risk assessment, your supervision ratios and your own site conditions decide what stays. If a child has eaten or touched something and is unwell, call 13 11 26 first.

Sources

Previous Next

You might also like