Poisonous Hedges

cheezums

Hi all

I'm looking at different hedge plants and a lot of the ones I like seem to be quite poisonous to animals, like yew and privet. Do I need to worry about dogs at all? Would they actually eat a bunch of it? What about livestock in neighbouring fields?

looksee

I would not plant yew if cattle can access it - it is poisonous to mammals generally, including humans. Privet is a nuisance, I have inherited a lot of both cultivated and wild privet intermingled in a hedge of all kinds of other more interesting stuff, including hawthorn, spindle and field maple. The entire hedge is accessible to cattle but they don't pay much attention to it. You are letting yourself in for a lot of cutting if you plant privet, and if you don't cut it it grows into large, wild looking, not very interesting trees.

However, going back to your hedge, yes Yew is very poisonous, privet not so much, except for dogs, the berries are poisonous to humans and animals though the birds like them. Lonicera nitida is not poisonous but grows to look extremely scruffy and dense if it is not kept cut back. Both Privet and Lonicera can make decent formal, urban hedges if kept well trimmed; they are quite vigorous and need to be trimmed at least a couple of times a year, you can cut them back very severely if you wish. I wouldn't put either of them into a rural environment.

MacDanger

My understanding (open to correction though) is that generally animals will avoid plants that are poisonous (e.g. cattle won't eat yew) but if it inadvertently ends up in silage or something, that's when it can actually poison them

ttnov77

as mac said animals are not stupid and they wont eat poisonous plants unless dry and hidden in hay for feeding, no need to worry about pets, 90% of household plants are poisonous too