Revenge of the Landscape: by Tom Butzler

In a previous blog posting, I mentioned several fruiting ornamental plants that added some pizzazz and character to the landscape. One thing I did not mention was the downside of these fruiting ornamentals in relation to children. Of course, a landscape should not contain fruits and berries that might be hazardous to young children. However, based on my experience as a parent, this is not the downside to which I am referring.


Several weekends ago, my children had numerous friends over to celebrate two birthday parties. The activities were centered around a bonfire with hot dogs and s’mores. Things were going pretty well as I tended the fire and my wife prepared the food. Sure, there was a lot of yelling and running around but what could you expect on a cool Friday night with a bunch of pre-teens and young teenagers.

Something was up when my younger son ran to the bonfire saying that berries were flying all over the place. I moved pretty quickly to the site of the kid’s activity and stood aghast as I surveyed my kousa dogwood, stripped of all the ornamental fruit. As I surveyed the damage, I noticed that the pavement was littered with smashed fruit and many of the boys had fruit stains on their shirts and bodies. There wasn’t much to say at this point as the damage had been done.

Somewhat stomping back to the bonfire, I passed my prized deciduous hollies loaded with berries. I decided that I had to be pre-emptive on these plants and made an announcement that these berries were off limits. It was a good thing I moved on the hollies as I was informed by one of the kids that the small red berries were good projectiles. Luckily, he hadn’t passed on the word to the ‘warring’ parties.

Nightfall was fast approaching and the crowd was itching for a jailbreak game. This activity consists of two teams where one team must hide and the other must try to find the team that is hiding. Before the group left the campfire, I stated some basic rules 1) no picking berries and throwing them, 2) stay out of the roped off area (I was putting in a sidewalk) and 3) watch out for the uneven areas. I’m not sure they were listening but off they ran.

Some of the best hiding places around my place were where the managed landscape slowly merges with the unmanaged landscape. It is a wonderfully diverse area full of wild brambles and various trees to hide behind. It is also home to some of the best poison ivy patches in Jersey Shore. I never gave it a thought to mention this piece of information to the fast moving mob. It was a raucous game but the evening ended quietly as parents came in shifts to pick up the various age groups

It was only about three days later that I realized how serious these kids took their jailbreak game. My son had a rash all over his body and I asked him if he had been rolling in the poison ivy. He showed me several of the places that he had hid the night of the bonfire party, very well concealed but covered in poison ivy vines. He then went on to tell me how many members of the party that were itching their way through the school day and visiting their doctors for relief. I even received a call from a parent who wanted to know what the rash might be and I explained jailbreak and the efforts the kids took to hide from the competition.

P.S. – One of my favorite activities as a child was going to an abandoned orchard with my siblings and friends and throwing apples at each other.