November 2001

Closing Down for the winter

Roses, Perennials and Evergreen Protection 

and Much More Advice

So temperatures have risen in the last couple of decades? Consequently, autumns are extended? Not according to one of Canada’s most beloved authors, Lucy Maud Montgomery.  Her tales may have been set in Prince Edward Island but the wife of a church minister; she lived over half her life not far from Toronto. Seventy years ago, on 18 November 1931, she was writing of the mildness of the month. The manse garden in Norval, northwest of Toronto, still boasted marigolds, scabiosa and lupins merrily  blooming away.

The moral then is, if it is still flowering; don’t cut it back. This holds especially true for the Queen of Flowers, the rose. In southern Ontario, it is not too late: even in December to protect their majesties from the wiles of winter or more especially, early spring. When good and ready, cut back the canes to a foot or so high on HT, floribunda and grandiflora bushes. Discard these and any dead leaves in the garbage, as they are sites of over-wintering black spot disease, which cannot be destroyed, in a home composter. But is the term “earthing up” accurate? Not if you want to save money and give and additional boost to the bushes next spring. Instead of topsoil, purchase Composted cattle or sheep manure. Allow about 10-litres, a half-bag, per bush and retain it with a plastic rose collar. Next April, as the forsythia flower, remove the rose collars, fertilize their royal highnesses and spread the composted manure around them as a welcome mulch.

The trimmings from those perennials are an excellent compost material, however: If the stems are thick and woody, cut them up into small pieces. Some people even crush them with a hammer. Mix other garden and household waste and, to each six-inch-layer in the compost&, add a handful of garden lime. This helps prevent it turning into a black, slimy mass over winter. Do not cut- back ornamental grasses though, until spring. The dead grass is aesthetically pleasing and more practically, protects the roots. 

A few years ago, professional foresters started to apply granulated fertilizer to ornamental trees very late in the year. The idea is for the nutrients to be readily available-early the following spring.  Since trees and large shrubs require, but rarely receive this attention, it would seem an excellent idea for home gardeners to emulate. Timing is critical. In Toronto this certainly should be done no earlier than the first week of December, but no later than the week before Christmas. The problem is that, at such time, retail outlets rarely have any fertilizers. So buy now, use later.

Incidentally, any granulated fertilizer will keep over winter, even in below-freezing temperatures, so long as they are kept dry. So buy up any such bargain basement offerings and keep the cash for next season’s plants.

Unfortunately, although with the relatively mild weather it is still possible to fertilize the lawn one last time if not already undertaken, granulated fertilizers are unlikely to act fast and liquid forms must be resorted to. Then it is on to the final mowing, which should leave the grass much shorter than usual, down to just a half-inch high. Feeding wild birds gains in popularity at this time of the year. Bird deaths also gain from diseases, which are spread by unsanitary feeders. Every week take it down, empty it and then wash it with a weak bleach solution. Dry, fill and restore to the garden. While at it, empty the birdbath and also treat with bleach, dry, then refill.  Water in this weather? Yes, as it may be harder to find than food for our feathered friends.

Keep bird feeders suspended high off the ground, where they cannot, be reached at night by mice or rats.  Do not scatter bread or other edibles on the ground. This may attract the same vermin along with foxes and, relatively new on the urban scene, coyotes. The latter two are also fond of a nice, plump and unwary pet cat that, in turn, may be stalking mice or birds and the predator becomes the predated . . . and pre-dated.

Happiness in Houseplants

Apart from being aesthetically pleasing, indoor plants purify the polluted air inside the home, as extensive research from NASA has proven. This is only possible, however, with healthy houseplants.  Vast volumes of books continue to be offered on how to achieve this desirable state, to say nothing of periodicals and the ubiquitous boob tube. Yet success involves but a few factors.

Water is the critical factor. More plants die from incorrect watering than any other single cause. Use a moisture meter, available for a few dollars, to determine the state of the soil. Most plants must become almost dry to the bottom of the pot, then watered thoroughly. Cold water causes shock and consequent problems; always use water at room temperature.

If trying to grow large plants quickly, fertilize every couple of weeks. But mature plants require low nutrient levels. And unless in bud or bloom, do not feed from December through February when light levels are low, days short and growing conditions poor.

By mid-Jan, the average Canadian home has humidity levels half those found in the middle of the Sahara. This promotes many human ailments. Is it any wonder our houseplants, mostly from rain forests, also sicken? Use a humidifier; spraying plant foliage is of little use.

Direct sunlight is often not necessary and may even be harmful for many houseplants, but bright light is usually needed. Such simple strategies as keeping windows clean can increase light levels by 30% or more. Normal artificial illumination is of little assistance.

Pests are rare on healthy plants. If nervous, treat monthly with insecticidal soap. And that is it!

Winterizing the Garden

In their perverse way, the meteorologists tell us that as the climate warms, we can expect more snow, not less. Out in the garden, this can be both good and bad.

Good, because snow is a superb insulation, protecting tender perennials from calamities caused by surface -thawing, frost heaving and desiccating winds.  Later, the same snow will assure ample early spring soil moisture.

Bad, because heavy, wet snow can play havoc with evergreen shrubs, bending and breaking upright forms, smashing down spreading bushes. Very heavy falls, particularly if accompanied by freezing rain and ice, is deadly to all trees, evergreen and deciduous alike.

Finally, if snow-covered lawns are constantly trampled across, snow becomes ice, excludes air and chokes the underlying grass. Come spring, a dead trail greets the homeowner. If the lawn is the only place snow cleared from paths and drives can be deposited, then spread it out evenly. Do not pile over adjacent shrubs. Obviously, no gardener in his or her right mind would use salt on sidewalks but alternate icebreakers may be little better. Many release nitrates, which true, are nutrients but not at those levels, which are positively lethal to plant and may damage concrete surfaces and some pavements. Try light applications of sand or cat litter instead.

Municipalities are still enamored with salt to keep roads clear, however. This may splash or, worse, dry and blow onto flanking hedges or evergreen plantings. Hammer in 2x2 stakes and staple burlap to them on the street side to act as a screen against this calamity.

The same treatment will protect single or groups of young rhododendrons and similar broad-leaved evergreens from desiccating winter winds and scorching afternoon sun. For such, the stakes should form a triangle, and the burlap completely surrounds them. Take the opportunity to spread at least a 3-inch-thick mulch of oak leaves, pine needles or peat moss.

Burlap can also be used to wrap upright evergreens.  The resulting brown cocoon is not very attractive, however. Garden centers have special mesh sleeves, which are preferable. If the snowfall is thick, wet and heavy, take what photographs you wish then use a corn broom to sweep it off the branches, allowing them to resume their shape.

The Weather This Winter

“A change in weather is the discourse of fools,” proclaimed 17th-century writer Thomas Fuller. Meteorologists and the weather channel would beg to disagree. So would countless, nameless formulators of folk knowledge. Confident in the wisdom that, despite what Thomas Fuller says, “everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it,” the hoi polloi have formulated their own predictions.

Were the weeds growing tall this past fall?  According-to Welsh lore, if they were, then we are in for a long, hard winter.  Perhaps natural landscapes are not such a good idea.  Elsewhere, it is believed that if numbers of trees shed heavily before autumn, a bad winter is probable. In the United States, the same result may be expected if the center brown band of the “woolly bear” caterpillar is broad. Incidentally, it is unwise to handle them to ascertain the fact; the hairs can cause severe itching. In Merry Olde Englande, the 29 September was Michaelmas Day, celebrated by a dinner of roast goose.  Afterwards, the bird’s breastbone was carefully examined. Brownish in color indicated a mild winter was to come, but if white or blue, a harsh one was predicted. Later, if the wild harvest of hedgerow berries was abundant, then there would be much snow.

Across the Channel, la manche, in the Alsac region of la belle France, thunder heard in September likewise meant that, even before Christmas, snows would be deep. Rather ominously, in Wales, should thunder occur from November to the end of January, then the most important person in the village would die. Similarly in England, if the thunder was heard on the first Sunday of the year, then a member of the Royal Family was sure to pass from the Sceptr’d Isle.

More optimistic were predictions arising from the wind direction on New Year’s Day. If it blew the south, warm weather and prosperous times would arrive. But wind from the north would proceed a hard, cold winter wracked by gales. And it was no good counting on a mild January, since; it merely meant winter would continue into May of that year.

The second of February is, to North Americans, Groundhog Day. In Europe, where this pleasant piece of folklore arose, it was the day the hedgehog was said to come out of hibernation and check the weather. If it was to his liking and he stayed outside, spring was sure to soon come. Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, also falls on February 2.

According to British lore, this is the day winter dies and spring comes alive, if certain portents are accurate. If warnings prevail, however, winter will be a long time leaving. Six more weeks of winter will be man’s fate should a lark fly high singing to those far below. In the East Anglia district of England, if the sun shines on Candlemas Day, perversely it will forewarn of harsh weather yet ahead.  North in Scotland, much the same thoughts prevail when the weather is clear. Should you desire to conjure up storms, though, an infallible aid is a candle that has been blessed and used in the Candlemas service.

The late Al Palladini, Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism, enthused, “There’s a lot of fun that can be had with snow,” after January 1999’s heavy falls. Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman was frankly scared of snow.  “I’m petrified of what could -happen tomorrow,” quoth he, fleeing at the drop of a snow shovel to Florida’s sunny climes. This is under conditions technically known to meteorologists as BICO, or ‘baby it’s cold outside.’ Or all the signs may be so confusing that it results in a state known as TTTC, ‘too tough to call.’ Worse still is a ‘bomb,’ something weather forecasters neglect to mention because they failed to see it coming.

Fortunately, despite dire predictions, there is no such affliction as climato-phobia, possibly alleviated in recent times by nubile weather forecasters, www.nakednew.com, for example.  Science does recognize, though, climatotherapy, the treatment of disease by use of climate (see Lastman above). Aerophobia, however, exists and is fear of wind or air movement, while those suffering from astraphobia are terrified of thunder and lightning. Homiclophobia is fear of fog and ombrophobia fear of rain. All of which should, keep any hypochondriac happy for hours if not days. While doing so, they might contemplate the Fohn, which famed movie director Billy Wilder described as: “A wind that comes down from the Alps and drives everyone crazy. People get depressed. Kill their wives. Commit suicide. Forget their lines. ”

Horticultural Happenings

Toronto Field Naturalist Outings & Talks

Free guided walks; children welcome but please no pets; all are TTC accessible; dress according to weather, bring beverage, camera, notebook and binoculars; more walks at 416-593-2656

• 4 Nov. TFN Meeting at Victoria University’s Northrop Frye Hall: The Leslie Street Spit by John Carey; 2 p.m. at 73 Queen’s Park. Cres. E.

Nature Walks

• 1 Nov. High Park: meet 10 a.m. at the park entrance on Bloor St W. opposite High Park. Ave; bring lunch.

• 18 Nov. Lower Don: meet 10:30 a.m. at Castle Frank subway station; bring lunch

• 22 Nov. Rouge Valley: meet 10 a.m. northeast corner Shepherd E. and Meadowvale; bring lunch

• 24 Nov. Rouge Valley: meet 10:30 a.m. northeast corner Sheppard E. and Kingston Rd. bring lunch

Heritage Walks:

• 7 Nov. Deer Park: meet 10 a.m. at the south entrance/exit St Clair subway station on Pleasant Blvd east of Yonge St.; morning only

• 10 Nov. Humber Bay Park meet 10:30 a.m. northwest corner Queensway and Windemere Ave.; bring lunch and dress warmly

Nature Arts

• 3 Nov. Gallery Hopping: meet at 11 a.m. Cumberland exit of Bay-subway station; lunch will be in a mall.

Japanese Canadian Cultural Center

• 2 - 4 Nov. The Road to Asia: A Celebration of Asian Culture; anything at the JCCC is worth visiting, and this is highly recommended; 6 Garamond Court, Toronto; more info: 416-441-2345 or check www.jccc.on,ca

• Nov. 10 & 11 The Four Paragons: In Memory of Ruth Yamada, one of Canada’s foremost artists: an Exhibition and Sale organized by the Sum&-Artists of Canada Inc; admission free; the event obtains its name from ‘The Four gentlemen,’ the four noble and dignified plants, the plum standing for winter, orchid as a symbol of spring, bamboo, equates with summer and chrysanthemum typifies autumn; highly recommended; more 905-839-0103

Ontario Rock Garden Society

• 18 Nov. Talk ‘A Collectors’ Garden’ at the Civic Garden Center, Lawrence at Leslie, 12:30 p.m.

High Park Sunday Afternoon Tours

Meet just south of the Grenadier Cafe; cost: $2 donation; more info at 415-392-1748

• 4 Nov. ‘The “Haunts” of High Park’

• 18 Nov. ‘On Grenadier Pond’

Toronto Entomologists’ Association

• 24 Nov. meeting at 1 p.m. in Room 119 Northrop Frye Hall, 7 13 Queen’s Park Cres. E. Talk will be by Chris Jones: “Amazing Creatures of Nottawasaga” more info. 905-727-6993

Rouge Valley Conservation Center

• 11 Nov. Native History; guided walk beginning at Pearce House at 1 p.m.; more info. 416-282-8265

Mycological Society of Toronto

• Call 416~HI-FUNGI (really!) for information about meetings and forays.

North Toronto Green Community

• 11 Nov. Upper Yellow Creek: meet 2 p.m. southwest corner Wilson Ave & Dufferin St.

• 18 Nov. Taddle Creek; phone 416-599-4171 for details and to register

Ian Wheal Heritage Walks

• 3 Nov. West Humber River: meet 11 a.m. intersection Hwy 27 and Humber College Blvd; bring lunch and water.

• 10 Nov. Power Street Springs: meet 1:30 p.m. southeast corner Power St. and Queen St. East.

• 24 Nov. annual event includes plants, crafts, sushi, obento, obazu, baked goods and much more including a raffle and prizes; 1 to 3 p.m. 1038 Woodbine Ave, at the Chinese Mennonite Church 2 blocks north of Danforth Ave.

Richters Free Seminars

• Sundays at 2 p.m. 1 km east of Goodwood on south side of Hwy 47 (Bloomington Rd at Hwy 404), more from 905-649-6677 or www.richters.com

• 11 November: Quick and Easy Herbal Gifts

Also

• 24/25 November: Winter Festival of Herbs: both days from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. features Executive Chef Rav Taylor. Westin Harbor Castle, Toronto.

The Gardener's Bookshelf

Pruning and Training Plants: A Complete Guide

David Joyce (Toronto: Firefly $24.95)

Color for Adventurous Gardeners

Christopher Lloyd (Toronto: Firefly $19.95)

Here are two superb gardening books distributed in this country by Firefly Books, who always seem ‘to be able to recognize useful additions to the gardener’s personal library. Both originated in Britain but unlike many from that source, are not being dumped on the Canadian market to dupe local gardeners. These are a pair of superbly crafted books, written by experts and admirably illustrated

Since Storey Publishing from south of the border seems to show no interest in promoting Lewis Hill‘s venerable volume Pruning Simplified, David Joyce’s Pruning and Training Plants is more than welcome. It benefits, moreover, with superb color photographs and over 300 drawings illustrating this fascinating art and science so essential to good gardening.

Whatever the puzzled homeowner is looking for, from roses through trees, shrubs, climbers, hedges, and fruit or even topiary, this is the perfect reference work. Everything from the traditional to the novel will be found in these pages. The author not only displays in-depth knowledge of his chosen subject but, as a professional garden writer, he knows how to present it.  In this he has been well supported by a selection of consultants, also with impressive qualifications, most of which include positions with the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Wisley, Surrey, England.

A modest few pages on tools and a glossary, plus the all-important index will also be found useful if not overly long a feature, alas, of far too many modern horticultural books whose authors, or perhaps their editors, deem to be essential. It was received with many a rave review in’ its native land and, no doubt, will find the same enthusiastic reception here in Canada. Our second book for review this month is by an author who will be familiar to many pursuers of all that is horticultural, amateur and professional alike. And for those who have not yet encountered Christopher Lloyd, there will be the added delight of discovering a literate garden writer.

Lloyd, after all, is the writer for those gardening fraternity who wish not only to read but, in doing so, be encouraged to think. Perhaps, also, to dream a little dream – in color, of course: red, orange, blues, mauve, green, white, yellow, pink and purple along with brown and even black. 

White, for example, Lloyd advises us, is “cold, staring and assertive, it draws your eye but makes you wish it hadn’t” in the heading of the chapter on white. Sacrilege to some, sound words of advice to others. But a walk through almost any upscale portion of Toronto will demonstrate the over use of white in gardens merits serious consideration. Lloyd also advises that he is “very wary of deep purples in the garden.”  Too true, for, the very richness, especially when combined with red, leaves nothing so much as an impression one has accidentally stumbled into an Edwardian bordello.

On the other hand orange is “possibly the most exciting and challenging color in the gardener’s palette,” while green is enigmatic” pink “feminine,” and yellow is both cheerful and stimulating and “lifts the spirits.”

Select, contemplate and combine using listings, descriptions and superb color photographs by the hundred from the camera of Jonathan Buckley.  Indeed, these illustrations make the book a feast for the eye as well as-the heart.

Combine red with other strong colors but contrast works best with orange, even pink! Pink? Yes; as the author’s own garden shows, ‘it can be done and very effectively! Blue Iris sibirica blend magnificently with golden sedge, Carex alata ‘Aurea.’

While Christopher Lloyd is British-based,’ his writings are familiar to ‘readers of American Horticulture magazine. He has also hosted many TV garden shows and specials.

The News from the View Point of a Gardener

City Gardening peers at the past few weeks’ news from Canada and the rest of the world.

Landscaping

• In response to a reader’s question, The Globe and Mail notes the Koran refers to beautiful houris and of the “righteous” it is said that, “they shall surely triumph. Theirs shall be gardens and vineyards, and high-bosomed virgins for companions: a truly overflowing cup.”

• Development into public gardens of Mississauga’s 64-hectare Chappell Estate alongside the Credit River from Hwy 403 to Burnhampthorpe Rd. is unveiled.

Lawns

• An outgoing executive assistant to Finance Minister Paul Martin welcomes her replacement to Ottawa with a house party advertised by mass e-mail invitation as, amongst other things, a “puke on your neighbor’s lawn.”

Trees

• Toronto City Council approves of the removal of eight trees on private property in its first week back from summer recess

• Toronto’s forestry department refuses to accept financial responsibility for the branch of a maple tree on city property crashing through a west-end home, after years of complaints and even acknowledging in a report that their maple had dead wood that required attention.

Flowers

• Canada Post launches four, 47-cent stamps depicting Canadian roses: Agnes, Canadian White Star, Champlain and Morden Centennial.

• Getting carried away, Canada Post also issues a $1.05 stamp depicting a bed of red tulips with Ottawa’s Parliament buildings in the background.

• Malak Karsh, famed international photographer and instigator of Ottawa’s annual Tulip Festival; will have an 8,000-bulb bed commemorating him blooming in Hull next spring on the festival’s fiftieth anniversary

• A show to encourage the use of edible flowers on restaurant menus in Thailand is held at the Fortune Hotel, Bangkok.

• Japanese cosmetics firm Shiseido, under contract to produce a scent for use in space, announces it has isolated from an unspecified rose strain dimethoxymethylbenzene (DMMB), which in tests has been shown to reduce stress.

Down in the Vegetables

• A 17-year-old Calgary youth is charged after a pumpkin thrown from an overpass seriously injures a woman in a passing car

• World Vision Canada promotes a charity fundraiser by sending over a million carrot seed packages by mail, causing nervous recipients to phone the police believing it to be an anthrax bio-terrorism attack.

• A Connecticut farmer displays a pink pumpkin still attached to the vine

• California biotech business Epicyte announces it has discovered how to have fields of waving corn produce quantities of antibodies for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

Fruit & Nuts

• Three Edmonton, Alberta, protesters, charged with eating their election ballots, blend their summonses with soymilk, blueberries and bananas; and drink it down.

• “It takes many thousands of different molecules to make a person, almost as many to make a pear.” K. C. Cole, Los Angeles Times [cited by Michael Kesterton, The Globe and Mail]

• The 2001 Ig Nobel award for medicine is won by Peter Barss of McGill University, who reported on ‘Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts’

Herbs

• An American is arrested in northwest Ontario attempting to snuggle in 94 kilograms of ephedrine pills

Organic Gardening

• Toronto’s new fertilizer pellets made from the toilet flushings of 2.3 million city residents are banned from the market by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which claims a “labeling problem.” Actually, the stuff can spontaneously catch fire and even explode in storage or transportation, according to informed sources.

• Now Britain offers ‘Integrated Farm Management,’ offered by LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), which its supporters claim, reduces organic farming to an ideology.

Bugs and Gardeners

• Some weeks after being approached with “unusual” queries, by a man of ‘Middle Eastern” aspect, a Saskatchewan crop-dusting company gets suspicious and calls the Mounties.

• Federal and provincial governments agree on a plan to contain and eradicate Plum Pox Virus (PPVJ, first detected here last year in nectarine and peach orchards of the Niagara Peninsular and a few isolated areas elsewhere on Ontario. For more info see www.inspection.gc.ca

• A black widow spider is discovered in a bunch of store-bought grapes in Red Deer, Alberta.

• Alien Asian lady beetles bloated with the innumerable aphids; invade Toronto in vast numbers seeking shelter for the winter. *The U.S. EPA approves using pure caffeine to kill invasive tree frogs in Hawaii that, while small, produce calls as loud as a lawn mower, or 90 decibels.

• Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture isolate the different and distinct sounds made by insects feasting inside trees, ornamentals, even threatened species, as well as in food packages.

Gardening in the City

• Householders concerned over the possible ban of pesticide use on private properties in Toronto, send a number of petitions to city councilors objecting to such action

• Newly formed Toronto Environmental Coalition (TEC) organizes a campaign resulting in several thousand happy and contented lawn owners writing to their city councilors supporting their lawn care contractors.

• A pair of raccoons is removed from the ceiling ductwork of Councilor Olivia Chows City Hall offices, putting an end to a rain of terror.

Compost

• The town of Whitby, east of Toronto, joins the city in requiring residents to use heavy-duty paper bags for yard waste and leaves to be picked up and municipally composted.

• The tabloid Metro Today, says the number of rats is rising in Toronto, in part because of “residents who leave out their composters” in areas bordering Danforth Avenue.

• Planning commissioners in Medicine Hat, Alberta permit Mike Melham of Lawn Shop Services, to store composted manure after he proves it is odorless by presenting each of them with a bag of the stuff.*Plastic “Green Torpedoes” are added by Toronto to the blue boxes, for recycling “wet” waste for composting rather than transporting to a landfill site. The scheme will be phased in over the next four years, ‘commencing with Etobicoke 10 July 2002 and finishing in June 2005.

• But Councilor Frank Di Giorgio apparently still does not agree with the city’s new compost plans.  “It’s a lot better to take all of the residual garbage that currently exists, take it to the facility as is, and then separate it at the facility.” Obviously a politician with a sense of humus.

Fertilizer

• Some 300 tones of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the Toulouse plant of the French TotalFinElf explodes, killing 29 people, injuring more than 2,000 and leaving a 50-metre-wide crater 15 meters deep. Authorities say it was an accident.

Soil

• U.S. scientists say that the bacterium Nocardia asterodies, common to soils everywhere, may be the trigger for Parkinson’s disease, an alarming thought for gardeners who can’t keep their hands out of the stuff

Science and the Gardener

• The research facilities of the United States Department of Agriculture outside Washington, which houses over 300 scientists, suffers US$41-million in damage when struck by a tornado, interfering with a wide range of studies.

• A Purdue University economist reports that countries with winters are the wealthiest as frost kills off pathogens that shorten lives as well as reducing harmful soil micro-organisms, so assisting crops. Did Canada and Russia enter into his calculations?

• An experimental study reported in Science indicates that some plants may be unable to adapt fast enough to cope with rapid climate change.

• ” Drought, heat, cold high salinity, mineral deficiency, and toxic minerals can all cause stress for plants,” explains the journal Science’s ‘NetWatch’ feature. What to do? Check out www.plantstress.com to see how scientists are solving the problem.

Weather

• The journal New Scientist notes that “greenhouses gases” are probably preventing us from suffering a more severe ice age than the one we are already living in, and are abnormal in the planet’s history which, 95 per cent of the time, has been completely ice-free, even at the poles.

• The journal Nature reports that overwhelming evidence from 70-million-year-old fossilized foraminifer marine shells from Tanzania that carbon dioxide is causing rising global temperatures.

• Half of all migraines are caused by the weather, reports Michael Kesterton of The Globe and Mail, citing research of the New England Center for Headache. 25 per cent also occur during periods of low temperatures or low humidity.

Law and Gardeners

• 11 disease-resistant varieties of Japanese barberry (Bet-bet-is thunbergii) will be allowed to be imported under a program administered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), returning this very useful shrub to the landscape. More info at www.inspection.gc.ca

• Despite the Taliban’s ordering opium poppy culture to cease, there are indications of considerable stockpiling of opium and heroin, with Afghanistan continuing to supply three-quarters of the world’s illegal heron.

Business

• The Canadian Landscape Trades magazine carries an article recommending that, despite abuse by a few customers, garden centers guarantee their plant material.

• “Solar Powered Outdoor Light Glows in the Dark” headline for an item on page 13 of the current Hedonics catalogue of “really really neat stuff” www.hedonics.com

• The U.S. Treasury Department, seeking to cut off terrorists from their financing, names several honey businesses in Yemen as suspect.

Environment

• Maintenance contractors become alarmed as Toronto City Council considers following Vancouver’s example in banning leaf blowers owing to excessive noise.

• Toronto purchases 322,420 tones of road salt for the winter at a cost of $18.37 million

• The Salt Institute of Canada aggressively lobbies the federal government not to declare road salt a ‘toxic chemical.’

• Residents around Charlottetown, P.E.I., find blue, paint-like droplets over plants, vehicles and houses. They claim it is a mystery but City Gardening suggests they check airliners illegally dumping sewage tanks overhead.

• Compost, anyone? Livestock operations in Ontario and Quebec generate enough manure to equal the sewage from over 100 million people. And the problem of how to manage it safely is getting worse.” Johanne Helinas, Canada’s Environment Commissioner, in a recently issued report.

• Transgenic corn is reported from Mexico as growing in 15 of 22 areas tested in Oaxaca and Pueblo states despite a 1998 moratorium of growing genetically modified corn in the country, but thousands of tones of GM corn are imported, quite legally, from the United States.

• Charges made ‘by: the World Wildlife Fund of allowing pesticides banned elsewhere to be used in Canada are rebuffed by Heath Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), whose Janet Taylor called the WWF list “misleading” and “almost like mischief. It’s so easy to throw them together and get people all disturbed about it.”

Health

• Federal Health Minister Allan Rock says he favors labeling genetically modified foods but admits lack of support from his fellow cabinet ministers. He was, in fact, pointedly left off the critical new cabinet security committee.

• Unfortunately for Rocky, a GM0 labeling bill is defeated in the House of Commons 126-91 and this even prior to his debacle with anthrax antibiotics purchases.

• Becel Pro-activ, a edible spread claimed to be cholesterol lowering and containing plant sterols, or phytosterols, is subject to a warning by Health Canada, which claims these pose health risks to several groups, including children and pregnant women.

• Mushrooms in Eastern Europe contain elevated levels of radioactive caesium thanks to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, says a Czech expert, but are still widely collected and eaten by a very large percentage of the population. No word from the Toronto Mycological Society on Ontario mushrooms. Check their meetings at 416-HI-FUNGI.

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