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The Garden Web | When The Saints Come Marching In
City Gardening July 2002
Landscaping Gillian Cosgrove reveals the landscape architects to the cream of society include Bill Hewitt, Janet Rosenberg, Mark Hartley, Neil Turnbull, Mark Sparling, Ronald Holbrook, Penny Arthurs and Victoria Lister Carley, who create gardens from $100,000 to $2-million. One disillusioned observer labels this cream of society as "rich thick clots." The Wall Street Journal discovers gardening, claiming that orange, purple and fuchsia hues are passé while all shades of green are the stylish thing as gardening becomes the fashion amongst the upper crust. Ten girders from the World Trade Center destroyed by the September 11 terrorist attacks will be used to form a memorial cairn in the International Peace Gardens on the border of Manitoba and North Dakota. Lawns When the going gets tough the tough get going: enviro-activists are dismayed that those dastardly commercial lawn sprayer operators should actually adopt well-known enviro-tactics. They are actively lobbying Toronto City Council, forming interest groups, garnering support from home owners, presenting scientific evidence and even advertising in local newspapers and setting up web sites - www.croplife.ca
Trees The Tofino Cedar on Vancouver Island's west coast was left in limbo as it where last year. Now the good news: as you read this, work has already commenced to give the tree a girdle and guy wires perhaps to support the local landmark for another 800 years. Tropical fungus Cryptococcus neoformans gattii mysteriously arrives in alder, cedar and Douglas pine on east Vancouver Island, killing one person and infecting 52 more, many of them seriously, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control reveals. Researchers with the Geological Survey of Canada found that spruce trees near a copper smelter, which drastically reduced sulphur dioxide emissions in 1980, still have problems absorbing sufficient carbon dioxide through their stomata, or leaf pores, whose actions are disrupted by the SO2. Remy Petit and his team at the National Institute for Agricultural Research, Gazinet, have succeeded in devising a method to identify the DNA of trees, promising to be a powerful tool to tracking down pirated timber, a major problem in area such as both B.C. and tropical rain forests. Shrubs A new maze joins the five already existing at Longleat, a stately home near Warminister, England. This time it is made of wood, joining one the longest hedge mazes in the world as well as the 1,300 rose bushes in the Maze of Love. At $35 a head, it might be worth checking out first at www.longleat.co.uk .
Flowers § Former hospital administrator David Lavine, running for the Parti Quebecois in the rural riding of Berthier by-election admits to a reporter he knows little about farming but "he has 28 acres of property at his country house and had done a lot of work with perennials," according to The National Post. § The UN's drug control program reports that only a third of the Afghan opium poppy crop has been destroyed and expects production to reach 2,600 tonnes in 2002 § Confirming that water gardening was popular years ago, paleobotanists identify a new family of herbaceous aquatic plants fossilized in from the Upper Jurassic formations in Liaoning Province, China. Down in the Vegetables Nova Scotians acquired their nomen 'Bluenosers' not from maritime winds on the proboscis, but from raising the potato of that name on provincial farms and that were shipped by the ton to Boston, where the designation arose, claims Joe O'Connor in Saturday Night magazine. Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl mistakenly bites into a hot pepper displayed to him by an Israeli farmer while he visits that country to lecture, and requires a large glass of water to prevent a heated exchange. In Britain, the National Trust, a conservation organization, worries that Brussel sprouts are an endangered vegetable and that it, and other less than popular vegetables, may become extinct. Scientists from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the French National Scientific Research Centre report that a substance in broccoli may kill the bacteria blamed for causing stomach cancer. Fruit & Nuts Some West African groups of chimpanzees have learnt to use stones to crack nuts. Supposedly this makes more closely related to humans than previously believed, suggest scientists. An "alleged fruiting," to use the accused's own words, took place from the 18th-storey of a Winnipeg high-rise when a retired and highly decorated RCMP officer and his brother, also a retired Mountie, pelted police investigating a break-in below with assorted oranges and onions. All cultivated eating apples are descended from the wild Malus sieversii of the Tien Shan mountain forests of central Asia and no others, according to exploration and research by botanists from Oxford University, England. Canadian researchers at Guelph show that apples vary considerably in the antioxidant properties, among the best being Ontario's Red Delicious and Northern Spy. The lowest was Empire, the second-widest grown variety in Ontario. Spices and Herbs Chinese herbal diet pills have caused two women to become critically ill and 15 more sickened in Singapore before being ordered removed from sale. Alas and alack, those trendy energy drinks are not exactly what they seem to be, reports a horrified NOW, a Toronto alternate lifestyle weekly. Not only do we not know how much herbs are in them, but guarara, herbal mate, green tea and even kola nut are added to produce - quelled horror - caffeine! Mushrooms Mexico - and presumably other wine-producing countries - could clean up their vineyard prunings by growing high-value oyster mushrooms on them, reports Martin Esqueda and his team at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Hermosillo, Sonora State. Houseplants Paul Ecke, popularizer of the poinsettia as the world's best-selling pot plant, dies age 76 in California, where his father started growing them in the early 1900s. It was deceased son, however, who developed some five dozen varieties which, under license, account for about two-thirds of world sales. Fertilizer Cit Gardening has in the past queried the safety of spreading composted feedlot cattle manure on gardens, linking it with unacceptable levels of E. coli and similar hazards. Now, according to a Swiss study, the antibiotics used lavishly on farm animals are presenting another potential health problem in their excretions, according to a paper in Journal of Chromatography A (vol. 952, p. 111). Seeds Canada and the U.S. have put up $12-million to replace grain seeds lost through years of war in Afghanistan, the journal Nature reports. The goal is to return the country to its former self-sufficiency by 2007. Bugs and Gardeners Alberta girds itself for the predicted worst grasshopper invasion in over thirty years, up to 20 per square metre. Not one mosquito to date in Toronto has been found to carry West Nile virus (WNV), but environmentalists suggest legal action will be taken should any southern Ontario community have the temerity to spray pesticides to prevent residents from an infection yet to be detected in humans here. Loggers in B.C. are being urged by the provincial government to cut more lodgepole pine infested by pine beetle in an effort to salvage the timber and get ahead of the infestation which covers roughly 5.7 million hectares. Researchers from the University of Toronto discover that leafcutter ants, which grow crops of fungus in their nests on the shredded foliage of trees, keep pathogenic moulds at bay by carrying on their undersides Streptomyces, bacteria that secretes antibiotics. "Semi-nondestructive genetic sampling form live eusocial wasps, Polistes dominulu and Polistes fuscatu," Insectes Sociaux, vol. 49. Does that mean the sampling was only a little bit destructive, enquires New Scientist magazine. Birds & Bees Bayer's well-known aspirin may be required by beekeepers if another product of that chemical conglomerate, the potato pesticide 'Admire,' turns out to be the bee poison some accuse it of. Another Bayer pesticide, 'Gaucho,' is being held by some Prairies apiarists to have the same alarming effects when sprayed on canola. In five years, the Canada goose population in Toronto's High Park has been reduced from 1,500 to 100 as the city's parks & recs department prepares a "comprehensive programme" for next year so citizens may avoid being goosed in parks. A German ornithologist reports a nightingale has returned to Franfurt-am-der-Oder for the 10th consecutive year, making it "probably the oldest nightingale in Europe." The president of the Essex County Purple Martin Association in southwestern Ontario, Gilles Breton, fears the unseasonable May cold around this past Victoria Day has killed a large number of purple martins who starved for lack of an adequate supply of insects. Weeds American National Wildlife magazine enthusiastically reports that Sanibel Island, Florida residents, near Fort Myers, are well on their way to "freeing" their 11-mile-long island of all "exotic" plants and saving threatened native species, which also encourages the return of wildlife, including resident and migrating birds. A British father and son research team report in the journal Science that 385 British plants are now flowering earlier than ever, thanks to temperatures which continue to rise. Their study covered four decades and they were especially impressed by white dead nettle advancing blooming by 55 days. This alien weed is present in southern Ontario. The common mustard plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, which yielded up its genome amid scientific excitement last year, now reveals yet more tantalizing mysteries, reports Nature. Exposure to severe stress causes it to "break out into new forms," possibly as a survival strategy, report American scientists. Organic Gardening A University of British Columbia study for provincial medical health authorities indicates that composted city sewage poses a human health hazard when cattle are allowed to graze on land treated with it or some popular crops grown in it, particularly the cucumber family. The National Post reveals that almost a quarter of commercially available composts and fertilizers tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) had fecal coliform counts above the allowable limits. Others tested over the limit for salmonella bacterium. The CFIA refuses to reveal which these "non-compliant" products are but the Post states they are available and used on gardens across Canada. Feverish excitement in the fowl world as an Israeli scientist unveils a featherless chicken. He claims "feathers are waste," but organic gardeners especially know otherwise as they make an excellent compost additive. Oxford University GM expert Chris Leaver, a GM expert notes that organic farms actually benefit from the surrounding conventional farms and their pesticide spraying strategies, reports New Scientist. "Organic agriculture thrives because is has a cordon sanitaire of conventional crops around it." If there were fewer conventional farms, yields on organic operations would drop, he says. Gardening in the City If you have a spare $8.9-million lying around, and can afford some $52,000 a year in taxes, the chateau and landscaped four acres of Robert Campeau's estate at 68 The Bridle Path in Toronto will be of interest to you. Some 300-by-1,000 feet of formal gardens include stone terraces, fountains, mature trees, enough to keep the most avid gardener busy. Relax in an indoor chemical-free pool, a wine cellar and, if necessary, a bomb shelter. Community gardens are a great idea but only if those homeowners they are adjacent too are informed first, both an east-end Toronto group and their sponsoring city parks department discover when they attempt to break ground for one such project in Dentonia Park. According to the National Post's Anne Kingston, a story is circulating claiming that a "high-profile Toronto woman" hired "one of the city's top landscape firms . . . After spending more than $100,000, she decided she didn't like it - not 'unique' enough - and had them rip it up and start all over." Guppies, the small decorative fish, gobble up mosquito larvae and so are an excellent additive to decorative garden pools and fountains for those nervous of West Nile virus, which is spread by mosquitoes. The same guppies are being used in Assam, northeast India, to similarly control malarial mosquitoes. Tools Environmentalists fail to have the dreaded motorized leaf blowers banned from Toronto as city council votes 19-12 in favour of the devices. Councillor Balkissoon compares the attempted ban to communism, Councillor Holyday says in 20 years he has never received a single complaint. Inventions The buzz in the Pentagon is bees, which dedicated scientists from the Defence Sciences Office of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have trained to detect concealed explosives. This honey of an idea will combat terrorists, reveal buried land mines and may even be extended to finding illicit drugs, say the scientists. City Gardening looks forward to the news of their first sting operation. Arachnophobia means fear of spiders. Those stuck with such beasties in their bathtub can now breath easy: New Scientist magazine announces that one John Dony of Hertfordshire, U.K. has patented (GB 23464877). a trap for the safe and effective removal of arachnid wannabe Esther Williams. "The leaves on prehistoric trees may have behaved like gramophone needles, recording the roars of dinosaur," says New Scientist, reporting patent GB 23664819 claimed by one Brian Wybrow of London, England. We are not making this up. The wax on the leaves, scored by sharply pointed foliage could have acted as did Edison's stylus and wax cylinder. Science and the Gardener Down in Mexico, food scientist Ana Barba de la Rosa, believes, perhaps optimistically, that the poor will enjoy her yummy recipe for added protein tortillas made from flour enriched with the dried, powdered carcasses of mealworm larvae. Two supposedly secret testing sites for genetically-modified wheat were revealed by a Saskatchewan farmer who opposes its introduction Manitoba University Professor Sheila Chmukalek has a patent pending after discovering a method of extracting natural, colour-fast dyes in cedar roots left by the lumber industry The New York Botanical Gardens, founded in 1891, opens its new $100-million International Plant Science Center, part of the NYBG's 15-year, $225-million modernization program. The science journal Nature Biotechnology issues a special report on genetically modified crops that raise several alarm bells regarding pollen and seed "escaping" from such sources into the wild. Professor James Basinger, head of geological sciences at the University of Saskatchewan, has been leading teams to Canada's Arctic islands for the past decade to study 420-million-year-old plant fossils. These have now been established as some of the oldest tropical plants yet discovered, growing on Bathurst Island when temperatures there were much higher than today . . . at least for now. Ross McKetrick, an economist the University of Guelph shows that, contrary to the Environment Minister's recent claims, his ministry has only just commenced to study the impact of global warming on Canada and Canadians. Brian Dixon at the University of Waterloo has demonstrated why frogs and other amphibians are so susceptible to pesticides. After conducting experiments, he found that exposure to these materials drastically reduces the creatures' antibodies. Travel § "Many of New Zealand's species of wildlife are unique to this planet," writes Tourism New Zealand in a tourist magazine published by The Guardian of London, England, according to New Scientist. We never would have guessed. Weather While Canada experiences an unusually cool and, in Ontario, wet spring central India experiences a heat wave killing over 600 with temperatures claimed to have peaked at 65.4C. and in Hainan Province, China, a serious drought continues from last year, threatening rice crops there. Engineer Stephen Salter of the University of Edinburgh develops floating wind turbines for use at sea to hurl water high into the atmosphere, forming clouds, which will later rain down on deserts, or so he claims. Other scientists remain dubious. Expect it to be hot, hazy and humid throughout southern Ontario, and elsewhere east of Manitoba this summer, according to Environment Canada's climatologists. It is enough to make one wonder about global warming. The first week of June the Coquihalla Highway near Hope, B.C. but a few hours drive from Vancouver, got hit by an unusually late and devastating snowfall - and the following week southern Alberta sustains heavy, wet snow for three days. Law and Gardeners Saguaro rustlers and cactus cops continue to battle it out in Arizona, where an illegally filched Carnegiea gigantean may fetch as much as US$15,000 as a status symbol in the front yard of a new home. Since they were making wine long before that night they invented champagne, or at least the French did, the villagers of Champagne, Switzerland have appealed to the European Court of Justice to be legally allowed to use their name on bottles of local vino. A University of Victoria study finds Canada's parks endangered because the laws that were meant to protect them are "useless." In less than a week, police seize 1,500 marijuana plants from two homes in Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska, New Brunswick hydroponic growing operations. This community is located on the north bank of the upper St. John River. The south bank just happens to be in the State of Maine. 3,500 marijuana plants growing in two Scarborough warehouses not only had advanced hydroponic systems but also enriched atmospheres of carbon dioxide, police discovered when they closed down the joints. Business After 89 years at the same location on Toronto's Danforth Avenue, Percy Waters Florist store moves some blocks to the east, further out on the same Danforth to near Greenwood. In the last few years of 20th century, Canada's farms dropped in number by over 10 percent. British Columbia lost the least with 7.1%, Prince Edward Island the most, an alarming 16.9% U.S. all-natural grocery chain Whole Foods enters the Canadian market with a store in one of the priciest locations in Toronto. "One of our goals is to have the best-priced organic produce we can," says representative Camille Krupa. A NOW newspaper survey blows that claim out the window showing Whole Foods to be more expensive than the local Big Carrot or even Loblaws. The day after former New Brunswick premier McKenna appeals for a 10-year business tax break for the Maritimes, Gino Nadeau, 24, is sent to trial charged with cultivation and possession of 10,000 marijuana plants for the purposes of trafficking. - GST, provincial and business tax free, of course. The sale of Adventis CropScience to Bayer AG is confirmed, leading to the creation of Bayer CropSciences and a new headache for environmentalists. Environment Laboratory tests run by The Toronto Star on soil sample taken from alongside pressure-treated lumber in six Toronto parks playgrounds reveals the wood to be leaching arsenic preservative at rates considerably greater than federal guidelines established by the Canadian Council of Environment Ministers. Following the assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, apparently by a militant environmentalist, strict vegetarian and animal rights activist, Canada's renaissance man George Jonas opines that such are "eco-maniacs" who are "anti-humanist." Wrote Jonas: "Environmentalism has a climate of self-righteousness that breeds violent bullies, some of whom view themselves as having 007 license to kill." Canada's federal Environment Minister David Anderson seems unable to be able to please anyone as his four options to achieve the country's perceived obligations under the Kyoto protocol are attacked. The environmentalists find them feeble; business believes all will impose threats to the economy. Two councilors demand Toronto test for arsenic around park playgrounds following The Toronto Star's revealing results of tests near structures made of pressure-treated lumber. The Toronto School Board seals all such in city schoolyards with an oil-based compound. Canadian Alliance's new leader Stephen Harper states that the Kyoto accord must be discarded in favour of a new "realistic plan" for curbing global warming that involves all nations. Conservationists announce the nation's first snail-recovery program as the unique Banff Springs snail is re-introduced to hot springs in the Banff National Park. The pea-size mollusc has been on the endangered species list since 1997. On World Environment Day, Australia announced it will not sign the Kyoto Protocol President George W. Bush rejects the EPA report, which lays the blame for global warming on humans, saying it is nothing more than a product of government bureaucracy. Well-known B.C. author and TV gardener Des Kennedy doffs his duds for the Georgia Strait Alliance, appearing festooned with seashells beside the seashore. The website displaying Des and 14 other men attempts to raise funds for marine conservation. Cheer up, says Mark Steyn, columnist in the National Post, things are not all doom and gloom. "Since 1970 . . . . the U.S. economy has swollen by 150%; automobile traffic has increased by 143%; and energy consumption has grown 45%." But, at the same time, air pollutants have declined by 29%, toxic emissions by 48.5%, sulphur dioxide levels by 65.3%, and airborne lead by 97.3%. Health Chinese Longdan and Lung Tan Xie Gan herbal medicines both contain a carcinogenic, aristocholic acid, and should not be used by Canadians, advises Health Canada A crow found dead in Calgary in late May undergoes tests to determine if it died of West Nile virus, launching a fresh round of media panic stories. Another dead crow in May from Mississauga west of Toronto tests positive for West Nile virus, an early find for the disease announce the daily newspapers and health authorities Millionaire B.C. herbalist Jim Strauss, purveyor of herbal "heart drops" until banned by Health Canada last year, undergoes surgery for an aneurysm. A quandary for environmentalists: ProdGene of Texas has genetically engineered corn for genes of the monkey virus protein SIV gp120. If this tests out successfully, commercially produced vaccine for HIV will become possible with similar GM corn providing, of course, enviro-activists don't destroy the crop first.
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