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City
Gardening ENVIRONMENTALISTS VS. GARDENERS AS
BATTLE IS JOINED St. Phocas suffers, P.E.I.
birders report net results, happy hyacinths and more
The Year to Get a Gardener’s
Goat Kung
Hei Fat Choi – a Happy and Prosperous New Year. It was the Emperor Huang Ti
who, in 2600 BC according to tradition, introduced the Chinese lunar calendar
and the first cycle of the zodiac. A dozen beasts are involved with an excellent
choice for gardeners, the goat heading up 2003.
Excellent because the goat represents all that is elegant and artistic in
Chinese culture. What else should one expect from gardening? But if environmentalists have their way, not much.
They would agree with the Duc de Saint-Simon observing with jaundiced eye the
landscaping efforts of his sovereign, Louis XV: “It diverted him to ride roughshod over nature and use his
money and ingenuity to subdue it to his will.” Something strange and new has been emerging from
the horticultural undergrowth though. Resistance is growing as the commissars of
gardening correctness become increasingly desperate to ram their odious ideology
onto the landscape. Lawn care professionals and garden maintenance contractors
have long warned that under when pathogens reach plague proportions, chemical
controls are required. Apparently this message got through to Ontario
homeowners this past season. Faced with loss of lawns and gardens, especially
from grubs and diseases, along with inclement weather, they called for
professional aid, not ranting greenies. The net result for the lawn care sector
was their busiest and most profitable year ever, confounding the seers of doom
and gloom. Perhaps this caused the increasing virulence at
municipal public meetings where the possible bans to pesticide use on both
private and public land was discussed. Like it or not, Toronto is the largest
urban municipality in the country and is seen as the key by proponents and
opponents to pesticides alike. To paraphrase the quotation, “what is good for
Toronto is good for the country.” Despite pressure from environmentalists, in
a lead up to the main act, a proposed ban of leaf blowers was blown away by
Toronto city council. Thoroughly alarmed, the environmental lobby agreed to drop
everything else to concentrate on the “pesticide issue.” Meanwhile, an apparently hibernating horticultural
industry had roused itself, refusing to roll over and surrender to gasping
greenies. Representatives appeared before every committee and public meeting to
present the professional viewpoint and offer a solution to please the real
stakeholders, the average homeowner. At this the compost really hit the fan.
According to reports from an Oakville, Ontario, municipal meeting, a local
anti-pesticide resident accused lawn care operatives of threatening her, along
with many other residents she knew. Oakville’s mayor immediately demanded a
police investigation, to which industry representative Ken Pavely wholeheartedly
agreed. If the accusations prove untrue he says, however, the person making the
allegations must be prosecuted. Obviously everyone is increasingly concerned with
the environment. Or are they? Could it merely be a very vocal minority who have
gained the media’s attention? It appears strange that while demands for
professional spraying services increase, interest in television’s The Green
Channel is so low that, according to surveys, at any given minute it has
less than a hundred viewers. This is the lowest of any of the 57 digital
channels available in Canada. The Lonestar channel, featuring nothing but
westerns, has 13,000 viewers per minute, the same surveys found. Perhaps Ken
Pavely is the horticultural industry’s Lawn
Ranger. Stay tuned.
St. Phocas Follow-Up Ghastly
fate for the gardening saint Regular readers will recall back last summer we ran
a feature on saints associated with horticulture. Prominent among them was St.
Phocas the Gardener. Little is known about this early Christian martyr and
recent archaeological excavations at the village of Ciftik on Turkey’s Black
Sea coast have not done much to improve things. All that can be safely stated about Phocas,
according to Donald Attwater in the Penguin Dictionary of Saints, is that
there was a martyr by that name “who suffered at Sinope in Pontus.” A
sanctuary was to be found there and he was “widely venerated.” According to
Bishop Asterius of Amaseia in the same region, preaching early in the 4th
century, Phocas was a market gardener and devout Christian. For reasons the
bishop does not give, he fell foul of the Romans who ruled the area and soldiers
were sent to execute him. Arriving at his cottage but not recognizing the
gardener, they inquired as to his whereabouts. Phocas assured them there victim
would be available for them the following morning. Meanwhile, he invited them in
to dine and sleep. This allowed him time overnight to dig his own grave, which
he duly filled when he revealed his identity. The soldiers, said Asterius,
carried out their orders and very regretfully beheaded him. In the early 1990s, chance discovery of pieces of
Roman mosaic washing up on ther seashore at Ciftik revealed to investigating
officials from Sinop Museum that a church dedicated to St. Phocas must be
nearby. The site was quickly identified in what has been a valley bottom, now at
the edge of the sea. A specialist in early Byzantine archaeology, Dr. Stephen
Hill of the University of Warwick, U.K., was invited in to excavate the remains
of the gardener’s church. Alas, it was, says Dr. Hill, “built on a very
unlucky site.” Barely had construction of the church commenced when and
earthquake hit, destroying the south side and blocking the tomb of St. Phocas
himself. Then the dangers of building at the bottom of a valley were discovered
the hard way when, soon after the mosaics were installed, the entire church
became flooded. The finale came when a second earthquake hit just as the church
was receiving its fittings. At this the construction crew gave up in defeat.
St. Phocas’ Church was given over to the manufacturer of pottery. Mother
Nature, however, had not finished. It appears that a landslide swept over the
building, causing more major destruction and it as abandoned to road makers for
salvage of what materials they could. As a final indignity, the discovery of
poppy seeds and a broken pipe indicates that, archaeologists believe, the
surviving porch became an opium smokers’ den. According to Dr. Hill, the site is simply so
unstable that visitors will never be allowed to visit. Indeed, great cracks have
appeared and it has been necessary to lift the remaining mosaic to safety at the
Sinop Museum. This is in the city of that name on the east side of Cape Ince,
about halfway along the south shore of the Black Sea. For Information on travel
in Turkey go to www.turkey.org Brighten
Up the Winter Home with Hyacinths “If you are a regular flower buyer, do something
a little different this winter,” recommends
Carol Cowan. “Try a few pots of flowers instead. They last much longer
than cut flowers which are, in fact, already at the end of their life span the
minute they are cut from their ‘mother’ plant.’ Carol Cowan should know. Representing the Netherlands Flower Bulb
Information Centre, an organization for professional horticulturists in Canada,
she is truly a gardening guru of long standing – and kneeling. “Buying potted flower bulbs is actually an act of
faith,” she says, “especially if you buy them when there is little else to
see in the pot other than a few leaves and green-sheathed buds.” However, to
obtain maximum, long-lasting enjoyment this is the stage at which to purchase
them, not when they are in full bloom and already enjoyed by the grower or
florist. Purchasing when the buds are barely visible gives up to three weeks of
bulb bliss – and a reminder that spring is just around the corner. And what flower is best at this other than the
deliciously scented hyacinth? Each hyacinth flower contains about 50 florets
which commence rather pale, and then mature over a few days into their true
colours. “From January to March potted Hyacinths are available in all their
colours: pink, blue, purple, white and more recently pale yellow and even
red,” says Cowan. “They are all different, some have taller flowers, others
are short, but common to all Hyacinths is their embodiment-of-spring
fragrance.” Apparently, growers in the Netherlands have
recently been working on a fragrance code, according to Cowan, so that people
can select their hyacinths not just for their colours, but also for their
potency of the fragrance. There are there categories of fragrance: strong,
medium and light, with most varieties belonging to the ‘light’ group. Preliminary research results have yielded the
following examples: Hyacinths with a Light Fragrance: ‘Pink Pearl’ (bubble gum pink), ‘White Pearl
(snowy white),’Bleu Jacket’ (dark blue with a purple stripe on each petal)
and ‘City of Haarlem’ (soft, primrose yellow) Hyacinths with a Medium Fragrance: ‘Atlantic’ (amethyst-violet), ‘Jan Bos’
(fuchsia-red) and ‘Anne Marie’ (soft pink) Hyacinths with a Strong Fragrance: ‘Delft Blue’ (soft, lilac-blue) If the program is a success, says Cowan, Canadians
can most likely look forward to finding fragrance information printed on the
sleeves of potted Hyacinths in about three years We Get Catalogues Do
doubt about it – everybody’s getting on the Web and seed and plant suppliers
are no exception. But for us oldsters it is always nice to renew memories of
what it is to wrap your hands around the real thing. Better yet, it makes great
reading in bed even if the spouse does complain of being neglected. Two
of the best arrived recently, both also available in electronic from: Veseys (www.veseys.com)
and Grimo Nut Nursery (www.grimonut.com).
Veseys of Prince Edward Island have been known to almost three-quarters of a
century of Down East gardeners. In the past few decades, their fame has spread
as gardeners looking for short-season vegetables and flowers in particular have
discovered Bev Simpson, his family and enthusiastic employees.
More
recently, Veseys have branched out – of that is the right phrase – into
bulbs also, along with perennial plants and other more specialized offerings. In
the veggies though, how about ‘Kaleidoscope’ Swiss Chard with stalks of not
just white or red, but also yellow, salmon, and light green? Or for those with
ambitions in the pumpkin department, seeds of the famed ‘Atlantic Giant’
which has produced at least one 1,337-pound pumpkin! You
get the hint when you spot their phone/fax numbers: 905-YEH-NUTS. In fact, to
many nuts and Grimo are one and the same when it comes to shelling out for . . .
oops – it’s catching. Increased popularity has its price though, and in this
case some trees have become so popular that Grimo is forced to take orders up a
year in advance. Fanciers in south-central Ontario will find it a pleasant drive
close to Niagara-on-the-Lake and for others there are reliable and economical
shipping arrangements. Grimo
offers useful advice also. Where else could you learn that if you fancy the
edible pine nuts of Siberian or Korean pines (Pinus cembra ‘Sibirica’
and P. koraiensis respectively) should be planted with a spadeful of soil
from under an old pine to inoculate the roots?
Besides all manner of nuts, there are also mulberry, persimmon, paw paw and even edible fig.
Net Results of Winter Protection
on P.E.I. Outside
of Anne of Green Gables, most Canadians associate Prince Edward Island with
potatoes and, more recently, pork barreling. A birder who wants to banish
netting from gardens winter and summer alike now joins these. Writing in the Island
Naturalist, David Seeler tells of his experiences with protective wrap
around his junipers and hungry Bohemian waxwings. Having
finished up wild berries elsewhere those on Seeler’s evergreens attracted
their attention last winter. As with so many Canadian gardeners, he had elected
to wrap these shrubs in two-centimetre mesh netting to prevent possible damage
from heavy snowfalls. Not fastening it at the base, he found to his horror that
the waxwings were getting trapped inside. Despite cutting several large holes as
“easier access and exit ports,” four birds become entangled in the netting,
two of them with fatal results. As
a result of this Seeler wants us to wrap our winter evergreens in burlap or very
fine meshed green cloth. Not content to rest on his laurels – or junipers –
he also instructs us to “be
careful in your selection of netting to protect gardens or fruit-producing trees
in summer.” City Gardening has covered the bird scene for many
years. Perhaps PEI birds are less used to common garden practices, but we have
never heard of such incidents elsewhere. Our
recommendation is to avoid getting into a flap over minor incidents and secure
the bottom of the netting firmly around the trunks. As for burlap, regular
readers know our feelings on the matter – check last month’s edition.
Floral
Hotspots The in-phrase to be heard amongst ecologists and
others these days is “biodiversity hotspots.” Just over two dozen small
areas scattered around the world International contain almost half of our plant
species and a third of the vertebrates. The Washington-based Conservation
analyzed these a couple of years ago and the expanded version of this at atlas
is now available online. A click of the mouse lifts you to threatened flora of
New Zealand, the coast forests of Brazil, California, West Africa, the great
island Madagascar onwards Check it out at www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/Hotspots Pesticide
Bylaws The rest of Canada is inclined to view Toronto as a
modern-day Sodom-on-the-Lake, luxuriating in unseeingly splendor on the lush
banks of the Gomorrah. Appalling perhaps but pretty hard to ignore, and never
more so as its dysfunctional council
attempt to come to a consensus on pest control and the use of pesticides
for immoral purposes. Whatever they decide is likely to become the blueprint for
municipalities large and small from sea to sullied sea. Dr. Sheela Basrur,
medical officer of health for the city, drew up a report optimistically entitled
Finding Common Ground, released last November. This will be mauled and
manhandled through this winter by various city committees and is available at
www.toronto.ca/health. Leading the charge against Dr. Basrur is the Pest
Control Safety Council of Canada (PCSCC), which can be accessed at www.pestcontrolsafety.org.
Threatened
North American Plants When our American cousins do something it is rarely
by halves. Their federal Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an almost frightening example of efficiency that
Ottawa attempts to emulate. Unfortunately the poor bungleaucrats of Bytown have
let gathered enough energy to make easily available which of the many Canadian
plants are threatened. Not so the data base established by the USDA, which
co-operates with individual states to list endangered plants south of the
border, along with descriptions, ranges and correct nomenclature. Go to
www.plants.usda.gov/cgl_bin/topics.sgi?earl=threat.html Landscape
Plant Info for Ontario Filled with information on ornamental plant
production, fertility and pest management and aimed at professionals in the
plant nursery, landscaping and garden centre businesses, the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture and Food (OMAF) maintains a web site that can be accessed by
amateurs seeking information also. And why not – it is your tax dollars also.
Like much of government, it is somewhat of a mouthful but unlike most
bureaucratic endeavours, well worth investigating. http://www.gov.on.ca/omafra/english/crops/hort/nursery.html Weather
Effects Ottawa’s Kyoto Clowns are regarded with some
amusement by most true gardeners, more experienced at the vagaries of the
weather than the ostriches of Ottawa. One must admit though it is frequently
more comfortable – and often safer – to be able to observe such on the
monitor. Harald Edens is in graduate school in atmospheric physics at the New
Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro but his passion appears to
be pics of weather. Reminds us of the meteorologist who could look into a
girl’s eyes and predict whether . . . www.weather-photography.com January
Horticultural Happenings Toronto
Field Naturalist Outings Free guided walks; children welcome but please no
pets; all are TTC accessible; dress according to weather, bring beverage,
camera, notebook and binoculars’ more 416-593-2656 or www.sources.com/tfn *8 January Allan Gardens Heritage Walk – meet 1
p.m. at conservatory entrance, south side Carlton, east of Jarvis; walk will end
at 3 p.m. 11 January Nature in The City Urban Geology
– meet 1:30 p.m. nw corner Queen & University; wlak will end at the Royal
York Hotel. *14 January Prospect Cemetery Trees &
Shrubs in Winter – meet 10 a.m. cemetery entrance St. Clair W opposite
Lansdowne; walk ends at 1 p.m. 19 January Lost Meanders of the Don Urban
Ecology – meet 2 p.m. ne corner Wueen E and River St; walk ends at
Riverdale Farm 26 January Eastern Lakeshore & Highland
Creek Nature Walk – meet 11 a.m. se corner Guidwood Parkway &
Morningside Drive; bring binoculars, snack and a hot drink. * very highly recommended Civic
Garden Centre A well-established organization ‘helping people grow.’ Edwards Gardens, 777 Lawrence Ave. E. at Leslie St., Toronto; for information oncourses, special events telephone: 416-397-1340; fax: 416-397-1354; e-mail: civicgardencnetre@infogarden.ca Mycological
Society of Toronto Meetings on mushrooms and “forays” to look for
them; more information 416-444-9053 High
Park Sunday Walks Meet 1:15 p.m. south of the Grenadier Restaurant; a
$2 donation is requested; more 416-392-1748 Toronto
Entomologists’ Association 25 January monthly meeting, 1 p.m. Room 119,
Northrop Frye Hall, 73 Queen’s Park Cres. E.;: ‘Insects of the Haliburton
Forest’ Ontario
Rock Garden Society 12 January meeting at Civic Garden Centre, 777
Lawrence Ave East, Toronto commences with plant sale at 12:30 followed by
speaker at 1:30 p.m.: Larry Davidson “Treasures of Lost Horizons.” Visitors
welcome Nature
Wildlife Federation Travel Trips For more information, call 1-800-696-9563, visit www.nwf.org/expedtions 8
– 16 February “The Green Route” of Northern Honduras: from Rain Forests to
Reefs; US$1,925 7
– 21 April Suriname Explorer, Nature and Cultural History US$2,990 Allan
Gardens Until 6 January, Victorian Christmas with topiary from the Nutcracker; South side Carleton Street between Jarvis and Sherbourne Streets; open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekends and holidays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; further information 416-392-7288 Centennial
Park Conservatory Three greenhouses with a total of more than 12,000
square feet of interesting and changing plant collections. 151 Elmcrest Road.
Open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information at 416-392-8543 Cloud
Garden Conservatory A walk-through greenhouse that recreates the lush
tropical foliage of a Costa Rican cloud forest. South side of Richmond Street,
between Yonge and Bay Streets. Open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
(closed on holidays). More information from 416-392-7288
Gardening
in the Headlines A
round-up of the past few weeks news of interest to gardeners §
In a
gesture of generosity, federal Environment Minister David Anderson announces
just over a half-million dollars for projects across the province, including one
in Toronto to test the effectiveness of rooftop gardens in reducing storm water
runoff. Proof presumably that not all taxpayers’ dollars are washed down the
drain. §
Fountains
enhance public places and many private gardens. Now, thanks to Gianluca Li Puma
at the University of Nottingham, U.K., fountains can purify water by spraying it
in an umbrella pattern over a film of titanium oxide and allowing the ultra
violet in sunlight to destroy pathogens and poisons. “It will look pretty
too,” he says, according to New Scientist magazine. Lawns §
Saddam
Hussein’s Al-Sajoud Palace on a bend in the Tigris River of western Baghdad is
not likely place environmentalists would wish to experience. Journalists visiting
the joint in early December reported sweeping lawns and vast beds of yellow and
pink roses, all no doubt artificially irrigated and fertilized given the Iraqi
climate. §
“The
activists are fighting to save the environment but somehow they’ve been
mislead into viewing us as the enemy.” Mike Ufkes, former chair, Lawn Care
Commodity Group, Landscape Ontario Trees §
The
Israeli Defence Ministry investigates newspaper reports that thousands of olive
trees have been illegally sold by contractors preparing a new defensive wall.
The trees, owned by Palestinians, were supposed to be relocated on to land
chosen by the owners. §
Macleans magazine discovers in
December an enemy from Asia, the emerald ash borer, is devestating Fraxinus
trees in Michigan and around Windsor, Ontario. Clear-cutting on urban streets is
the only answer along with imposing strict quarantines. Here, as elsewhere, this
was reported many months previously. §
A pair
of Pittosporum tanianum trees unique to the New Caledonia island of
Lepredour in the Pacific have been rediscovered after listed as extinct thanks
to introduced rabbits chowing down on them. §
Bees in
trees discourage wild African elephants from wreaking havoc, and may even save
the lives of the increasing numbers of innocent people crushed to death each
year, according to Fritz Goliath at the University of Oxford, who has been
experimenting with hives of the aggressive African bee Apis mellifera
africana in Kenya §
Scott
Peterson of the alternative weakly NOW discovers to his very vocal dismay
after bicycling through Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery, that qualified
experts of many years’ experience actually have the audacity to order
overgrown trees removed instead of continuing on naturally, as if they were in a
forest. Chief arborist Jack Radecki must be grateful for Petersen’s proffered
advice. Roses §
Next to
orchid lovers, rosarians are the true fanatics of the horticultural world. But a
Black Rose Club, co-founded by Jack McGeorge, a UN weapons inspector in Iraq?
Alas, before we whip up a frenzy of excitement accompanied by requests begging
for details of membership, it turns out that Mr. McGeorge and his fellow
fanciers are into sadomasochism . . . A
rose is a rose is not always a rose. §
The oil
painting entitled Gather ye Rosebuds while ye may, created in 1909 by
British artist John William Waterhouse and discovered last year in an Ontario
farmhouse, fails to reach the agreed on price at Christie’s auction house in
London England. It was expected to fetch at least $7.3-million but bidding only
reached $2.9-million, not enough, the Canadian owners said. Flowers §
Arson is
suspected as the flower shop owned by former royal butler Paul Burrell in Holt,
North Wales, goes up in flames. Firethorn, Pyracantha, perhaps? §
Assuring
good luck during the coming year, revelers at Rio de Janeiro’s Reveilon New
Year’s beach bash cast flowers into the waves to propitiate the goddess of the
sea §
The
‘Orchid King’ of China, Yang Bin, second richest man in the Celestial
Kingdom two years ago, worth US$1.2-billion in a fortune founded on flowers, now
languishes in jail facing charges of fraud, bribery and tax evasion. Ironically,
the orchid, along with the plum blossom tree, bamboo and chrysanthemum are
regarded in China as the “four virtuous gentlemen.” §
To the
great delight of biology students, many orchid blooms mimic female wasps and
bees so successfully, they fool the males into attempting to copulate, and in so
doing pollinating the plants. Unfortunately while this may be great for the
orchid, but male thynnine wasps are so bamboozled by the ersatz females that
they neglect the genuine article, report scientists in Proceedings of the
Royal Society of London B Down in the Vegetables §
Late
potato blight, Phytophthora infestans, is growing more virulent than ever
but scientists believe that genetic engineering offers the only possible
solution. Of course, muses John Helgeson, a U.S. Agricultural Research Service
plant pathologist, “getting McDonald’s to accept a ‘transgenic’ potato
is another matter.” §
Villagers
in northeastern Turkey are issued with ammunition to protect their gardens from
invading wild boars, forced out of their wild haunts by bitter winter weather.
In Canada, we would call them environmentalists. Fruit & Nuts §
“An
orange fell in my turban,” is the Danish expression for unexpected good luck,
reports travel writer Cleo Paskall in the National Post. She doesn’t
know why, either. §
According
to New Scientist magazine, wild pineapple fruit is eaten on the ground
where it has fallen by various wild animals, which in the process spread its
seeds. But the magazine doesn’t explain how the seeds then get high into the
tree on which the pineapple plants grow . . . Spices and Herbs §
Distributor’s
of ginseng products are raising the wrath of legislators and consumer watchdogs
alike, reports the Smithsonian magazine, but this hasn’t “cooled the
red-hot market in wild American ginseng,” writes David Taylor, who notes that
in the space occupied by a single Christmas tree one can raise up to US$4,000
worth of wild ginseng. Houseplants §
“Jennifer
Sloane, the FinMin’s communications director, wouldn’t know a bond issue
from a bonsai,” Frank, 12
December 2002 Issue 392 p.6 Bugs and Gardeners §
News
from B.C.’s interior takes time to reach us, hence the two-month
delay in reporting a 27-hectare spider web whipped up by billions of Halorates
lsenius spiders near the village of McBride, on the upper reaches of the
Fraser River. Fascinating for some, but perhaps an area to be avoided by those
sufferers of arachnophobia. §
“They
are growing like fungus,” quote Canadian-born actor William Shatner, a.k.a. Star
Trek’s Captain Kirk of the futuristic fans or ‘Trekkies’ or the cult
sci-fi series. Spores in space? §
Gardeners
bothered by deer damage might follow the suggestion of the West Japan Railway
Company who, bothered by the animals bashing their brains out against
locomotives, are spraying the tracks with water laced with lion dung as a
deterrent. §
Male Antistrophus
rufus wasps on the Illinois prairie find their female partners concealed
inside compass plants thanks to the female’s ability to alter the ratios of
monoterpenes within the plant, the chemicals that cause the plant to smell,
reports John Tooker of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. §
A pair
of Oxford University researchers report in the journal Nature that they
have succeeded in photographing and analyzing butterflies in free flight,
revealing patterns that astound aeronautical engineers. Weeds §
Monsanto,
the agr0-chem colossus and Chemical Products Technology, a generic herbicide
manufacturer, decide there is no percentage in paying off lawyers and agree to
drop lawsuits regarding Roundup and ClearOut weedkillers. Compost §
Over
2,000 Ontario farmers queried on new legislation aimed at controlling pollution
from livestock manure spreading agreed but required financial help to comply. If
there is so much of it, home gardeners are left to puzzle out why the price for
the stuff isn’t being reduced. Gardening in the City §
Toronto
Mayor Mel Lastman announces that although city bungleaucrats were wrong to name
the Nathan Phillips Square Christmas tree a “Holiday tree,’ their “hearts
were in the right place.” Too bad their brains were not. §
The
gnome year ended with police in Stoney Creek, Ontario, discovering 40 gnomes
around the old city hall there. Believed stolen from local gardens, the
constabulary are baffled as what to do with the statues. Might we suggest
sending them to Nome, Alaska or check
www.lpaonline.org? §
Bonnie
Rapus of King City, Ontario, discovers a U.S. weather balloon bobbing on her
backyard hedge and is evacuate with her two children from the house until police
can confirm there is no danger. Inventions §
Professor
Stephen Salter of the University of Edinburgh receives a quarter-million dollars
to develop a rainmaking turbine for operation in desert areas adjoining the sea.
If it becomes as dry as they claim, perhaps it would also work for the Great
Lakes. Fertilizer §
The
Philippine federal government bans the importation of the fertilizer ammonium
nitrate, which terrorists from Kansas to Kuwait have found useful to boost their
bombs. §
Mighty
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of
fertilizer cries the blues after disastrous agricultural conditions afflict its
farmer customers. Bright light on the horizon: China signs an agreement to
purchase potash in “large volumes.” Science and the Gardener §
The
calamity of Bangladesh’s arsenic-poisoned water wells has at least in part
been caused by vast quantities of water removed by agricultural pumping, reports
hydrologist Charles Harvey of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a
paper published by the journal Science. §
The U.S.
government orders a half-million bushels of soybeans possibly contaminated by
corn genetically engineered to produce drugs and “pharmed” in Iowa and
Nebraska by Texas-based ProdiGene, who are on the hook for an estimated
US$3-million as a result. §
Mexican
scientists are convinced they have proof positive that transgenic corn is
present in Oaxaca state but researchers elsewhere have “harshly criticized the
methodology” of the original study at the University of California, Berkley,
according to the journal Science as the controversy continues. §
Most
animals cannot see colours at night but researchers at Lund University, Sweden
have demonstrated that nocturnal elephant hawkmoths (Delephila elpenor)
can pick out yellow or blue artificial flowers under conditions resembling a
starry but moonless night. §
Sixty
per cent of oxygen is produced by cyanobacteria one of which, Prochlorococcus
marinus, is the most abundant of any species on the planet. The smallest
photosynthetic organism known, points out Elmars Krausz, of Canberra, Australia
in New Scientist, “it was only discovered in 1988.” §
Thanks
to accelerated melting of the polar ice caps, the planet is now shaped more like
a pumpkin, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California, and the Royal Observatory of Belgium report, apparently more proof
of a global warming trend. Middle age spread perhaps? Travel §
The
Globe and Mail
‘s travel writer Laszlo Buhasz appears to lack horticultural knowledge when he
states that by visiting the Welchman Gully National Park, it is “as close as
you’ll get to see what pre-colonial Barbados must have looked like . . . a
dense forest of tropical plants and trees, including nutmeg, bamboo, clove and
palms.” Weather §
The high
winds of southern California known as the Santa Ana batter the Los Angeles area,
leaving Hollywood, which has know holly trees but plenty of palms, littered
wither their fallen fronds. §
Hundreds
of Australian women from the state of Victoria are said to be preparing to head
for the outback next March, before the next crop planting season, there to doff
their clothes and conduct a rain dance to break the worst drought of a century.
Note to similarly concerned ladies of Alberta and Saskatchewan: before doffing
dudds in rural areas for the same purpose, remember the Great Canadian Mosquito. §
Snowstorms,
mild spells and rain in May for southwest Saskatchewan, forecasts retired farmer
Gus Wickstrom after examining the spleens of 31 freshly slaughtered pigs. The
Romans also forecast omens from entrails. Either way, we’re not squealing. §
Members
at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union learn that predicted
climate changes will not proceed as smoothly as the graphs suggest but, instead,
will likely be abrupt and extremely irregular. “Nature never does anything
smoothly,” said Dr. Richard Alley, formerly the chairman of American National
Research Council’s Panel on Abrupt Climate Change. Law §
Alberta
farmer Jim Chatenay, jailed for selling his grain himself in defiance of the
Wheat Board monopoly, is released after 23 days in prison. §
And,
later, all the other Alberta farmers imprisoned in Lethbridge for daring to
defying Ottawa’s bureaucracy and sell their own grain have now been released. §
‘Farmers
for Justice,’ who are battling the monopolistic commissars of the Canada Wheat
Board and went to jail for their defiance, are continuing the good fight, with a
rally planned this month says Jim Ness in Calgary. §
In less
than a week last November, Hamilton, Ontario, police seized $192,000 in
hydroponic equipment and 6,000 marijuana plants while raiding ‘growhouses’
in the city. §
Hydroponic
indoor farming of marijuana has become very big business in the Greater Toronto
Area (GTA), with some legal eagles estimating 10,000 houses being used for the
purpose. The resulting crops are mostly exported south to the U.S. making Canada
the “Colombia of the North” in exporting drugs. §
A
24-year-old Oakville man picks a poor time to pilfer a pine from a local park to
use as a Christmas tree, being caught in the act by an off-duty Toronto
policeman exercising his police-dog partner. Business §
A poll
indicates that 60% of Canadians believe farmers should be allowed to grow
genetically modified crops without interference by government agencies. §
Argentina’s
economic chaos results in an advertising campaign on television and in
newspapers to persuade farmers to exchange several tonnes of soybeans, wheat or
corn for vehicles, farm machinery, fertilizers and pesticides they require. §
Banning
pesticides for ornamental landscape use in Ontario will cost 30,000 jobs, 1,300
small businesses and $200 million in sales, warns horticultural association
Landscape Trades. Kyoto Kafuffles §
Greg
Weston of The Toronto Sun, questions how effective Canada’s
contribution to Kyoto can be when we account for 2% of global greenhouse gas
emissions and agree to reduce these by 0.06% in the next decade. By comparison,
he points out, the U.S. along with unaffected countries such China and India
spew out 75% of all such emissions. Environment §
Nova
Scotia environment inspectors receive a guidebook instructing them how to apply
laws they supposedly already are familiar with. §
The
annual Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario convention announces they are
embracing the European “multi-functional countryside” in which a surcharge
is levied on locally produced food since farmer are, they claim, ecological
custodians of the environment. §
The
World Food Program feeds GM corn to starving Zambians in southern Africa because
the organization says it has no other stocks. §
Massive
peat bogs underlying Indonesia’s forests are drying out as a result of
agricultural activities, then burning to release a billion tonnes greenhouse gas
carbon dioxide this year, equal to about 15 per cent of all CO2 released into
the atmosphere during the same period. Health §
Toronto
Councillor Norm Kelly asks for health foods such as broccoli and other fresh
vegetables served as snacks at meetings of the Board of Health meetings, of
which he is a member, along with fresh fruits, green tea and whole-wheat
crackers, instead of the usual pop, cookies and chicken sandwiches. §
“Antibodies
to West Nile virus have been found in non-migratory birds in Britain,” reports
New Scientist magazine, optimistically adding that the risk there is
believed low, “given the cold climate and relatively few mosquitoes.” Sure,
just like here in Ontario. §
According
to the World Health Organization the top 10 risk factors causing disease and
death are: being underweight; unsafe sex; high blood pressure; tobacco; alcohol;
lack of clean water and sanitation; iron deficiency; indoor smoke from fires;
high cholesterol; and obesity. Pesticide pollution, so beloved by
environmentalists, didn’t make the list. §
The
havoc of hay fever may be controlled without drugs by an effective nose filter
developed by an Australian team at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in
Sydney works, reports New Scientist magazine. Successfully tested, it is
two years away from marketing.
Horticultural
Humour The businesswoman ordered a fancy floral
arrangement for the grand opening of her new outlet, and she was furious when it
arrived adorned with a ribbon which read, “May You Rest In Peace.” Apologizing profusely, the florist finally got he
got her to calm down with the reminded that in some funeral home stood an
arrangement bearing the words “Good Luck in Your New Location.” Top countries with the largest areas of forest Russia
7,659,120 sq. km. Canada 4,940,000
sq.km. Brazil
4,880,000 sq.km. U.S.
2,959,900 sq.km. Congo
1,738,000 sq.km. Australia
1,450,000 sq.km. China
1,304,960 sq.km. Indonesia
1,117,740 sq.km. Peru
848,000 sq.km. India
685,000 sq.km.
Source: The Top 10 of Everything [Metro, 17 May, 2001] Ontario
Forests Ontario has a total area of over one million square
kilometres. Of this, approximately 74 percent is forested Toronto lies within the deciduous or Carolinian
Forest region, occupies less than one percent of Canada's land mass, but is now
home to more than 25 percent of Canada's population According to the Ministry of Natural Resources in
Ontario, this region covers more than three million hectares, but less than 15
percent is forest. Tree species such as the Kentucky coffee tree,
sassafras, flowering dogwood and several varieties of oak grow here, says the
MNR report on the province's forest resources (www.mnr.gov.on.ca). With its rich forests and warm climate, several
unique wildlife species such as opossum and red-bellied woodpecker are present.
However, these deciduous forest fragments have been modified by human
activities.
- Metro, 24 July, 2000
Death by Snowmobile
The most common ways Canadians die in snowmobile accidents:
1. Colliding with trees
2. Colliding with
other snowmobiles
3. Falling through ice
4. Struck by cars
while crossing roads
5. Struck by trains
while crossing grades
6. "Clotheslined"
by barbed wire
7. Colliding with
embankments
8. Colliding with
signs `
9. Driving into open
water
10. (tie) Going head-over
handlebars after hitting swampland or mud;
Hypothermia after snowmobile breaks down - National Post, 24 February, 2000 Deciduous
Trees Are Alive Here is some information for city dwellers who are
unfamiliar with the strange ways of nature. Kathleen Truran has a friend who
succumbed to a promotional offer of free trees on the back of her Alpen cereal
packet. She duly collected the appropriate number of tokens and sent off for
some silver birch trees. When they arrived, each tree was individually packed
with planting instructions that included the statement: "This tree is
deciduous. It is not dead. Leaves will appear in spring."
- Opinion Feedback, New Scientist, 22 April, 2000 No 2235 Deciduous
Trees Defoliated? A while ago we reported on a horticultural company
that reminded people that the trees it
mailed out were not necessarily dead if they didn't have leaves, but were
deciduous and would sprout leaves in spring (22 April). This reminded reader
Mike Ellis of a time one winter when he was touring Massachusetts by bus.
After passing miles and miles of bare tree, the woman sitting next to him
said: "Aren't the trees strange? Do you think they use a defoliant?"
It turned out that she had been raised in southern California and had never seen
a large stand of deciduous trees before. She had, however, seen YV film of the
effects of chemicals unleashed by US forces on the forests of South-East Asia
during the Vietnam War
- Opinion Feedback, New Scientist, 8 July, 2000 No. 2246 Surviving
the Long Nights: How Plants Keep Their Cool Researchers are exploring
plants’ hidden strategies for surviving the cold months – such as the Douglas fir
that remains green but stops photosynthesis When winter creeps in, casting a mottled sky and
raw wind, most of earth’s residents take cover. But plants are stuck outside.
With nowhere to turn, then plant kingdom has developed its own strategies for
surviving – and even suing – the cruel cold season. At the recent American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB)
meeting in Denver, scientists reported new research showing just how complex
those strategies can be. “What happens when plants acclimate for the
winter?” asked University of Colorado (US), Boulder, ecophysiologist Barbara
Demmig-Adams at the meeting. Her answer: It depends on the pant. Demmig-Adams
described a new study in which she, fellow UC Boulder ecophysiologist and
husband William Adams, and their colleagues compared winter survival strategies
among more than a dozen plant species growing in Colorado’s Flatiron
Mountains. The changes induced by cold ranged form slight to
severe. During the study, for instance, the researchers documented a mountain Douglas fir and a weed, Malva, growing side by side and sharing the same
frigid days – but reacting in very different ways. Despite being an evergreen,
or a plant that keeps sunlight absorbing green chlorophyll year-round, the
Douglas fir actually shut down photosynthesis during winter to sop growing. At
the same time, the fir regulated cartenoid pigments – such as zeaxanthin and
lutein – to help shed any absorbed sunlight as heat. By contrast, the scrappy Malva
kept right on growing through winter, using every above-freezing chance to
photosynthesize at full blast. The fir’s radical strategy is an adaptation to
lower temperatures, which impeded normal metabolic processes. “Shutting down
seems to be the way to go to preserve green leaves in the most extreme winter
conditions,” remarks William Adams. Whereas short-lived plants such as Malva
and winter cereals can survive at intermediate elevations during winter, only
conifers succeed at higher altitudes. By revving up a protective system, the
trees avoid accumulating radical oxygen compounds that would build up in winter
and damage them. In fact, the entire evergreen forests appear to
wait out winter. This hunkering down is reflected in the rate of CO2 uptake and release, shown in
a study of sub-alpine forest in the Rockies, published this spring in Global
Change Biology by US Boulder ecologist Russell Monson and his colleagues. Over 2 years, Monson’s group found that CO2 uptake by the forest
plummeted as winter set in. “Even on days when it was quite warm, with
temperatures approaching 15 to 20C, the forest stayed locked down,” Monson
says. But as soon as spring hit in late April or early May, the forest jumped to
life almost overnight, becoming a huge carbon sponge. “I think it is the true
advantage of being an evergreen: not photosynthesizing year-round, as some
researchers have assumed, but instead being able to ramp up quickly in spring,
to obtain and lot of seasonal carbon and grow,” Munson says. Biennial plants even welcome a winter break,
speakers at the ASPB meeting said. Biennials – including many crops, garden
favourites, and weeds – bloom only in their second season, after exposure to
prolonged cold. Getting this reproductive timing right is critical so that
flowers can attract pollinators and best disperse seeds. In one talk, Richard Amasino, a biochemist at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, described the emerging molecular mechanics
behind “vernalization”: a biennial plant’s use of the cold season as a
timeout, a transition from growing leaves and shoots to preparing for a burst of
spring flowering. “These plants have evolved a way to measure winter and wait
until it’s been cold enough, long enough, to signify spring,” Amasino says. In the past few years, Amasino, Caroline Dean,
associate research director at the John Innes Research Centre in Norwich, U.K.,
and others have been unravelling the biochemistry that causes Arabidopsis
to overwinter and delay flowering. The researchers have found that as cold sets
in, a gene dubbed FRIGIDA promotes the build-up of the flowering locus C
(FLC) transcript, a repressor protein that blocks genes for flowering. After a
period of cold, the plant’s FLC levels drop, allowing flowers to emerge when
temperatures warm. By creating Arabidopsis mutants that flower
off schedule, the team had found a handful of additional vernalization genes.
Dean’s lab last month reported finding the gene VRN1,
which helps shut down FLC so spring flowers can bloom (Sconce, 12
July, p. 243). Dean says that Arabidopsis likely bears a
key set of floral genes that, when activated, switch on flowering, Vernalization
proteins represent just one biochemical pathway that can activate these
flowering genes, she says. Other pathways, lined with proteins that sense the
day’s length (photoperiod), for instance, or developmental change can also
trigger those same genes. “My
view is these sets of pathways have somewhat overlapping functions to reinforce
each other,” Dean says. “So the plant says, ‘I’ve had longer days and
enough cold, so I’m doubly sure it’s O.K. – it’s spring, it’s time to
flower.’” The emerging research could help plant breeders
improve yields of biennial crops such as alfalfa and sugar beets, adds Jan
Zeevaart, a botanist at Michigan State University in East Lansing. With
molecular tools in hand, the science should blossom. – Kathryn Brown, Science,
23 August 2002, vol. 297 p. 1267
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