September 2000

 Tomato Blight Hits Toronto

Cool, Wet Weather Continues To Plague City Gardeners This Season

If any more proof was required as to the wet, cool conditions in this southern Ontario summer, it was noted by mid-august.  Weeks before, the mass merchandisers and supermarkets had closed their optimistic ideas of garden centres.  Then lo and behold, but a few weeks later they were back in the garden business peddling fall chrysanthemums.  The same supermarkets, as well as local grocery stores, were also selling larger than usual quantities of tomatoes to Torontonians.  Added to other woes of urban gardeners came a blight of \parasitical fungus.  This caused the fruit to fail or be extremely slow to ripen. 

Phytophtora infesters are what did in the spuds of Ireland in the 1840’s.  It loves not just spuds and toms, but also much of what botanists know as the Solanaceae.  This includes peppers and eggplants in vegetables, petunias, browallia and nicotiana in flowers, while weeds kick in with nightshade.  This blight, carried by the wind, adores cool, wet climates.”  Just ask any gardeners from either end of the country, Newfoundland and the not inappropriately nicknamed “Wet Coast”.

Nothing to be done now, but clean up any dead or dying plant parts, including nightshades.  Weeds and gardening do not compliment each other. Whatever Thoreau wrote.  For the record, he was too lazy to tend his own garden and like the weeds he encouraged, parasited himself on his more hard-working neighbours.  Some perennial optimists, with Thoreau-like ignorance, are also proclaiming you should rotate your backyard crops.  If your yard is 200 feet wide, it’s a great idea.  If not, forget it.  You require that much separation.  And most rotations call for a four-year cycle.  So increase that to 800 feet.

If you didn’t do so last month, then fertilize the lawn one last time this season.  Dig any weeds out by hand.  The neighbours may think you are down on your hands and knees praying.  When they get closer they will discover the language differs.

Bring out the new fall bulbs and watch the line of squirrels on the fence.  True, Mrs, Simcoe recorded in her diary of the 1790’s that her favourite dish was settlers’ black squirrel stew.  But turn two page two for more practical and less controversial methods of discouraging the furry fiends.  On the same and page three, discover still more about where to buy and what is new in bulbs.  Beware of “bargain basement” selections.  When it comes to purchasing, bear in mind the bigger the bulb the better the bloom.  Those packages peddled by certain hardware chains do not come under this category.

In the perennial border, ruthless eradication of all that is dead or dying is the scheme of things.  No longer only deadheading, but finished foliage as well, then add to the composter.  Elsewhere roses, as the “queen of flowers” expect to be treated differently.  As September draws to a close cease to deadhead and allow the seed head or hip to develop.  This signals the rose bush that season is drawing to a close and it is time to prepare for winter.  It is not necessary to “earth up” for at least a couple more months, however.

Many true garden centres will also be commencing fall sales of their remaining shrubs, evergreens and other stock.  Apart from the age-old maxim, “if you don’t need it it’s not a sale”, ensure that if you must make purchases, the plants are guaranteed at least over the winter.  If the garden centre doesn’t trust it’s stock, why should you?

 Combat Squirrel Cafeterias

Nothing is guaranteed to frustrate a gardener more than having to share expensive and laboriously planted bulbs with tree rats.  Many and intriguing are the ways and means suggested to discourage these little brutes.

Narcissus and Scilla, of daffodils and squill in plain every-day English, are poisonous to squirrels and are instinctively ignored by them. 

We have even heard of gardeners chopping up few up and scattering them over where other perhaps more valued bulbs have been recently planted.

The there are several commercial Deterrents, the best of which we have found to be “Topel”.  This is oil based rather than water-soluble, and so tends to withstand weather for several weeks.

Then there are the “natural“ ways to deter the little blighters.  Shaking the bulbs gently in a paper bag along with finely ground cayenne or chilli pepper before planting is one.  Another is to apply blood meal fertilizer to the soil following planting.  Or cover the bulb beds with wire chicken netting, to be removed the following spring as they emerge.  Mulching with a 6 inch to foot layer of twiggy light deciduous tree branches is a favourite of parks departments.  Not only are the squirrels scared of becoming trapped beneath the branches by dogs but also, used at home it keeps flyer distributors from trampling the beds.

One gardening class student recommended as a final act of desperation to “get a dog, a big dog, a meat eater”.  We hope it doesn’t come to that.

Bulbs From Catalogues

Store help from Canada is renown for its ignorance, if not downright rudeness, unlike out friends to the south, where shopping is a real pleasure.  As well the majority of retail outlets selling bulbs this fall have abysmal selections as bellas horrendously poor quality.

Thanks to two local well-established catalogue companies, you, in the familiar phrase, shop in the comfort of your own home.  Both incidentally offer GTA residents the option of picking up their orders, so avoiding shipping charges and possible problems.

Cruickshanks has been in business for almost eighty years, although the founding family passed over control a couple of decades ago.  Last year they made yet another jump, this time over to Indigo and the electronic age.  This explains the colour of the blooms on those plants offered this fall in their catalogue’s opening pages.  Cute, but there are far more interesting offering further along in this fall’s catalogue, which they will send you for $1.00.  Prices tend to be high with Cruickshanks, but then so is their quality.

Dugald Cameron may not have been around for so long but he has revamped his catalogue this fall to include a greatly expanded selection.  Personally, we’ve found him shall we say a wee bit friendlier.  He is though, strictly a plants man.  No notions or hardware gifts are in the Garden Import catalogue, which is $5.00 for four issues, or two years worth.  Any serious gardener will want to order from both catalogues, or websites as the two compliment each other although with inevitable duplications.

Cruickshanks at Indigo.

1015 Mt Pleasant Rd, Toronto, ON M4P 2M1

80 Navy St., Oakville, ON L6J 2Y9

Tel- (416) 750-9249; 1-800-665-5605

Fax orders (416) 750-8522

www.indigo.ca or www.cruickshank.com

Gardenimport Inc

P.O. Box 760, Thornhill L3T 4A5

Tel (905) 731-1950 Fax (905) 881-3499

Email orders” flower@gardenimport.com

www.gardenimport.com

New Bulbs for Canadian Gardens Available This Fall

 City Gardening has completed a survey based on commercial wholesale sources as to what is new. Exciting, different and interesting being offered in Canada this fall.  No single retail out let is likely to stock every single variety but, unlike books and foreign magazines, these are all known to be distributed through Canadian wholesalers.  We used to like to say advise that it was the early bird that got the worm, until a smart-ass kid inquired if that meant getting up at dawn resulted in infestations of worms.  However leaving it late will only bring disappointment.  So go to it!

 Tulips

All Season – Triumph tulip with large red blooms, white centre; early; 10” recommended for containers

Atlantis – Amethyst-violet petals with ivory edges; late; 24”

Ballerina – “Lily Flowered” tulip with bright orange, fragrant flowers; late; 24” long lasting

Beau Monde – “Triumph” tulips with rose red markings on ivory background; midseason; 22”;

Blue Spectacle – “Double Peony” Tulip with reddish-purple petals; midseason; 22”

Burgundy – “Lily flowered” Tulip with deep purplish violet blooms; midseason; 22”; plant with white, pink and yellow tulips

Cashmir – “Single Late” tulip with cherry red colour; late; 24”; butting

Cum Laude – lilac-blue flowers; mid season; 22”

Flaming Goliath – “Greigii” tulip red, yellow-edged petals; midseason; 18”

High Society – “Triumph” tulip fragrant Salmon edged coral outside, inside yellow; midseason; 16”

Orange Bowl – “Darwin Hybrid” tulip scarlet, yellow flamed with large black centres; midseason; 22”

Orange Lion - “Darwin Hybrid” tulip; orange; midseason; 24” Tulip of the Year!

Patriot - “Single Late” tulip red, white fringed petals; late; 30”; long lasting

Ted Impression - “Darwin Hybrid” tulip with rub-red petals; midseason; 22”

Ted Turner – “Triumph” tulip light yellow petals with darker slash; midseason; 12”

Violet Beauty – amethyst, ivory base; midseason; 18” excellent with Bleeding hearts, also white and pink tulips.

 Daffodils & Narcissus

 Falconets – fragrant early narcissus yellow petals with red cup; 14”

Golden Bells – aka “Yellow Hoop Petticoat”; 8”; early; golden bells from up to 15 stems per bulb

Peaches & Cream – large daffodil, creamy petals and soft pastel peach cup; midseason; 18” very strong

Recurvus – aka “Pheasant’s Eye”; 14”; midseason; scented poeticus daffodil, whiter with red-rimmed yellow cup

 Hyacinths

Blue Pearl – “Specie” Crocus; iridescent blue outside, white inside; very early, 4”

Firefly – “Specie” Crocus; soft violet pink; very early; 4”

 Muscari

Valerie Finnis – light silvery-blue spokes of bloom 6’ high; midseason

 Allium

Ivory Queen – unusual ivory-white balls on 12” stems; midseason

Schubertii – small unusual “spiderish” reddish-purple flowers on 30” stems in June/July

  If you cannot find time to plant immediately store in a cool, dark, dry place such as a basement of garage, in paper bags.  Although earlier planting is preferred, all the above bulbs can be safely left until at least the end of October before planting.  Some professionals claim the end of November is not too late and the writer has planted tulips, but not other bulbs, well into December and still had a respectable display the following spring. 

Each and every spring or even summer though, the cri de Coeur arises: “I forgot to plant my bulbs last fall.  Are they sill any good?”  In a single word I say, “no”.  That is leaving it just a tad too late.  The earlier planted the better though.  The more roots the newly planted bulbs can establish prior to the ground freezing solid, the better.

 Horticultural happenings

Casa Loma Gardens - Free every Tuesday evening through to October from 4 pm to dusk

3 September -  Explore High Park:  meet 1:15 pm south side Drenadier Cafe; $2 donation; more 392-1748

9 September -  Greater Toronto Raptor Watch:  meet 9 a.m. at “Hawk Hill” north end of Grenadier Café parking lot; bring binoculars up to 20 species of hawks, eagles, vultures pass overhead on fall migration; experts present to identify; specimens, displays and much more; great interest for all

16 September -  Bulbs:  a free illustrated talk at Main Street Library 137 Main, South of Gerrard at 2 p.m.

17 September - High Park Native Flora Communities:  meet 1:15 p.m. south side Grenadier Café; $2.00 donation; more information 392-1748

17 September - Herbal Wreaths & Potpourris workshop a Tichters, Hwy 47, Good2wood Ont.  $40.00

18 September - Fungi Fair:  Noon to 9:00p.m.  at civic Garden Centre; for more information dial HI-FUNGI

23-24 September - Harvest Festival at Ocala Orchard Garm Winery, Port Perry’ for more information dial (905) 9859924

 Toronto Field Naturalist Walks

 These guided tours are all  free; dress according to weather children welcome but no pets, please!

 6 September - James Gardens:  meet 10:30 at park entrance on Edenridge Dr., east of Royal York Rd. ?Bring lunch

12 September - High park & lakeshore: meet 10 a.m. at Humber loop of Queen streetcar; wild flowers, migrating birds; bring lunch

16 September - High Park; meet 2 p.m. at park entrance south side of Bloor, opposite High Park Ave.; prairie plant encouraged by burning old growth

20 September - High park meet 10:30 a.m. at park entrance south side of Bloor, opposite High Park Ave.; birds, wild flower, invertebrates

23 September - Music Garden:  Meet 2p.m. southwest corner Queen’s Quay and Spadina;  trees, shrubs, flowers of the new park;  don’t miss this one!

27 September - Charles Asuriol Nature Reserves:  Meet 10:30 a.m. park entrance Lawrence E.  just east of the Don Valley Parkway; nature walk; bring lunch; possibility of witnessing salmon spawning.

Illustrated Talk on

FALL BULBS

By

Wes Porter

Horticulturist, author, columnist

Topics include:

Old favourites and new introductions

Scented bulbs and where to plant them

Discouraging squirrels and other wee beasties

how to buy the best

Where, when and how to plant

All absolutely free…

2 p.m. Saturday, September 16

Main St Library

137 main St.

South of Gerrard St. E and GO Station

1½ blocks south of Main Subway Station

Back by Popular Request

Your guide to basic gardening  & landscaping

Toronto District School Board’s

CITY GARDENING

With

Wes Porter

9 weeks 7-9 p.m. on Wednesdays, October and November.

Profusely illustrated

Specifically developed literature

Trees, shrubs, vines, hedges, roses, evergreens, lawns, ground covers, perennials, bulbs, annuals, herbs, vegetables, fruit, indoor plants, their culture and landscaping in the city

only at Rosedale Heights Secondary School

For more information call (416) 397-3827

Fax (416) 395-3835

visit www.tbsb.on.ca

 The Danforth’s  Marvellous Million Dollar Maple

“You can influence City Hall”: Councillor Tom Jakobek Tells Local Community

 How does a maple become worth a million dollars?  When Danforth Avenue, Toronto, store owners John and Mary Triantifillou set out to save their threatened maple two years ago they never dreamt tit would be worth that much,  Not that it would have make any difference if they had known.  They resided behind an over the store.  Their three children grew up there and played in the yard at the rear, shaded by a large maple tree that grew on their property close to the fence line.  Their problems started with the sale of the neighbouring used car lot next to their Danforth Picture Frames business.  The new owner objected to the 50 year old maple.  On April 20^th, 1998, Gregory Dashwood, lawyer for the new owner, wrote via registered mail to John and Mary Triantifillou:  ”Please consider this notice that Mr. Aurora will be cutting the foliage within thirty (30) days and will provide you with written notice of the specific date.  Should you wish to arrange to cut the foliage yourself, or remove the tree in its entirety, which would be the preferable route, I would ask you please indicate this before the work commences.:

 It has been said that a lawyer knows as much about the law as a prostitute does about love.  It seems extraordinary that one of the Upper Canada Law Society’s legal eagles would not be aware of the Toronto bylaw specifically forbidding such action and consequently encouraging his client to commit an illegal act.  John and Mary took the matter to their lawyer,  On 28 May, 1998 Dashwood, wrote him:  “…I would again ask that you approach your client so we may enter into negotiations relating to the high probability of the demise of the maple tree during the process of construction…”  Strangely enough, almost a year later, on 6 April, 1999, Toronto’s Forestry Services Section received a letter signed by one Harpal Aurora saying “….I believe there is a 99% chance the tree will survive,,,”  John and Mary Triantifillou were also offered a “good luck Plant” by Mr. Aurora to replace their maple, as well as the advice that they should plant fruit trees instead.  Police, as well as an unannounced person wishing to inspect their basement visited them and rumours were spread that they had been kicked out of their city councillor’s office.

 Finally even this patient pair decided enough was enough.  They turned to the surrounding community.  A petition was circulated,  2,500 people signed it.  The National Post’s Joe Fiorito devoted an entire column to their plight.  The Toronto Star made it a major story.  Four community newspapers ran articles.  On the 28 April, 1999, the matter came before Toronto City Council.  The Triantifillou with as may of their supporters were present as well as Mr. Aurora,  The latter received a stinging defeat, written confirmation of this and was advised that a community police officer would call to ensure he understood the council’s decision

 A year later John and Mary paid tribute to the community who had worked to save the maple.  A handsome bronze plaque was cast.  Popular local Councillor Tom Jakobek was asked to unveil it on a sunny August morning.  Newspaper, television and radio crews came in force.  They weren’t disappointed.  Cookies, cakes, coffee and pop were served under the tree’s shade in the rear courtyard.  A musician played favourites on his accordion, prompting many local residents to break into dance.  Finally all gathered on the sidewalk at the front of the store, Councillor Tom Jakobek, who had been the city’s budget Chief, explained to the surprised crowd how their action had started the all rolling,  With the mayor’s enthusiastic approval a million dollars had been added to Toronto’s new tree planting efforts.

 As Councillor Jakobek said, “You can influence City Hall…and it was you that did it.”  Then he tugged at a maple-red curtain, which dropped to reveal the bronze with its message:

 This Plaque is dedicated to the more than 2,500 Members of the Community who signed a petition to save the MAPLE TREE on this property, which was threatened with destruction.

On 28 April, 1999, this petition was presented to Toronto City Council who agreed to take measures to assure the protection of the tree.

 Later Mr. Aurora was noticed reading the wording.  He did not stop to congratulate John and Mary,  but then neither did anyone thank him for initiating a million-dollar increase in Toronto’s tree planting program.

News form a Gardener’s View Point

City Gardening peers at the past month’s mews form Canada and elsewhere

 Science

Japanese researchers determine the means by which lime beans plants under attack by Pathogens communicate this to each other.  They can even differentiate between pest attacks and more basic problems such as being stepped upon.

 Thermophilic algae from the hot springs of Yellowstone Park will live in special filters, which could be installed in coal burning U.S. power stations, according to engineers at Ohio University.  The algae feast on the pollutants in the exhaust wastes.  Large quantities of Algae this produced would be suitable as compost, the engineers hopefully report, or failing that burnt itself for fuel.

 The use of the mildly narcotic betel nut, the fruit of the Areca Palm, is reported as aiding people suffering from schizophrenia, way researchers from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

 French Queen bees, resistant to the varroa mite that is decimation hives, have been imported to mate with male Canadian bees. 

Monsanto has make its “golden rice” biotech free of charge to developing nations there the genetically engineered increasing levels of vitamin “A” will prevent millions of children from becoming blind.,

 Health and Gardeners

 In an ironical reverse, scientists at Health Canada are testing tobacco plant to produce a protein to use against bone cancer.

 Skin patches emitting the scent of vanilla greatly reduce craving for chocolate, “sugary drinks,: and candy, researchers in London, England report.  Wine lovers will be relieved to learn it has no effect on their favourite indulgence.

 Two small boys in California, aged two and three, die from eating Oleander leaves.

 Dr. Norton of Maryland claims in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine that dietary and herbal supplements that use the ingredient thymus may actually contain raw lymph tissue from cows. 

The California Prune Board, nervous over the lack of appeal of their product, receive permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to rename their product dries plums,  Did they never hear of C.P. strawberries?

 Gardeners who dislike cats’ toilet habits now have another argument.  Scientists have discovered a microscopic parasite in cat feces capable of altering the personality of humans infected from this source.  Very high levels of such human infection are reported from France.

 Two Cornell University postgraduates recommend that tobacco farmers replace their politically incorrect crop with wine grapes to produce a similarly lucrative income.

 Cinnamon may prevent or delay type II Diabetes, report scientists at the USDA Research Service

 Claiming that the case against DDT has never been scientifically proven, the

National Post suggests the insecticide be used to reduce the 2.7 million deaths caused each year by malaria carrying mosquitoes.

 Environment and Gardeners

The notorious Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) can be reduced up to 90% by scattering around tea bags, say Japanese researchers

 Threats of widespread spraying against mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus are called off in Southern Ontario.  One Doctor points out that the chances of infection on one in two million and smoking is far more a hazard. 

New York’s panic spraying against mosquitoes to prevent West Nile virus used pyrethroids.  These have apparently migrated to Long Island Sound wiping out the previously highly profitable lobster fishery there.

 Tony DiGiovanni, executive director of Landscape Ontario, points out that ornamental horticulture is a $7-billion-per-year in Canada, with 20,000 companies, employing over 100,000 people, certainly not the cosmetic and frivolous industry as depicted in a recent federal government report

 The federal Environment Ministry takes five years to establish that road salt poisons the environment

 Trees

 Fires have decimated over 25,000 hectares of California’s Sequoia National Forest, fortunately without endangering the giant 2,000-year-old redwoods.

 The Save Saltspring Nude Women’s Calendar, created to save the trees from logging on that idyllic B.C. Island, will be ready for sale in November, say supporters.

 US Secret Service Agents ordered palms partially blocking their view of Al Gore to be cut down at the Los Angeles Staples Centre.  National Post’s Mark Steyn comments: “You know how it is when you can’t see the wood for the trees.” 

In Halifax, Justice John O’Keefe orders a halt to the mass red spruce slaughter in Point Pleasant Park subject to a full hearing being held to determine their position vis-à-vis the brown spruce longhorn beetle.

 The trees were old, that’s for sure.  I’m the biggest tree hugger in Muskoka, but they posed a serious problem to players, so they had to come down,” said Gravenhurst Deputy ordering the destruction of two 300-year-old white pines for daring to intrude upon local tennis courts.

Down in the Vegetables

Hartley steward of the Toronto Sun claims that supermarket tomatoes are not what they were, now lacking scent and taste.  He claims that “it’s been three or four years since I tasted a real tomato.”  Hardly surprising if one relies upon such a source for produce.

 Garlic grower Rory Timmers of Oakville, Manitoba, establishes a world record with his 213-metre garlic braid.

 Niagara Falls holds the second annual Bigga Tomatafest including, apart from much feasting, a celebrity tomato stamping contest to turn the fruit into sauce and a bicycle decorating contest. 

11 tons of tomatoes are used in the annual tomato fight in the Spanish village of Bunyol.

 The Law and Gardeners

 Wind chimes may be forbidden in Saskatchewan gardens but in Ontario the flapping of giant flags does not contravene by-laws in the town of Blue Mountain, near Collingwood, a judge rules,

 A Florida man is charged with attempted murder after firing a shotgun at a pair of state agricultural inspectors who had tried to inspect his home fruit trees and possibly order them destroyed.

 Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban bans opium poppy cultivation commencing next spring.  This has become increasingly difficult as serious droughts, the worst in 30 years, plague central Asia.  Taw opium gas doubled in price in the past few months in that country. 

 By this time next year genetically modified food will require a label in Australia and New Zealand

Lawns

 Flights are interrupted at Saskatoon airport when a grass-mowing manager, substituting for striking workers, obliviously steers his machine too close to a runway.

 Due to bad weather, a private helicopter makes an emergency landing on the home lawn of a Waterdown, Ontario couple, providing yet another use for lawns.

 The proud lawn owner from Thornhill, Ontario, who maimed a teacup poodle peeing on his property has been found guilty of causing the culprit unnecessary suffering,  He will be sentenced later this month.

 The grass is taller than I am and I’m not short” says Howard Moscoe, Toronto Councillor, newsletter, summer, 2000, protesting overly long boulevard growth.

 Landscaping

 The pulchritudinous Ms. Kathryn Cannon, the Alberta-born porn star known as Marilyn Star, is fighting extradition to the U.S. where she faces charges of insider trading.  According to her past boyfriend and manager, she started out in her home province as a tree planter.  This might explain the current popularity of studies in forestry.

 The Consul General of Japan is donating Japanese Glowering Cherry Trees of Sakura to Ontario municipalities, including Toronto, Brampton, London, Kitchener, Windsor, and Hamilton as well as the Niagara Parks Commission.

 Water Gardening

 Thanks to enthusiastic water gardeners introducing bullfrogs to B.C. polls from the 1930s onwards, native amphibians are threatened with extinction.

 Mushroom News

 The health ministry in the Ukraine announces wild mushrooms have poisoned over 1,000 people, killing 111 of them.  Meleb, Manitoba continues to sport a group of 15-foot fibreglass mushrooms.

 Tasmanian truffles will be exported to fill the requirements of gourmet dining in Europe, much to the horror of the French originators of this expensive delicacy

 Bugs and Gardeners

 Slugs are good for removing burnt on food remains from pots, pans and oven glassware reports Sandra Lister of Gosport, England, in a letter to the journal New Scientist.  Leave out upside down in the garden for a few weeks she advises, then bring inside and wash.

 Out on the West Coast (a.k.a. British Columbia) bullfrogs the size of baseballs are threatening local fauna in and around Victoria. 

Following the discovery that hair nits can be made luminous and thus destroyed more easily, a hopeful gardener at an English university enquires if the same could not be done for aphids. 

Sequencing the genome of the bacterium Xyella fastidiosa, a serious pest of commercial orange juice production in Brazil, will shortly lead to its nemesis, scientists report from Sao Paulo,

 The armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda, a caterpillar that lives on maize plants in Central America is cannibalistic in order to reduce its numbers and so offer less scope of predators, report two researchers from Southampton University, England.   

The first day of felling trees in Halifax’s Point Pleasant Park to control brown spruce longhorn beetle saw 125 toppled the first day.  This left 9,875 to go or 80 days to complete the dastardly deed, later stopped by court order.

 Those plagued with bugs might wish to contact the Sakon Nakhon Agricultural Research and Training Centre, Bangkok who are now canning such stir-fried and spiced fare.  Eating insects, of entomophagy, is common in the capital of Thailand. 

A threatened earwig uses a chemical weapon against molesters, reports Cornell University,  The irritants, called quinines, ar4e dissolved in minute quantities with pentadecane and sprayed in “economical” amount from the abdomen.

 A single instance of Plum Pox Virus (PPV) is reported on nectarines near Niagara on the Lake by the Canadian food Inspection Agency (CFIA).  Without killing the trees, PPV renders the fruit tasteless, low in sugar, unmarketable but thankfully harmless to humans.  Despite a fact sheet being available at http://www.cfia.acia.agr.ca, Cable Pulse 24 reports that farmers in the Niagara region to be fighting for their plums and peaches.

 Killer bees hitching rides on trucks and ships will arrive in Canada sometime before 2005, says a Guelph scientist.

 California vintners are looking to a minute Mexican parasitic wasp to save their state’s premium wine vines being threatened by a leafhopper called the glassy-winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca coagulata), which spreads a bacterium that causes Pierce’s disease of the valued vines.

 A Calgary father discovers a black widow spider in a bunch of grapes, believed imported from the U.S.

 Flowers

 Women members of the Brazilian Workers Motional Agricultural Confederation Organized a Daisy March through the capital Brasilia to protest against government policies, poverty, sexual discrimination and violence.  The 20, 000 participants each carried a large yellow daisy.

 In a letter to the journal New Scientist, British gardener Graham Smith claims the only way to grow hollyhocks free of rust disease is to plant wormwood next to them.

 Fruit

 The Swiss Cherry Spitters Association is pleased to announce that one of their members has regained the title for their country from America.  Thomas Steinhaur spat a cherry pit some 80-feet.

 Irish plant breeders are said to have raised a super strawberry that is “weather resistant” not a bad idea given their pluvial climate.

Washington State University has patented a spray of special clay and beeswax to prevent sunburn on fruit in apple orchards.

 Eight orchard workers die in a mudslide in Taiwan.

 Cultural Advice for Gardeners

 Vegetarians can relax again.  “Chew Chew”, the world’s first meat-eating robot or “gastrobot”, will spawn others of its ilk, which, while mowing lawns, feed on the clippings and thus gain their necessary electric power.  So predicts Chew Chew’s inventor, Stuart Wilkinson of the University of California at Tampa.

 Japanese researchers report that cocoa bean husks contain a potent anti-bacterium, which fights tooth decay.  If you see your neighbour on hands and knees munching on their mulch, it’s their dental, not mental, heath that is of concern.  

Gardening in the City

 Toronto offers gardeners a daily cubic metre of composted leaves at the Keele Street dump, of will deliver eight cubic metres for about $40 plus $3 a kilometre.  Tap on your PC http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/compost/leaf1998.tum or dial (905) 832-0682 ext. 243.

 The new free commuter newspaper GTA Today tells of “guerrilla gardening”.  This they say involves “planting improvised gardens on railway right of ways and other odd scraps of ignored public land.” Guerrillas in any form usually live abbreviated lives.

 Toronto Councillor George Mammoliti’s campaign against cats has caught 239 frolicking felines as of the end of August in free traps he loans to his constituents.  There appears to be no end to this tail.

 Two enormous wind turbines are suggested by certain city councillors for feasibility tests next to the Ashbridge Bay Sewage Plant and close to the allotment of gardens there.  It is not true they will be named after the councillors who are interested in such alternate sources of energy, Jack Layton and Olivia Chow.

 Government and Gardeners

 A 78-year-old herbalist is running as an independent in this month’s federal by-election in Okanagan-Coquihalla.

 Natural Gardening

 Four cyclists trekking from sea-to-sea for SPOKE (Students Promoting Organic Kinship with the Environment) arrive in Toronto promoting organic farming and protesting GM-foods just as a major national survey shows Canadians can make up their own minds, thank you.

 The ABC newsmagazine 20/20 claimed in February that neither the organic nor conventional foods they treated showed any traces of pesticides.  The Washington based Environmental Working Group has forced a retraction.

Now a group in Washington, D.C. are claiming those tests never took place,  20/20’s conclusion was that organic foods are no safer than regular ones.  “Mr. Stossel was relying in inaccurate information that had been provided him”, says the broadcaster.

 Andy Cochland, writing in the journal New Scientist, suggests that “super weeds” resulting from cross-pollination with genetically-modified crops should be welcomed by environmentalists and organic gardeners since, if encouraged, they will force farmers to abandon herbicides and turn to mechanical eradication methods, while bankrupting the evil chemical manufacturers.  This, he says, occurred to him in the small hours of the morning while half awake. 

The Herbal Scene

I’ve got the Urge to Herbal is Brittany Spears special song for promoting Clairol’s Herbal Essence line as she becomes the youngest (18) representative for that well-known cosmetic company.  Does she or doesn’t she?  

But the National Post is not impressed with herbal health products.  In an editorial blast it w2ars specifically against St. John’s Wart, chaparral, and yohimbe,  One Harvey Wingarten, Provost and Vice President of McMaster University, Hamilton was most unhappy that this would threaten proposed $100-million federal funding to test natural health products at his establishment.

 The Traveling Gardener

 Amaze yourself with the 10-acre corn labyrinth when visiting Lacombe, Alberta that takes up to 90 minutes to wend your way through.

 To Dutch delight, the conservatory at the University of Leiden is blessed with the flowering of an Amorphallus titanum.  One of the world’s largest flowers at six-feet high, in its native Sumatra it is called the Corpse Glower since it smells of rotting carrion.  The Dutch, noting the appearance, prefer to call it the Penis Plant.

Weather

 A shower of small fish lands on gardens and lawns in the east England town of Great Yarmouth. 

NASA scientist James Hansen, he who started the latest global warming warning, has decided he perhaps was not quite right, causing the National Post somewhat unseemly gloating about the hazards of environmentalists and their ilk.

 Birds

 Overloading bird feeders is suggested as creating unsanitary conditions that have resulted in increasing epidemics of Salmonella and E. coli that have been killing songbirds, according to British scientist James Kirkwood,  He advises to geed less, a half-litre of food a day and cleaning the feeders at least weekly. 

Every Gnome Needs a Home.

 Some 150 garden gnomes appear on the steps on the central bank in Australia apparently protesting a meeting to determine policy,  First the “Gnomes of Zurich,” now the “Gnomes of Oz” what’s next “Nome Alaska”

 Two boys ages 10 and six, burglarize a Peterborough Ontario Home and, besides other damage, set fire to a lawn ornament.

 Weeds

 Jamie Motta, Alberta Agriculture’s purple loosestrife eradication program co-ordinator, believes the province can eradicate the obnoxious European weed and keep Lythrum salicaria free in the same manner they exclude rats.

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