South Milford & Lumby

North Yorkshire

Garden Hints for October

Wined and Dined on Pesticides!

Shredding paper for a friend’s wormery (not another wet weather job!) my eye caught the headline “Wines from top French Chateaux contaminated with pesticide”. The ‘Pesticide Action Network Europe’ amongst others had identified 34 out of 40 French wines tainted with a toxic array of substances. Some of these are classified by the European Union as health threatening. Price of wine was no criteria and even the expensive contained an average of four different pesticides.

I won’t go into the effects of these chemicals but this growing problem (sic) is caused by grape growers abandoning traditional methods of pest control in favour of using hazardous synthetic pesticides.

Inorganic Sulphur used to be the main material used and it seems strange that there are much higher limits of pesticides in the wine industry, than on other fruits. It also seems unfair to us when we see our garden centre shelves denuded of chemicals to treat any pests in this country, legislated by the EEC..

Derris for instance ‘disappears’ by October 10th. As a youngster Sodium Chlorate was the thing to rid yourself of weeds on hard surfaces, paths and drives being a non-selective inorganic herbicide for total vegetation control on non-crop areas. It is active through both the foliage and the roots. It was not to be applied before rain as it crept through the soil and because of its persistent nature could then easily contaminate cropping areas and grass. It was highly flammable, even with the modern fire depressants so care had to be taken with its use. This product (and there were 55 of them) was withdrawn on 10th September. As an alternative replacement Bayer Chemicals have on the market ‘Long Lasting Ground Clear’.

The Chemicals Regulation Directorate has also issued guidance discouraging Garden Centres from selling large packs or multi buys of weedkillers of the same pesticide (2 for the price of 1 philosophy). It would still be OK to buy a weedkiller and a fungicide as a package for use in a single season.

I can’t help feeling that the use of chemicals hasn’t something to do with the high reduction of animal, bird and insect life. Recent figures show that 20% of the UK’s honeybee population died last winter (32% in the north) – an unsustainable figure and that’s an improvement on the previous year when A THIRD perished. The Government have set aside £10 million to examine the problem. There is hope. The British Beekeepers Association has seen their membership rise from 3000 to 14500 in the last eighteen months. Look them up online. You can get your own Bee Hive from Omlet online at http://omlet.co.uk/Homepage/Homepage/php or call 0845 450 2056. Make sure you get training with the local British Beekeepers Association found at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming, York or in Leeds at their new meeting place at 266 Lidgitt Lane Tel: 01132160482.

By the way organically produced wine had no pesticide content in this investigation; just goes to show you!

Yorkshire Landscape Gardens

dave@daviddmitchell.co.uk