Palm trees for dreary poms gloated
The Daily Telegraph of Sydney, Australia. In a classic case of escapism record numbers of have been bought by the hapless poms in a bid to 'bring the beach to their backyards.' One of Britain's largest garden centre chains, Dobbies, reported a 63 per cent increase in sales this season, selling around 41,000 palm trees at prices ranging from £6.99 to £300 per palm.
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) has listed the 10 North American cities with the largest combined area of green roofs in square feet. Chicago, Washington D.C., and Milwaukee top the list. Way down in 8
th and 9
th places are Montreal and Quebec City. And that's it for Canada--a no-show for such promoters as Toronto and Vancouver. The latter city is where 8
th Annual CitiesAlive! conference will be held 30 November to 3 December.
Paul Bronfman has received final notice from the city to tear down illegally erected fences around his Forest Hill mansion, reported the
Toronto Star. However, enforcement is on hold since Bronfman submitted a revised application for retroactive approval for some of the fencing.
Architectural drawings for features in New York City's Central Park are at the centre of a lawsuit after NYC took Christies action house and the owner of the drawings to court. New Jersey real estate broker Sam Buckley placed 86 Jacob Wrey Mould drawings at Christies and kept at least 41 more for himself after saying his now-dead father found them in a trash can over 50 years ago. British-born architect Mould assisted famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Faux in creating the world-famous park [Source:
The Daily Telegraph].
Exit Only: sign seen at a Canadian cemetery and submitted to
The Daily Telegraph by the perhaps not inappropriately named Paul Flowers.
Lawns
If there's a budding soccer star in your family, don't be too quick to replace the family lawn he practices on with the much-touted artificial turf. The top soccer teams of the world insist on playing on real grass, points out Dennis Flanagan, public relations director for Landscape Ontario. Indeed, at the recent demonstration match between Manchester United and Celtic Football Club, Toronto's Rogers Centre had to replace 100,000 square feet of artificial turf with the real thing.
Trees
Hugging trees cures cancer headlined the ever-ebullient U.K.
Sun tabloid. Regular trips to the forest reduce stress, often the underlying cause much ill health is what Dr. Eeva Kargalainen of the Finnish Forest Research Institute reported at the World Forestry Congress in Soul, South Korea.
Deadly attacks on the Israel-Lebanon border were triggered by an attempt of Israeli soldiers to cut down a cypress tree blocking their view into Lebanon. Despite Lebanese claims, UN peacekeepers determined the cedar was in fact on the Israeli side of the 'blue line' agreed on by both sides. Israeli military regularly prune trees along the border [Source:
The Daily Telegraph].
Ocean View Trail (Ocean view obscured by trees) sign noted in San Francisco by reader of
The Daily Telegraph Huw Griffith
Trees can't live forever without sex, reported BBC Science News, citing research by Dilara Ally and her team at the University of British Columbia. The study, published in the journal
PLoS Biology, show that the fertility of clones declines with age--a tree cannot clone itself indefinitely, it must eventually sexually reproduce or die. Certain trees are able to clone themselves, raising the tantalizing possibility that they could effectively 'live forever.' The research now dashes that hope.
Amsterdam's Anne Frank horse chestnut tree blew down in a rain and windstorm in mid-August. Weakened by an attack from the larvae of a moth and attacked by an aggressive fungus, the tree had been saved three years ago by support from metal buttressing. A slim view of the tree had cheered the teenage diarist when she hid for two years from the Nazis during World War II. Many clones have been taken from it, however.
By the end of the century up to 82 per cent of today's tropcial forests could be damaged by a combination of climate change and local destruction, reports
New Scientist on calculations by Gregory Asner of Stanford University in California, and his colleagues [Source:
Conservation Letters].
Flowers
A blooming marvel is how
The Independent newspaper describes west London's Churchill Arms pub, literally covered in flowers over its three stories on Kensington Church Street, near the famed Kew Gardens. The pub is already a winner of the London In Bloom and is located between the Notting Hill Gate and Kensington High Street tube stations. Cheers.
"You can watch flowers. Flowers come in nearly infinite variety, so do bugs. It has been conservatively estimated that if all the bugs were to die at once, we would be up to our yingyang in dead bugs. The only thing that flowers have going for them is that they don't scamper away and hide after you get a glimpse of their stamens or whatnot." Joey Slinger:
Down & Dirty Birding (1996)
Linda Martin, a 68-year-old pensioner of Wilton, Wiltshire in western England, was ordered to remove the hanging baskets from her local market square after council bosses warned people could bump their heads on them, braking health and safety rules. She had earlier been ordered to remove floral displays on the ground in case pedestrians tripped over them. Ms. Martin had paid for all the floral displays out of her own pocket [source:
The Daily Telegraph].
"Spurred on by increased interest in growing dahlias for showing, breeders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for thoroughly carried away, producing increasingly outlandish varieties with monstrous flowers in colours that would look at home in a Fifties housecoat." Clare Foster,
House and Garden magazine.
They may be a bit much for any but the largest gardens or those desiring to really impress, but four giant perennials have been suggested by David Van de Ven, a commercial perennial grower in Mount Alberta, Ontario, writing in
Landscape Trades. Let's hear it then for the 'Empress Wu' Hosta, Giant Miscanthus (
Miscanthus x giganteus), Ornamental Rhubarb (
Rheum palmatum var.
tanguticum) and the
Giant Fleece Flower (
Persecaria polymorpha), great choices for all but the vertically challenged.
Heather Godfrey, 74, and husband Mike, 80, returned from two months away to their garden in St. Merryn, Cornwall, to discover their 23-year-old Agave americana had sprouted from a clump of leaves into a 25-foot flower stalk [Source:
Sun of London].
An Italian couple were arrested at Cairo airport with the stolen Van Gogh painting 'Vase with Flowers,' also known as 'Poppy Flowers.' The painting, valued at US$50 million, was taken from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum on the banks of the Nile [Source:
Mail on Sunday].
Wildflowers
What is a native plant? Ken Parker, one of Canada's native plant authorities and a former owner of Sweet Grass Gardens in Hagersville, Ontario, defines native plants as those "that were locally indigenous before Europeans arrived." [Source: Sean James,
Landscape Trades]
Vegetables
An iceberg lettuce one-quarter the size of a regular variety is being offered by British merchants Marks & Spencer, supposedly aimed at lone diners. However, Jane Fryer, writing in the
Daily Mail, notes that the price is not proportionally lower--at 75 pence just 10 pence lower than its larger cousin.
"Most people don't believe you can eat raw corn. I do it all the time. If it doesn't taste good raw, it isn't going to taste good cooked." Walter Pingle, farmer, Hampton, northeast of Oshawa, Ontario [Source:
Toronto Sun]
A Massachusetts man was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung came home with an unusual diagnosis: a pea plant was growing in his lung. The 1.25-centimetre plant was removed, leaving Ron Sveden making jokes about the Jolly Green Giant, especially after his first hospital meal after the operation included peas [Source: BBC News,
Maclean's,
Toronto Sun]
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says green onions sold at five supermarkets in the Toronto area have tested positive for salmonella. The CFIA was attempting to determine where the unmarked onion bunches were produced and shipped.
A swede can be called a turnip when it's in a Cornish pasty, the infamous bureaucrats of Brussels have ruled, reports the
Daily Mail. The British newspaper also happily notes that the European Commission has already ruled on the acceptable curvature of cucumbers. Just wait until they discover that over here, we know swedes as the more politically correct
rutabagas.
Zapping potatoes with electricity 'could make it a health food,' according to research by Dr. Kazunori Hironaka at Obhiro University in Japan, whose work has been reported in British media. Hironaka noted that stressed vegetables produce higher levels of antioxidants, testing this on the humble spud. Electricity did indeed trick potatoes into producing a rush of antioxidants.
Fruit & Nuts
A rare United States outbreak of typhoid fever has been linked to a frozen tropical fruit juice used to make smoothies. Seven cases have bene confirmed--three in California and four in Nevada. Sapote, also known as mamey or zapota fruit, is grown mainly in Central and South America [Source:
New Zealand Herald].
My wife bought a plastic pouch that is supposed to keep bananas fresh for longer. It seems to work well compared to leaving bananas in the kitchen vegetable rack next to the pouch. The pouch is made of a roughish green, translucent, polythene-like material. Does anybody know how this works? Enquiry from Ian Theobald of Norwich, U.K. to
New Scientist's 'Last Word' feature.
Fran Dando, a 21-year-old mother, is so terrified of bananas that the mere sight on one causes her to hyperventilate, sweat and throw up, according to
The Sun of London. Even a picture of the fruit has a similar effect on the Hastings, southern England resident. Unfortunately her two-year-old son likes eating them.
Eating berries can help protect the brain against ageing and ward off memory loss. Shibu Poulos of the USDA Agriculture Research Service presented the results of his two-month laboratory research with rats on 23 August to the American Chemical Society. Strawberries, blackberries and blueberries contain high levels of polyphenolics, which help the brain to carry out essential "housekeeping" functions, writes Stephen Adams in
The Daily Telegraph.
In Africa, the iconic baobab tree,
Andansonia digitata, is used in a multitude of ways, medicines, cordage, shelter, even burial sites--and food. European and American entrepreneurs are now seeking to cash in on its nutritious advantages, reports Karen E. Lange in September's
National Geographic. The fruit contain six times as much vitamin C as oranges, twice as much calcium as milk, and plenty of B vitamins, magnesium, iron, phosphorous, and antioxidants, she writes. Experts apparently estimate the potential size of the market at a billion dollars a year. Which is all to the good for a what is locally known thanks to the appearance of said fruit as the "dead rat tree."
Hedge fund manager Anthony Ward has been dubbed "Chocfinger" by the British tabloids after his purchase of 140,000 tonnes of delectable cocoa beans, about 7 per cent of annual world production. If prices soar, he looks make a small fortune. Otherwise, alas, he will be sitting on enough to make 5.3 billion chocolate bars, notes Chris Sorenson in
Macleans.
Beverages, Herbs & #
Three men walked into the Chinese Herbal Medicine Store on East 41
st Avenue in Vancouver and spray peppered the owner. They then stole herbal and other medicines worth $40,000. Among items taken was
Cordyceps fungus, the expensive 'Himalayan Viagra" and popular Chinese cure-all [Source: CBC News].
A traditional Chinese herbalist accused of sexually assaulting five Sydney, Australia women was banned from seeing his patients and released on a $510,000 surety pending his trial, according to that city's
The Daily Telegraph.
Stock up on
Coffea arabica for that home-brewed jolt. Even if Tim Hortons is adamant they will not raise the price of their coffee, Folgers and Maxwell House are set to rise by about 10 per cent come next month. Coffee futures are at their highest in nearly 13 years as supplies tighten due to weak harvests.
Salsa wouldn't be salsa without cilantro. Sales of this staple in Mexican, Asian and Indian cuisines have boomed across North America of late. California's production of cilantro has doubled in the last decade, notes Catherine Barker in this month's
National Geographic. The average American is eating a third of a pound a year.
Houseplants
A student has invented an "intelligent' plant pot that lights up when it needs water. Natalie King, 22, created the 'Tulip' pot as a project while at Brunel University in west London, England. While it is not yet commercially available, she hopes it will interest an investor. According to the
Daily Mail, the pot lights up whenever the plant is in danger of getting too hot, too cold, too light, too dark or too dry.
Water Gardening
Why does the sound of running water increase the urge to urinate and is this unique to humans, challenges Eric Jarvis to
New Scientist feature Last Word. We've wondered this also but do know that it deter bibulous garden visitors . . . The magazine refers to this as an 'audio stream.'
Seeds
"'Hybrid' is derived from the Latin
hybrida, meaning a cross between a tame sow and as wild boar, a word possibly related to the Greek
hubris, meaning pride but also outrage against nature," Alan B. Bennett explains in the journal
Science, while reviewing
Hybrid, a new book by Noel Kingsbury.
For the Birds
The house sparrow (
Passer domesticus) is an all-too-common introduced bird alien around the world. While populations have recently declined in many areas, Britian has seen the most marked decline. The reason concludes a study published in the journal
Auk, is the recolonization of Britian by the perhaps not inappropriately named Eurasian sparrowhawk (
Accipiter nisus) [Source:
Science].
Alby the yellow-beaked albatross should have been cruising the South Atlantic. Instead he ended up well off course on a Wolfe Island beach, near Kingston, Ontario, emaciated and weighing half of his normal 2 to 3 kilograms. Nursed back to health by volunteers, Alby is now in Boston being reacclimatized to salt water before being sent to South Africa with a whale of a tale.
Barcelona has declared war on its pigeon population after hiring contractors to catch and kill them using a special net catapult and carbon dioxide gas [Source:
The Daily Telegraph].
The Good, the Bad and the Bugly
An insect pest has migrated from the U.S. into the cornfields of Ontario and Quebec. The western bean cutworm moth has baffled experts by moving from Arkansas, Colorado and Nebraska into Michigan and other border states and so into Canada. The larvae feed on the pollen and silk of corn before moving onto the developing kernels. They are also known to infest tomatoes as well as nightshade. Even with chemical pesticides, the insect is difficult to control and specialists say farmers' bets hope lies in GM corn selections [Source: CBC Science News]
The shelves of a U.K. supermarket are being stocked with grey squirrel meat. Despite claims from animal welfare group Viva accusing them of "wildlife massacre," Budgens supermarket reports "large interest" in the one-time staple of the national diet. An invasive species, grey squirrels were introduced into Britain from North America by rich landowners in the 18
th and 19
th centuries and are now regarded as a serious pest by many there (Sources:
Daily Mail,
The Daily Telegraph).
The recipe for wasp dominance started this past winter, warned the
Toronto Star. More queen wasps die off during harsh winters or chaotic, warm-to-cool springs. During warmer winter and shorter, drier springs, a larger number of queens survive. That means more are ready and able to establish nests. Nice springs also mean good food news for wasps. With more flowers in bloom and more insects abounding, worker wasps have more to feed their young. The result? Even more of them, concludes the
Star.
Silver foxes in China's western Xianjiang province have been bred and trained to fight a plague of rats that threaten the provincial grasslands, according to the official news agency Xinhua.
A moose broke into a supermarket in Kongsvinger, Norway, where it sought out the flowers and shrubs section and chased sales assistant Inger-Lise Moss into the toilet. After smashing bottles of ice-cool beer, it vanished into nearby woods, according to police [Source:
Daily Express]
Grey squirrels chewing through wiring under the roof of a house in Caffley, Hertfordshire, England, caused a £400,000 fire. It took 30 firefighters to bring it under control reported British media. The owners were on vacation at the time.
Britian is losing the battle against an invasion of potentially deadly caterpillars, experts warn, writes David Derbyshire in the
Daily Mail. The oak processionary moth,
Thaumetopoea processionea,--which during its caterpillar stage is a toxic pest whose hairs can trigger severe asthma attacks--is out of control in England. Formally native to central and southern Europe, it has recently extended its range north, arriving in England in 2006 with a shipment of oaks from the Netherlands. According to BBC News, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, west London, have removed 800 nests from 400 to 500 oak trees this year.
Huang Yuyen from the Yunlin County, south Taiwan, has been claimed to be the world's top mosquito catcher after snagging 3.5 pounds in a single month, according to a buzz from Britain's
The Daily Telegraph.
A new offensive is planned against huge swarms of locusts in western Queensland, Australia, reports the
Courier-Mail, as the state faces its worse plague of the pests in 30 years.
The makers of Purity Foods, one of New Zealand's best-known brands, was justified in firing a worker who stored cockroaches in his locker, ruled the country's Employment Relations Authority [Source:
The New Zealand Herald].
Buzz on Bees
Even under the midnight sun, bees like their beauty sleep, report researchers in northern Finland, 270 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. Other Arctic creatures lose their 24-hour biological rhythms in summer and winter, but not bumblebees (
Bombus spp.). Perhaps their nighttime rest confers an advantage even greater than extra food, notes the journal
Science.
A disabled truck in North Carolina was carrying 60 boxes of bees, which escaped and swarmed the police car of an investigating sheriff's deputy. Brandon Jenkins, 31, was trapped by 50,000 angry bees in his cruiser for three hours. He admitted using deadly force on the few bees that shared his personal space. Police called in two beekeepers who used smoke and a sugar water spray to calm the swarm [Source:
The Daily Telegraph]. File under acrostics, or angry insects.
Labrador dog Ellie ate a beehive containing pesticide and thousands of dead bees to win an award that recognizes the most unusual pet insurance claim in the U.S. recognized by Veterinary Pet Insurance Co (VPI). The south California pooch beat out a border collie who ran through a window to get at a mailman and a terrier that bit a chainsaw [Source:
The Tornto Sun].
Weeds
A field test in Montana pitted dog against human in an effort to identify and eradicate spotted knapweed (
Centaurea stoebe), a highly invasive weed, reports business periodical
Landscape Trades. The dogs had an overall success rate of 81 per cent while the humans were successful 59 per cent of the time. The original report appeared in
Invasive Plant Science and Management.
University of Guelph researchers are testing herbicides on test plots of giant hogweed along a side road near Actin in the Halton Region of Ontario. Peter Smith, a weed science technician, told Don Peat of the
Toronto Sun that a herbicide from Dupont "is just fantastic" in knocking down the health-threatening perennial while leaving surrounding plants untouched. Giant hogweed,
Heracleum mantegazzianum, was first discovered in Ontario in 1949. Individual plants can live for 25 years, attaining a height of 5m with leaves more than a metre across.
Municipal workers in the Britian burnt a store while controlling weeds. Oldham council workers were given flame guns to rid the town's sidewalks of weeds in a bid to win Britain in Bloom. Instead they set fire to the font of a 36-year-old family-owned carpet store [Source:
Daily Mail].
Add air pollution to the list of kudzu's evil doings, notes
American Scientist reporting on a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from J. Hickman,
et al: Kudzu (
Pueraria montana) invasion doubles emissions of nitric oxide and increases air pollution. In short, kudzu can boost ozone levels.
Tools & Equipment
There's a growing trend in gardening to use copper tools and accessories, according to Jean Vernon writing in U.K.'s
The Daily Telegraph. Advocates proclaim its benefits for the soil, plants and gardeners themselves. Certainly copper strips appear to protect plants from slugs and snails.
Toronto fire crews believe a leaf blower was to blame for a major blaze at the Forest Hill Road home of former Canadian figure skating champion Kurt Browning and his wife Sonia Rodriguez, the National Ballet's principal dancer. Browning was reported as attempting to dry the wet seat of a convertible in the garage with the leaf blower when the seat caught fire. The resulting blaze was took 18 trucks and 80 firemen to bring under control but not before the roof of the residence had partially collapsed [Source: CBC News,
Toronto Sun,
Toronto Star].
Pathogens
Wheat rusts are causing epidemics that require urgent action, an editorial in the journal
Science warns. The world's most widely planted crop is threatened on a global scale. The late American agronomist Norman Borlaug used to say, "Rust never sleeps." Events of recent years show how right he was, notes the editorial.
Fertilizer
Concern about dwindling phosphorus supplies are influencing public policy in some places, including Sweden. A couple of cities there are requiring all new toilets to be urine diverting, so that wastewater can be captured for reuse, writes Catherine Clabby in
American Scientist. Dana Cordell of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney last year reported that some urban areas in Pakistan and elsewhere in Asia are fertilizing vegetables grown in urban areas with wastewater.
PotashCorp of Saskatchewan's boss Bill Doyle predictably jeered at the US$38.6 billion Australian miner BHP Billiton is offering for the world's biggest fertilizer manufacturer. It might have made the biggest takeover deal of 2010 but Doyle believes the company to be worth at leas $71 billion. "If there is going to be a transaction . . . it won't be cheap," he warned.
Pesticides
Dow AgroSciences announced the registration of ClearView, a selective post-emergent herbicide for controlling weeds and shrubs on rights of way, industrial and other non-crop areas. It can also be used to prevent the spread of invasive plants. For more information, visit
ivmexperts.ca. [Source:
Landscape Trades]
Mark's Recipe for Skunks, Raccoons, Squirrels, Etc.: 1 bulb garlic, 1 chopped onion, 2 tablespoons Tabasco, 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper, 2 or 3 drops oil, 1 tablespoon dish detergent, 1 litre water; liquefy all ingredients in a blender and spray on affected area [Source: Unknown; provided by Mrs. J. Gobbett, Toronto]
More than a quarter-century after the world's worst chemical disaster, the Indian government last week ordered remediation of the contaminated site in Bhopal and the creation of a research institute to study the toxic legacy, writes New Delhi-based journalist Pallava Bagla in the journal
Science. The move is controversial. What saved Bhopal from a bigger catastrophe, says one expert, is a 17-metre-thick layer of clay that has blocked pollutants from leaching into the water table.
Mosquitoes are becoming resistant to current chemical adulticides, which target the nervous system. Researchers are seeking agents with new mechanisms, including natural products such as cedar oil, writes Janet Fang in the journal
Nature.
Gardeners
Sir Simon Hornby, former chairman of the Royal Horticultural Society, has died at age 75. He had previously succeeded his father and grandfather as head of W.H. Smith and was knighted in 1988. Sir Simon gained his interest in gardening at an early age at his father's mansion near Oxford with grounds designed by Sir Jeffrey Jellico. He later attended Eton, served in the Grenadier Guards, read law at Oxford and studied at Harvard Business School. A scholarly gardener, he created three magnificent gardens at houses he owned at different times and wrote gardening columns for the
Tatler magazine. Failing eyesight and Parkinson's disease plagued his last years.
Gardening in the City
Don't touch me for I will feel ashamed: sign seen in front of plants Lipsang park, China by
The Daily Telegraph reader Jack Morris
A tropical hallucinogenic plant has been discovered growing in the garden of retired couple in Coventry, England. According to experts at the Royal Horticultural Society the now large specimen of
Datura stramonium likely resulted from bird droppings. The seeds of the devil's apple, also known as devil's trumpet or snare, are often found in birdseed sold to feed wild birds [Source:
The Daily Telegraph].
Science and the Gardener
Bubbling green tubes filled with algae gobbling up carbon dioxide and producing biodiesel may sound like the perfect way to make clean fuel, but it could generate nearly four times the greenhouse emissions from regular diesel, according to a study by Anna Stephenson at the University of Cambridge. She has developed a computer model that calculates the carbon footprint of producing, refining and burning algal biodiesel, writes Helen Knight in the weekly
New Scientist.
How many species of flowering plant are there? Around 400,000, estimate Stuart Pimm of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues in
Proceedings of the Royal Society B [Source:
Nature]
Do spiders really avoid making webs on horse chestnut trees? According to Mark Alberstat of Halifax, N.S., the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry is examining the truth or otherwise of this old wives' tale. He inquires of
New Scientist magazine if it is true, what could be the reason for it?
Tiny pollen grains protect their precious genetic contents by folding in their outer layers. Technically called
harmomegathy, how it works has recently been investigated physicist Eleni Katifori. It is, she says, "Like origami--just by bending a flat piece of paper, you get very weird things." [Source: Anna Lena Phillips,
American Scientist]
Who are the better mushroom hunters--men or women? Biologists outfitted themselves with GPS devices and heart-rate monitors and followed 21 men and 21 women mushroom hunting in central Mexico, reports
American Scientist. Men chose longer and more strenuous routes, but in the end they collected no more fungi. Women may indeed be optimized to efficiently gather food that doesn't run away, concludes the periodical.
When and where was corn (maize) first domesticated? The question has bedevilled archaeologists and geneticists. Archaeobotanist Dolores Piperno and her co-workers reported discovering traces of microscopic fossils of maize on grinding stones associated with charcoal dated t 8700 years ago in the Balsas River Valley of southern Mexico [Source:
Science].
Eradicating any organism would have serious consequences for ecosystems--wouldn't it? Not when it comes to mosquitoes, explains the perhaps not inappropriately named Janet Fang in the journal
Nature.
Weather
New weather forecasting models cooked up by scientists at North Carolina State University claim to be able to improve long-range accuracy in predicting winter temperatures and precipitation by up to 20%, according to a study published in the journal
Monthly Weather Review, Shawn Logan writes in the commuter tabloid
24 Hours. Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips says, "The models that are in use now are marginally better than flipping a coin," but he still wants to see how the new models work.
This past June saw the lowest extent of Arctic ice for that month since satellite records began in 1979, according to the United States National Snow and Ice Data Center. The same month was the hottest on records kept by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [Source:
Nature].
Down on the Farm
A cavalcade of 1,231 tractors rolled into the Dresden Raceway, Ontario for The Greatest Tractor Parade, breaking the official Guinness World Record that had previously stood at 601--and raising over $100,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society.
An Algerian spud delegation toured New Brunswick facilities, according to the
Daily Gleaner. Algeria is the largest importer of seed potatoes in Africa--last year importing $300,000 worth from New Brunswick. The tour was hosted by Potatoes New Brunswick.
One of the world's biggest grain exporters, Russia has imposed an export ban on grain shipments after losing an estimated one-fifth of this year's crop to drought and fires [Source: BBC Science News]
Persons unknown planted 314 marijuana plants in an Iowa farmer's cornfield unbeknownst to him. It wasn't until early August he became aware of the plants after watering and fertilizing all season long. The authorities he reported his discovery to estimated the value of the cannabis at $628,000--and that ain't hay.
British police discovered almost 20 cannabis farms every day in he U.K last year, reported
The Daily Telegraph, double the rate of two years ago.
Alas, B.C.'s beef herds will not after all be knocking back wine. Japan feeds its beef beer to make them more succulent but the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has vanquished vino as an additive to feedlot nosh, all of which as left Southern Plus Feedlot operator Bill Freding fuming.
Organic Scene
English gardener Clive Bevan will be making several all-expenses-paid trips to China to demonstrate is vegetable raising expertise. It's a 'Communist Plot,' proclaims the
Mail on Sunday. The Chinese desire to grow enormous veggies and Clive Bevan is a familiar figure at the annual UK National Giant Vegetable Championships. It's all done organically so one of his admirers is Prince Charles. What are the underlying secrets to success? "The right seed, th right soil, the right temperature, hours of work and a very big bank balance," says Bevan.
Genetic Modification
Researchers in the U.S. have found new evidence that genetically modified crop plants can survive and thrive on the wild, possibly for decades, reports BBC Science News. A University of Alabama team surveyed countryside in North Dakota for canola. Transgenes were present in 80 per cent of the wild canola plants they found. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Pittsburgh.
A U.S. federal judge in San Francisco banned the planting of genetically modified sugar beets engineered by Monsanto. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White ruled that in 2009 the U.S. Department of Agriculture had approved Monsanto's GM sugar beets without adequate environmental study [Source:
Toronto Sun].
Italian farmer Giorgio Fidenata is pushing the government of his country to allow genetically modified crops I Ital by panting GM corn in two fields. He claims it is legal but others disagree with him. Early last month, activists discovered on one his fields and stomped the plants into the ground [Source: CBC News,
Toronto Sun].
Environment
A new report says the biofuels industry leaves a hazy ecological footprint because each facility measures its environmental performance differently. This makes it difficult for the government to gauge the effect that ethanol and biodiesel have on the environment. [Source:
Metro commuter tabloid]
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) in Geneva, Switzerland, has announced the experts who will, unpaid, compile the panel's fifth assessment report (AR5), due in 2014, reports the journal
Nature. The 831 coordinating lead authors, lead authors and review editors were chosen from about 3,000 nominations.
China has about 20% of the world's population but only 5 to 7% of global freshwater resources and so relies heavily on fast-depleting reserves of groundwater, writes Jane Qui in
Nature. Groundwater is used to irrigate more than 40% of China's farmland, and for about 70% of the drinking water in the dry northern and northwestern regions. With pollution and depletion continuing at alarming rates, "we will hit the wall very soon," said Bridget Scanlon, a hydrogeologist at the University of Texas at Austin at a conference in Beijing.
Taiwan needs to step up reforestation, said the Premier Wu Den-yih. Wu has ordered the Council of Agriculture to step up its reforestation efforts to attain a goal creating 60,000 hectares of new forest in the next eight years [Source:
The China Post].
The uncertainties of understanding drought in the Amazon won't be reduced without better sensors in space, says expert Gregory Asner. The IPCC claims 40 per cent of the Amazon rainforest is vulnerable to drought but this and other predictions--both pro and con--rely on NASA's Terra satellite, not due to be replaced until at least 2020 [Source:
Nature].
Scientists at Edinburgh Napier University say they have created a new biofuel from whisky byproducts, which could be used to help power cars currently on the road. The university has field a patent for the product, developed over two years at the university's Biofuel Research Centre using 'pot ale' and the spent grain or 'draff.' [Source:
The Daily Telegraph].
There is no direct way of measuring how much carbon dioxide a country emits, notes
New Scientist. Instead. Says the weekly magazine, nations must estimate their emissions indirectly by totting up the amount of coal and oil that was burned to power their industry and transport. But Mathias Jonas at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria, has calculated the countries can only report their emissions to within 5 to 10 per cent of what they actually emitted, which sort of puts the kybosh on the Kyoto protocol [Source: Climate Change].
Travel
Something called the Totally Tomato Show is being held 4-5 September at West Dean College, West Sussex, England, with more than 150 varieties on show, many available to try. More information at
westdean.org.uk. [Source: Clare Foster,
House and Garden]
Hayling Island, England became a weekend party island reported the
Portsmouth News as 3,000 people passed by the hundred scarecrows erected for that very small island's Scarecrow Festival. Alas for poor Hayling: the dreaded Americans have them beat but bad. The Hoschton Scarecrow Stampede, Georgia, an hour's drive north of Atlanta displayed 5,441 scarecrows along the main drag to create a world record in September 2008
The 2010 Taipei International Floral Expo scheduled to open in November, will generate an estimated NT$176.8 billion in economic benefits, a Taipei City official said [Source:
The China Post]
Show Biz
A French Chateau-style mansion sitting on 1.26 acres of immaculate landscape could be yours for a mere US$28,995,000. The owners have placed the Los Angeles mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, where Michael Jackson shuffled off this mortal coil, on the market. Once the home of Sean Connery, it shares the same street with such residents as Mick Jagger, Burt Reynolds and Tony Curtis. The 17,171-sq-ft home has seven bedrooms, a seven-car underground garage--and 13 toilets.
Law and the Gardener
A British nurse, Susan Hendricks, 45, has been convicted of harassing her neighbours after she used a noisy electric hedge trimmer from 6:60 in the morning until 11 at night, according the one account for three years. She was given a restricting order banning her from using the trimmer except for once a month on the privet hedge, which has been reduced from ten to three feet high. Said the neighbours: "She pushed us over the hedge." [Sources: London
Sun,
Daily Mail]
A couple who painted their side of a six-foot garden fence an attractive forest green were handed an £80 fine by police for "criminal damage" after a neighbour complained, reported
The Sunday Telegraph. Perhaps fence fanciers would best avoid the Hampshire town of Aldershot in southern England.
Business
Christmas trees and festive cards were reported on sale by the first week of August in the perhaps not inappropriately named Commercial Road, Portsmouth in southern England [Source:
Portsmouth News]
The Funky Garden Shop on Industrial Drive in Caboolture, Queensland, was facing demolition after an early morning fire broke out at around 4 a.m. in mid-August. "The building and outer fence were secure and there was a guard dog on site. I don't think he was very pleased to see us," a fire rescue service manager told the Brisbane
Courier-Mail.
Health
The British black fly,
Simiclium posticatum, has been causing a surge in infected insect bites report media there. Also known as the Blandford fly after the location along Dorset's River Stour where it was first identified, it as largely a rural problem until recently. According to entomologists, the recent interest in ornamental water gardening has caused it to migrate into towns and cities. The female fly requires a blood meal to incubate her eggs, often obtained from a handy gardener. A natural control in Dorset was found to be
Bacillus thuringiensis israeliensis (Bti). The "superfly" as it has been dubbed is commemorated the Blandford Fly Ale, brewed by Hall & Woodham, 'family brewers.'
Some people are actually more prone to mosquito bites than the average person, notes the
Toronto Star. The reason? It's because on the way you smell. And if you're drinking alcohol or pregnant, you're a more likely target for the pesky bloodsuckers. Oh bother--we thought that if you imbibed enough, the mosquitoes would have such hangovers they'd never try it again.
West Nile virus was detected in Toronto mosquitoes in early August as well as in Peel and Windsor, Ontario. No one has been reported infected with the disease this year. The last case in Toronto was in 2007. The city as treated 2000 drain catch basins with larvicide as health authorities urged residents to take precautions against the pests.
Most of the male popuation of a Nepalese village could be jailed after seven rivals were murdered in a battle over the rare 'Himalayan Viagra,' reports
The Daily Telegraph. Know locally as Yarchagumba,
Cordyceps sinensis, the prized aphrodisiac is a parasitic fungus that grows only on the larvae of a local moth. Prices can reach as high as £3,000 per kilogram.
West Nile virus has been confirmed in a crow from the central Okanagan, B.C. There have been no cases reported in humans this year but two were confirmed from this area in 2009 [Source: CBC News].
"Thank environmentalists for a growing bed bug plague in Toronto and elsewhere," Ray Ayre, city health environments manager, told the
Toronto Sun. "It used to be a Third World problem." Four years ago, Toronto health officials had 147 requests for help with bed bugs; in 2009 that number had climbed to 1,565. Up to 31 July this year, there had been 1,076 requests. The city runs a help website at
Toronto.ca.
Peonies may soon bring fresh hope to cancer patients. Its blossoms could help ease the distressing side effects of chemotherapy, researchers from Yale University School of Medicine suggest [Source:
Daily Mail].
Eating a portion of watercress everyday could help protect against cancer, according to a report from scientists at Southampton University in southern Britain, reported
The Sunday Telegraph. Doubtlessly it is a mere coincidence that the university is located in the county of Hampshire, long famed as England's premier source of watercress.
Bullfighter
Hacking the planet could be as messy as agreeing a global climate deal. That's the implication of a study by Katherine Ricke of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania into the effects of deploying a stratospheric sunshade of sulphate particles to cool the planet, explains the weekly
New Scientist. It would reduce temperature and precipitation all right, but climate in the 23 regions modelled in the study responded quite differently. The report appeared in the journal
Nature Geoscience.
Despite recent bad press, the IPCC report's core message remains accurate, according to an investigation ordered by the Dutch government. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) in Bilthoven, says that it is true that global warming poses substantial risks to societies and ecosystems on all continents [Source:
Nature].
