I am not much of a pack rat except when it comes to trivia. Garden trivia, to be precise. I find it amazing how much stuff is going on in the world of horticulture that often impacts our daily lives and is not widely known.
This column is intended to change that, in some small way.
Medical marvels
Did you, for instance, know that the largest botanical garden in the world, Kew Gardens in London, England, is home not only to the most extensive collection of genetic plant material but that they employ more than 300 full-time staff in a medical research department? The idea of this massive undertaking is based on the fact that more than 30 per cent of the drugs in current use worldwide originally were derived from the world of plants. Today’s dandelion could be tomorrow’s solution to indigestion. Who knows?
As a footnote, this medical mandate at Kew goes all the way back to the original charter of the place more than 350 years ago. Another factoid: our own Royal Botanical Garden in Burlington and the Montreal Botanical Garden have similar mandates, though smaller than Kew. The research staff at Canada’s botanical gardens collaborate with others in the field around the world.
Worm magic
Here is a little bit of news that you should share with your children or grandchildren, as all youngsters either love or hate earth worms and everyone loves worm gossip. An earth worm consumes decomposing material equal to its body weight each day throughout the summer. What comes out the rear end of the worms is called worm castings. When applied to plants as a nutrient-rich fertilizer, worm castings help to dramatically reduce a plants susceptibility to aphids, whiteflies and other bugs. The castings themselves are about seven times more phosphorous-rich, have five times more nitrogen, 1.5 times more calcium and 1,000 times more beneficial bacteria packed than the stuff they consume. Their digestive system, one could argue, is a miracle worker.
Speaking of fascinating facts, Organic Gardening magazine reports that the average fully detached home has about two tonnes of earth worms crawling through the soil in the yard. Sleep well in the knowledge …
Grow Your Own Food, but How Much?
The increasing popularity of growing food plants to feed ourselves is not exclusively a Canadian phenomenon. Based on my own extensive reading on the subject, Europeans are ahead of us on this curve and the Americans are running neck in neck with us. Which raises the question, if you were to raise all of the food that you consume in your own yard, what size would it have to be to feed a family of four? Kevin Hartnett of the Boston Globe quoted One Block-Off the Grid when he stated: “To feed a family of four strictly on a home-grown diet of vegetables, you’d need 1.76 acres. Add meat, dairy, corn and wheat to those vegetables and you’d need more land, but not much more — about two well-organized acres would be enough.� Ready for your move to the country?
Who ARE Gardeners?
I have argued in recent years that gardeners are not mutually exclusive from, say, birders, conservationists, environmentalists or community activists. Very often they are the same people. I was pleased to read Nigel Colborn’s column in The Garden Magazine (Great Britain) wherein he explains: “Responsible garden owners are also wildlife conservators. The plight of bees and other pollinators is widely recognised but most wild species are in decline, largely because of habitat loss. Well-managed gardens can play a strong role in fostering diversity. Small adjustments to management, such as abandoning lawn herbicides or planting for pollinators, can result in dramatic increases in hundreds of species.� This shows how our garden activity contributes in a measurable way to the greater natural environment around us. Again, gardeners do not plant and nurture for their own benefit exclusively. We do it for the greater good of the whole neighbourhood.
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