Garden chemicals – past and present

This week it’s:

GARDENERS have always needed to control the pests and diseases that invade their plants and gardens.

Over the centuries, they have used numerous ways to tackle such problems, from intricate traps, to simply digging-out and burning.

But gradually, chemicals were discovered to be quicker, easier and cheaper to use. For 200 years or more, noxious chemicals and toxic substances have been sprayed, sprinkled, smeared and smothered over plants and soils, and it has only been in the past 50 or so years that the world has realised that such chemicals, while effective, also make a huge and detrimental impact on the environment.

Let’s take