Newsletter Summer 09

A Wildlife Garden

is a Healthy Garden!

NewsFlash:

Deaths from medicines increasing

NHS medicines lead to the death of 1299 people in the UK in 2008. The figures, from the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, an executive agency of the UK Government Department of Health), show an alarming increase in deaths and other ‘adverse reactions’. They may be an under-estimate, because adverse reactions are widely believed to be under-reported.

Gardening For Wildlife

Surprise – It’s Easy!

A garden that encourages wildlife is a healthy garden, both for the wildlife, and for us. Most people with a garden would like to manage it in a wildlife-friendly way, but sometimes we imagine wildlife gardens have to be big, expensive and full of nettles.

Good news! Wildlife gardening is easier than you think, according to a recent book called No Nettles Required. This book debunks a lot of myths.

The book reports research from the University of Sheffield into ordinary urban gardens. This was not a study of parks or nature reserves, but ordinary gardens.
Here are some of the findings.

TRUE: Plants on ‘wildlife-friendly lists’ are good. This does not mean that plants not on the lists are bad!
TRUE: It helps to grow a wide variety of plants. Don’t leave bare ground, and include flowers, shrubs, trees and long grass if you can.
TRUE: It helps to grow many different flower types: open, tubular, early and late flowering, night scented, etc. But avoid double flowers, they are hard for insects to get into.
TRUE: Ponds however small, trees and compost heaps are all fantastic for increasing wildlife.
TRUE: Feeding the birds attracts them to your garden. But please feed all year, once you start, and don’t limit them to peanuts.
TRUE: ALL gardens are wildlife-friendly! But some more than others, for example, these things are not helpful: hard surfaces, and too many conifers, ferns or grasses.

FALSE: Only large gardens can be wildlife-friendly.
Size is not important. Large garden or small, your garden can encourage the same creatures. Wildlife of all kinds does not recognise boundaries and simply treats your patch as part of a wider area.
FALSE: Only suburban gardens, or those near open country, can be wildlife-friendly.
Urban gardens are just as good – except for birds.
FALSE: Wildlife means having lots of mammals and birds.
Even in a wildlife-friendly garden, you are lucky to see more than a dozen bird species and half a dozen mammals. By far the most numerous wildlife consists of insects and micro-organisms. These are food for the larger species, and these are the things you can most easily influence by how you garden. Lots of bugs = attract larger wildlife.
FALSE: You can easily attract birds by putting up nest boxes.
Sorry - it's not easy. Neither birds, nor bats or bumblebees, are easily attracted to human-made nests. Surprisingly, the only garden nest boxes occupied frequently are those for solitary bees. These are made from hollow sticks, or holes in wood.
FALSE: You have to grow a nettle patch.
There are so many nettles in the wild, it is unlikely that nettles in gardens make a significant difference (I'm pleased to hear that!). Small patches rarely attract caterpillars anyway.
FALSE: Only native plants are wildlife-friendly.
Native plants are good - and so are non-native plants! Experts often don't even agree about what they mean by ‘native plants’. A lot of plants you think are native were in fact introduced from elsewhere. Field poppies. Snowdrops. Surprised?
But good news: many garden and native plants belong to large families that spread throughout the northern hemisphere. Wildlife of all sizes can usually eat many members of the family - not just the ‘native’ one. So grow what you like!
Also, many animals and insects eat a variety of plants. Only very few are dependent on one particular plant. Pollinating insects such as bees and hoverflies will take pollen from a wide range of flowers, certainly not only from natives.
And predators, such as bats, dragonflies, hedgehogs and some birds, are not interested in plants at all! It’s the worms and insects they want.

  Safe Barbecue Cooking

• HCAs (heterocyclic amines): particularly found in blackened or charred meat, and flame-grilled chicken.
• PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons): from fat dripping onto the flames and burning; if the smoke gets onto your food, it adds PAHs. (This is different from smoked food where fat is not burned.)
• AGEs (advanced glycation end-products): these are increased by cooking at high temperatures. They carry an increased risk of heart and kidney disease, diabetes, and all kinds of inflammation.

How to Barbecue Safely and Still Enjoy It

• Get your barbie ready in good time so the burning flames have died down.
• Use real meat or fish; avoid barbecuing processed meat such as hotdogs.
• Trim off fat, and avoid fatty meats that may drip: the fat flares up.
  
• Marinate meat first for at least 4 hours; this tenderises, flavours and also reduces HCAs significantly. Use something acid such as red wine, lemon juice, vinegar or fruit juice.
• Cook food indirectly, on a rack or pan, or in foil, rather than over coals.
• Avoid overcooking meat. Cook just enough – ideally not more than semi-rare.
• Above all, avoid burning meat. Turn it frequently. A good barbecue does not need to burn food.
  
• Eat some salad with it, and some fruit salad afterwards, to increase the healthy content! You can even add blueberries to your burger mix. Flavonoids in fruit and veg reduce the damage done by HCAs.
  
• By the way, 'meat' includes fish. Don't burn fish either.
  

What about vegetarians?

Vegetables and fruit don’t contain HCAs, and usually contain less toxic chemicals than meat and other fatty foods: fat tends to accumulate some of the worst toxins. If veggies are burned they may still generate toxic chemicals, so be careful. Avoid burning: pre-cook/wrap in foil/check frequently.

Vegetables and fruit contain flavonoids and other antioxidants which are protective of health and help reduce the risk of cancer.

I have heard that starchy vegetables such as potatoes may produce carcinogenic chemicals if overheated.
I have no information about products such as tofu, veggie burgers, gluten products, or tempeh. Just don't burn them.

What about food poisoning?

References:

Let me know any up-to-date news to add.
Thanks!  Helen Swan

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Helen Swan, 28 Collapark, Totnes TQ9 5LN.