Kitchen Garden Forum

Is the EU a weed, pest or disease?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/9501474/Guilty-of-pesticide.html

Thanks Colin

A fuller link to the article

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/95 ... w-RHS.html

I have a lot of full "piss bottles" - for compost and fox deterrence - perhaps the eurocrats would like to take some

Ah well there's always beer traps, or are there?

Speechless!!!!!

So have I read this correctly? If I put coffee grounds down and say I'm using them as a form of mulch then everything is hunky dory BUT if I say I'm using them as a pest deterrent then I'm breaking the law!!!

As I said "speechless"!!!

VPM
x

don't worry VPM - I'd offer to come and visit you in jail if you get caught but afraid this won't be possible as I'll be in the adjoining cell !!

To think that these bureaucrat earn good salaries for coming up with stuff like this! It really rots your socks doesn't it?

Of course, before we get our collective gardening knickers in a twist, it's as well to remember that it's only here that we call them "Brussels laws". In France and other sensible countries they call them "British laws" (we are the only ones daft enough to abide by them) and carry on regardless

Much ado about nothing, I think.

It is obvious that some control over what is applied to edible crops is required, lest we pollute the place with heavy metals and other such nasties, like Victorian gardeners used to. If you accept that, then it is difficult to draw a hard, enforceable line without having some apparent absurdities.

Note that it is not the EU threatening draconian enforcement of the law by fining gardeners who use coffee grounds; it is simply a third party stirring up a story by saying (rightly) that they could if they wanted to. The lack of any mechanism to monitor or enforce the law against domestic gardeners rather suggests that they are really interested in larger scale agriculture, not what you get up to in the garden. Even then, there are organic farms which use substantial amounts of coffee grounds in their composting process - they don't seem to get grief, so it is unlikely anyone will come after us !