Garden Spot - Pets, Feet, and Bikes - August 2005

Lincolnshire has many pets, feet, and bikes; and that is very good. Lincolnshire has many beautiful residential gardens and equally beautiful formal and native conservancy planting areas, situated in public access areas; and that is also very good. To bring together these two valuable Lincolnshire assets, however, is not good.

The obvious problems which arise when these otherwise harmless entities are combined are pet wastes, unsightly to people and deadly to plants, and the mess created when pets, feet, and bikes trample garden shrubs, flowers, and plants.

A less obvious but even greater problem is the disease and insect population which love to watch the PFB parade pass through garden and conservancy areas and then feast upon the damaged plants. Wounded stem and leaf tissue allow pests to enter the plant freely. In addition, the plants' resistance to insects and diseases is compromised by their altered condition, allowing these villains to grow within the plants' systems without resistance. Lincolnshire's plantings are already in a fragile state, due to existing drought conditions. The additional burden of this marauding trio further complicates their efforts to survive.

Finally, diseases and insects know they can hitch a ride on any one of these garden trio intruders and settle in new and unsuspecting planted areas, without having to lift a wing or waste a single spore.

The pets, feet, and bikes of Lincolnshire, therefore, are encouraged to chart new paths around plant communities and assist Lincolnshire's plant, flowers and shrubs in doing their work to make Lincolnshire beautiful.