抖音大瓜 was formed in September 2011. Since then we have tirelessly been promoting a better living environment through gardening, and protecting what many of us see as being crucial to London and nature.
There have all been challenges along the way, but resilience has shown through. I am pleased that more of us have seen the need to do as much as possible to protect the future.
抖音大瓜 will, of course, continue this work but our thanks must go to all those who have worked hard to protect what we have, and continue to do so. Well done.
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Kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, and kohlrabi are staples in kitchens around the world, each valued for their distinct nutritional profiles and flavours.
But what might surprise many is that these seemingly diverse vegetables all originate from the same species, Brassica oleracea.
Thanks to human cultivation, this one species has evolved into the varied vegetables we enjoy today. "It is all one plant, Brassica oleracea, that humans have selected over multiple generations to have these varying vegetables that we all enjoy eating", explains Makenzie Mabry, an evolutionary biologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
While many other crops, like heirloom tomatoes, have been selectively bred for attributes such as colour, flavour, and size, the Brassica family stands out for its selective breeding of different plant parts.
The domestication of Brassica oleracea's different parts has not only given us a variety of vegetables but also a broad spectrum of nutritional benefits. Each variation has adapted to its environment, producing different antioxidants and compounds that contribute to their unique tastes and health benefits.
"They were weeds before they were crops", according to Alex McAlvay, an ethnobotanist at the New York Botanical Garden. For example, as some societies cultivated the weeds with less-bitter leaves or more tender shoots, those traits evolved into the crops farmers now grow commercially.
The way we understand the evolution of these species is always evolving.
Plants that humans have cultivated can revert to a wild state if neglected, or they can interbreed with wild plants through cross-pollination, becoming feral. In contrast, plants that have never been domesticated are considered truly wild. This makes Brassica oleracea a key subject in studying hybridisation and broader evolutionary trends.
"Everyone grows these in their backyard", Mabry states, noting that it's a go-to beginner crop for home gardeners. "I think we have a real close connection to this plant as a society.鈥�
Organic waste, including food and garden waste, makes up the largest share of U.S. trash, more than any other material, including paper and plastic.
Residential food composting programs have been tested in a number of U.S. cities, including New York City, Austin and Milwaukee, and more than 180 communities collect food waste from residences.
Compost is a valuable resource that reduces fertiliser use while enhancing the chemical, physical and biological properties of soil. Many Americans dutifully recycle their plastic bottles and newspapers, but when it comes to food and garden waste they toss it directly into the trash.
While it seems like a banana peel here and pile of spoiled greens there would do little in the way of environmental harm, food waste is actually the second largest component of waste sent to U.S. landfills, making up 18% of the waste stream, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Garden trimmings make up another 7%. When combined, this organic waste makes up the largest share of U.S. trash, more than any other material, including paper and plastic.
In all, the food waste alone amounts to more than 30 million tons of waste entering U.S. landfills every year. This is particularly tragic since food and garden waste is easily recycled, though not by placing it in a recycling bin at your curb.
Residential food composting programs have been tested in a number of U.S. cities, including New York City, Austin and Milwaukee, and more than 180 communities collect food waste from residences. Many of the programs started out by allowing residents to add food scraps to their garden waste recycling bins.
In the city of Oak Park, Illinois, for instance, a residential food scraps program was tested in 2012 and expanded as a subscription service in 2013. By 2017, about 740 households and six multi-family buildings participated.
The organic recycling service costs an additional $14 per month and is diverting an estimated 10 pounds of food scraps and soiled paper per household/per week from landfills to composting.
Composting food waste is about far more than simply conserving limited landfill space. For starters, when organic materials sit in landfills, bacteria break them down into methane gas, which is the third largest source of U.S. emissions, so cutting back on the amount of organics entering landfills cuts back on these emissions.
Also important, food waste can be turned into a valuable resource, compost, that is otherwise wasted. Although often described as fertiliser, compost is actually most valued for its organic matter content.
While it reduces fertiliser use, it also enhances the chemical, physical and biological properties of soil, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR). Topsoil loss and erosion are major concerns in the 21st century, leading to watershed problems and threatening "our ability to sustain life on Earth", ILSR noted.
Advancing composting and compost use is a key sustainability strategy to create jobs, protect watersheds, improve soil vitality and build resilient local economies" they continued. In their 2014 report, The State of Composting in the U.S., ILSR highlighted many of the benefits of amending soil with compost:
The Marin Carbon Project in Northern California, which began in 2008, revealed how valuable composting is to communities. Researchers applied one-half inch of compost over land used for grazing cattle and have been observing the land for more than a decade.
Forage on the composted areas increased by 40% to 70%, year after year. The change was so dramatic that the cattle herds tended to feed primarily in the areas that had been treated with compost.
The project also revealed increases in the amount of water-holding capacity in the soil, which are a major benefit in the drought-prone area, plus significant increases in soil carbon were noted, it's estimated that one-third of the surplus carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stems from poor land management processes that contribute to the loss of carbon, such as carbon dioxide, from farmlands.
The process, known as carbon sequestration, could help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while regenerating the soil and more. If it can be done in California, it can be done elsewhere as well, with radical benefits to the environment.
With immense benefits and potential to transform the way food waste is handled in the U.S., why haven't more large-scale composting programs been started? As ILSR pointed out:
"The potential to expand composting is enormous. The U.S. disposes of 164 million tons of garbage per year. Almost half the materials Americans discard, food scraps, garden trimmings and soiled paper, is compostable."
City-wide recycling programs will soon expand to collect food and garden waste along with other recyclables, with the organic material being sent to composting facilities. Your compost zone should be conveniently located, as close as possible to your source of raw materials (kitchen scraps, lawn clippings or soiled paper products) where it won't be too much of an eyesore.
Japanese Knotweed is a resilient and tough weed. It has roots that can grow to a depth of two metres. These roots are known as rhizomes and they鈥檙e a special sort of root that is also a shoot. These stretch out horizontally and can extend up to seven metres wide. These special root-systems are capable of growing new Japanese Knotweed plants independently.
Herbicide treatment can control the weed and kill the surface growth, forcing the weed to go into a dormant state, so that it won鈥檛 spring backup. But the deep underground root system is very resilient and re-growth can occur, especially if the contaminated ground is disturbed.
Even a tiny amount of the rhizome as small as 0.5g can cause a knotweed outbreak. Due to this, it needs to be treated as special waste and moving it requires special waste-carrier licences.
In 1850, the Leiden nursery dispatched an unsolicited parcel of plants, including Japanese knotweed, to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. In 1854 a knotweed specimen arrived at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.
This is the same year that a nursery in Kingston became the earliest recorded nursery to offer knotweed for sale in Britain. Thereafter it was sold and distributed by a large number of commercial nurseries and amateur enthusiasts and was reported as becoming naturalised in the UK by 1886.
By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the dangers of the plant were becoming clear. An account of the flora of Alexandra Park in Oldham, published in 1887, saw how knotweed kept appearing 鈥渦nexpectedly in nearly every piece of cultivated ground.鈥�
Gertrude Jekyll, previously an ardent admirer of Dwarf Japanese knotweed Fallopia japonica var. compacta, admitted in 1899 that knotweed should be planted with caution and that her beloved Dwarf knotweed must be reduced. In 1905, the Royal Horticultural Society urged readers of their Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society to not plant knotweed unless it was 鈥渕ost carefully kept in check鈥�.
By this time, it was too late to reverse the impact of knotweed, and the plant鈥檚 current status is increasing and invasive. Despite the warnings it was not until as late as 1981 that the British government saw fit to produce legislation that specifically controlled its sale and spread - The Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Knotweed contamination is so invasive that it requires special measures to treat, extract and dispose of.
How can you get rid of Japanese knotweed organically? By either digging it up, burning it or smothering it with a tarpaulin. None of these methods require the use of any herbicides that could potentially damage nearby plants. However, they each have their drawbacks.
It grows widely throughout Japan and is foraged as a wild edible vegetable sansai, though not in sufficient quantities to be included in statistics.
A travel way has been inaugurated from The Isle of Grain to Woolwich, but nobody thought that a northern route could be created to Purfleet from Bishopsgate.
Having looked at Google Earth, and walking some of the way, there seems to be a viable route taking in the country parks, rivers and nature reserves leading from The River Roding to Purfleet, the route from Bishopsgate to The River Roding having already been proven.
Before The RSPB sanctuary is reached at the end of our route, you can also see:
Enjoy an adventure into nature, whether you explore this medieval landscape on foot or by bike.
Rainham Marshes is carefully managed to make sure it has the perfect conditions for its wildlife. Cattle are grazed and water levels are managed to create a patchwork of clumpy wet grassland and semi-permanent pools.
This is the ideal habitat for marshland birds such as Lapwings and Redshanks as well as for wintering wildfowl, waders and some birds of prey. The ditches are also looked after to help Water Voles, reptiles, amphibians and minibeasts thrive.
Some areas of the tall grass and scrub are left unmanaged to provide ideal hunting grounds for wintering Short-eared Owls as well as nesting sites for Reed Buntings. The RSPB take special care of some of our sandy areas, where specialist insect life likes to live.
Source
How to use Japanese knotweed instead of rhubarb compote in recipes.
