Madam, - A few weeks ago on Gerry Daly's gardening programme on RTÉ radio, a listener asked advice about a sickly pyracantha hedge in her garden. The panel mentioned the usual horticultural reasons for the problem - soil too wet, too dry etc. Then, ominously, they considered that her hedge might be suffering from a bad infectious disease called fire blight.
If fire blight were to be confirmed by an agricultural expert then her only option is to cut the plants to base or, better, dig them out altogether.
But at this point the good advice stopped. What is the listener to do with the uprooted shrubs? The only safe and sensible solution is to burn them - but burning is now illegal. Perhaps, fondly seeing herself as a good citizen, she may have brought the diseased plants to a recycling depot - thus effectively spreading the infection.
I find the total ban on burning in gardens is too harsh and restrictive. My hope is that in time the ban will be applied as loosely as is the present ban on the fireworks which disrupt our peace for a few weeks around Halloween every year.
And is a bonfire OK on "Bonfire Night"? - Yours, etc,
(Mrs) EDNA WHITE, Booterstown Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.