[Sca-cooks] Re: Barberries (was "Just a Feast")

[Diamond Randall]

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>Using landscape plants for food is not a good idea, unless you are grow
>them yourself.  No telling what they have been sprayed with.
>Ranvaig

Maybe, maybe not.   It is my experience that sprays are more likely in
residential foundation plantings than in massive park or campus plantings.
The scale of the area has a lot to do with the frequency of pesticide and
herbicidal use.  To a large extent, landscape planners specify shrubs
like barberry because they are relatively pest free and thick enough
to shade out weeds in a properly mulched planting.   These areas are
also usually bird and wildlife sanctuaries and spraying is usually more
judicious
than the ignorant homeowner's use of chemicals.  In this case, barberries
form very late in the summer and persist into mid winter, usually long past
regular spray schedules.  Barberries, being free of most pests, are also not
likely spray candidates anyway.  The high cost of spraying huge plantings
with the severe budget cutbacks park services and campus now face
make encountering hazardous barberries much less likely.  If there is
doubt, ask the maintenance department.

Akim

--- Diamond Randall
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