Two weeks ago I wrote about the history of biological controls in gardening and noted that these days they were once again most people’s preferred way of tackling disease and pests. However no one in Victorian England – or indeed most of the 20th century – would’ve believed the lengths to which many of us 21st-century humans go to protect the planet, the plants, other creatures and ourselves. Instead they relied on chemicals which were dangerous in the extreme.
Until 1851 you could buy arsenic, opium, or strychnine an almost any other poison you could think of from your local chemist. No questions asked. After all laudanum – a polite way of concealing opium – was the pain relief of choice, while arsenic was used as a cosmetic as well as for controlling rats and mice. Both they and many other poisons were often used mixed with other substances to form homemade pesticides. But if you thought that was bad were the 20thc answers to pest control such as DDT any better?
However one thing is for sure pests and diseases didn’t stand much chance against such an armoury , unfortunately nor did many humans.
A family wedding took me to County Durham recently and on the way we passed The Angel of the North. It is such an extraordinary addition to the landscape that on the way home we did a detour and went to see it close up.
The Garden History Blog 
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