Gardening and eating fresh vegetables are good for you, giving both exercise, relaxation and at the end of the day fresh tasty vegetables. Never mind five a day, during peak vegetable season you’ll be on at least ten a day. However, there are some dangers lurking in the vegetable patch.
You are probably aware that some plants can be toxic both to us and our pets, but even the most common garden plants can have hidden dangers.
Take parsnips for example. When preparing for the Brinkworth Show a few years ago, I set out to harvest the show parsnips on a very hot day in late August wearing a short sleeved top. Harvesting involved diving head first into the parsnip patch to pull out the best looking specimens. The day after the show I was at the gym and my upper arms started to feel very itchy. That night I had large blisters, up to about 5cm in diameter, which were extremely painful and looked disgusting. It took a visit to the doctors and several months to heal. I still bear the scars.
Photo - the actual parsnips that were to blame, and not even first place (lucky to get second)
Little did I know but parsnip leaves can contain furanocoumarins, a phototoxic substance that causes phytophotodermatitis. In short, the skin is stripped of its protection from UVA in sunlight leading to severe sunburn. It is present in the leaves of a lot of the carrot family, and more usually associated with Giant Hogweed.
Photo - You can never have too many
courgettes!
Another toxic pant to hit the headlines recently was courgettes. Last year, there were a lot of media reports of bitter tasting courgettes, which is caused by an over production of the plants natural defence chemicals (cucurbitacins). According to the RHS it is caused by a mutation most likely due to cross pollination between varieties. Some gardeners, loath to admit their courgettes were horrid still eat them and there were reports of symptoms such as stomach cramp, severe diarrhea, a racing heart, with some requiring trips to A&E. In a very extreme case a pensioner in Germany died after eating bitter courgettes.
These incidents are rare, but at least from now on I harvest parsnips with a long sleeved shirt on, and make sure that if any vegetable tastes odd I don’t carry on and use it anyway.
There are a lot of other plants that can be toxic, most gardeners know that rhubarb leaves are poisonous and you should avoid eating foxgloves (!) but there are many other toxic plants. There is also a garden devoted to toxic plants (Alnwick Poison Garden), which is well worth a visit, if you are visiting Northumberland.
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