"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" writes

For a few years the shelves of most Garden centres were fairly devoid of the
killing stuff due to the banning and slow withdrawal of a lot of the
traditional and nasty stuff. I too have noticed that once again they are
increasing in volume and variety.
The actual range of chemicals used has dropped and many products which are
sold are technically organic (natural) without trumpeting the fact.
It is better now than it was and will continue to improve.
As far as the fertiliser stuff is concerned not much has changed-it's all
NPK of one form or another and AFAIC it is not a problem.

I do wonder whether we need so *much* of it. Surveys by Plantlife show
that the wildflowers that are increasing most are things like nettles
and the other thugs which like high nutrient soils, and we are losing
plants which are adapted to compete well on poor soils.

We also seem to be getting increasing problems of nitrogen run off into
streams


--
Kay