On 11/22/2010 11:43 PM, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...
On 11/21/2010 08:09 PM, gardenlen wrote:
2 options i suppose, one don't shred material that is infected with
some disease or other that might be transmitted. most of us don't
experience that as we run healthy gardens.
[snip]
"most of us don't experience" garden diseases seems like a
stretch in our climate! 
If anything, Australia is even more careful about biosecurity than
Britain; travellers between states are banned from carrying fruits
because of the risk of spreading disease to commerial crops, and certain
plants are banned from entry or dispersal in the wild.
Maybe the poster was just obsessed with garden hygiene...
Not that
it helps much against a lot of what we have to fight! And of course, no
matter how careful we might be, many garden center plants are infected
with this or that.
In the UK, some highly infectious plant diseases such as
phytophtheras are notifiable, because of the risks they pose to native
ecology, historic gardens, and commercial growers. The disposal of
phytophthera-infected plants (and various invasive weeds) is heavily
regulated and legislated.
Bad stuff, sorry to hear you've got to deal with it. I had one case I
was pretty confident about, but difficult to diagnose with surety. The
(sadly rather expensive) plant in question was dug out and burned.
-E