In the Greniad this week end there was a question about Legionaire's
disease and hanging basket.

The question was: Is my local council right to have banned hanging
baskets? The response was from Tom Smith and said: "They do apparently
pose some problems. It's not just that the baskets can fall on your
head. The water and soil dripping from them may contain Legionella,
and if you inhale the droplets you may catch Legionnaire's disease
from them. I've never seen a case report of it in a journal, but
someone says there's a risk. I love hanging baskets, and think the
enhancement they add to our quality of life far outweighs any such
risk."

I don't know which council banned the hanging baskets, but we've just
entered our neighbourhood in the Britain in Bloom comp. and just
hoping it's not the last year we have rights to hanging baskets!!