shiukopuppy's Blog
shiukopuppy's posts about: pesticide
Sep 11, 2007 | 2:36 AM PST
Tags: chickens , pesticide , DDT , herbs , vegetables , flowers
The discovery of pesticide residues in my garden came as a bit of a
shock, but I'm now trying to find ways to work with what I have. My
main approach will be to build the beds up with imported soil and plant
in this soil only - no digging, no root vegetables, no direct
planting.. It's inconvenient, but what can you do when pesticides
remain there for decades? I'd say it's probably a very common sob story
and I'm just glad that I do know what's really in my soil - my old
chickens probably did serve me DDT infused eggs, but I just didn't know
about it!
I had a look into my seedling diary for the spring expectations - am waiting for these darlings to grow:
Vegetables:
Thai, Bangalore, Cabai Burong Chilli
Tomatoes: Cherry Pomodoro, Tomato Mix, San Marzano
Eggplants: Machiaw, Melanzana, Asian Bride, Thai
Leek, Soy beans, Watermelon, Pumpkin
Herbs:
Lemongrass, Coriander, Shiso, Thai basil, Basil, Chamomile, Dill, Parsley, Sage, Chives
Flowers:
Foxgloves, Snapdragons, Poppies, Toadflax, Thistles, Sweetpeas,
Wisteria, Natives, Platycodon, Calendula, Cornflower, Strawflower,
Marigolds
I also bought some Rue and Feverfew at the garden center on the weekend. Will plant them with the Wormwood cuttings I took recently - they will go around my chicken run to keep them healthy. For the chickens, i will also grow Pigeon Pea, Tagasaste, and Lablab, plus my soy leaf scraps and linseed too for omega content in the eggs! The coop is still being built.. we are architecturally challenged..
I was sure I planted cucumbers and other things - will need to investigate further!
Above: 2 cute chickens from this Japanese website: http://www.is.hallab.co.jp/~a
ndo/index.html
There are loving photos of these chickens as they grow up!
Sep 5, 2007 | 12:34 AM PST
Tags: pesticide , DDT , DDD , Dieldrin , DDE , silkie bantam , soil test
We got garden soil test results back and it was depressing! We wanted some pet chickens but had read that pesticide residues in the soil can be toxic for chickens and also humans (because the pesticides will also collect in the eggs). A good friend of mine has some silkie bantams to spare that she was going to gift to us but we have to be very careful how we protect them - if we accept them at all. (Above is cute little silkie from a breeder's website who I must credit - http://www.chickedeefarm.com/)
.
The results of the soil test found that we have:
0.24 mg/kg DDE
0.02 mg/kg Dieldrin
0.05 mg/kg DDD
0.18 mg/kg DDT
If I had moved in chickens without testing the soil, they would have been living in conditions 200 times the maximum amount of pesticide they should be allowed which would also have harmed me. And I know that pesticides can be absorbed by root vegetables as well, but I can't find any information about the safety of fruit and vegetables grown in soil like this. Is it any healthier than buying store-bought vegetables, or is growing them pointless. Any advice?
Sep 3, 2007 | 4:12 AM PST
Tags: green manure , choi sum , pak choi , kai laan , oats , companion planting , organochlorides , pesticide , Bokashi bucket , almond , snapdragon , coriander , mint , spinach , lettuce
After all of my uploaded images were deleted, I lost faith in garden
blogging. But I have done my grieving and am going to try again because I've had lots of fun hanging around on gardenguides. How have you all been? :) I've
also been busy preparing for Australian spring lately which left me little time for computer distraction..
During the last month, my boyfriend and I bought a cheap greenhouse and set it up in the backyard. There are shelves for his bonsai trees and cuttings and I have filled my side with seed trays that will grow my companion plants, herbs and vegetable seedlings. I've also sown lots of flowers and sprinkled some flower seeds over the lawn.
We sent our garden soil to a lab to test for organochlorides - if that goes well, we will get a couple of chickens to move in. If there are pesticide residues here, we will have to do without them. We also invested in a Bokashi bucket which uses beneficial bacteria to prepare compost, and prepares meat, citrus, eggshells for composting too, so there is minimal waste. Spring bulbs are flowering and cherries and plum trees are starting to blossom!
LOVING UPDATES on my pre-existing plants:
Almond tree: the buds are swelling, and it looks like the flowers will be pink and white!
The snapdragons look like they will also burst soon..
The nashi pear buds are also swelling but I have had to protect the buds with paper bags because the possums decimated all of the leaf growth last year.
Coriander, mint, spinach, lettuce, peas and flat leaf parsley are thriving. Onions are growing along steadily..
Asian greens - mibuna, pak choi, kai laan, choi sum, mizuna etc. are doing very well.
The green manure (oats) is almost ready to be dug into the soil to prepare for the gray water lawn.
And my garlic is growing! So satisfying.. ^_^
