shiukopuppy's Blog

Vegetables, herbs, flowers..
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!