A Poison Spree

 It shows how up to date I am in the garden (thanks to all the wonderful summer weather over the last couple of months) when I finally get around to clearing shelves in the garage. However, and retaining a gardening theme, I attacked all those historic containers of pesticides and weedkillers that have been sitting there for years (in one instance over a decade and a half) with a vengeance. Having resolved to adopt organic methods several years ago, it was a long overdue clearout.

Imagine my surprise when a check of the labels revealed a host of containers with chemicals now banned within the E.U., although luckily some, if not most, I've never actually used. Whatever were farmers and gardeners thinking of throwing volumes of bifenthrin, malathion, permethrin (even their names are frightening) onto plants in the hope of discouraging insects, not to mention copper sulphate to treat fungus and sodium chlorate and simazine onto weeds. All poisons of one degree or another that have been allowed to enter the soil, devastate the eco-balance and potentially enter the food chain. Of course, prior to retirement and as a hard-pressed weekend gardener, rushing into a local garden centre, finding a bottle of whatever, without looking at or even thinking about the ingredients, was all par for the course. It seems so appalling now that the evidence of my lack of thought and consideration is boxed up ready to take to the local Council tip where hazardous waste is accepted, as obviously it cannot be disposed of in either sink or dustbin.

Maybe it's been the dry warm conditions but I'd like to think my chemical free garden with the new wild flower border is promoting an abundance of bees and butterflies whilst our hedgehog population has doubled (from one to two)!

Fingers crossed that there's no dilution in environmental standards  so far as insecticides, and weedkillers are concerned as we complete the Brexit process and that instead sustainable practices are encouraged.

Over the summer my coffee table book of choice has been "Practical Self Sufficiency" by Dick and James Strawbridge. Ever conscious of the reports that households will need to accumulate food supplies and the NHS stockpile medicines as our country pursues its course of national suicide (perhaps it would be easier if we all just took a swig of those poisons in the garden shed), I've begun to appreciate the various traditional uses for herbs as well as increasing vegetable yields with my multi-crop sunken beds.

Of course, it hasn't yet reached the stage where I'm planning to keep chickens or cure my own meat and fish. If it does, however, the book will be next to my armchair ready.