Do you grow your own food?

There is a concern in the society about the relationship between the chronic kidney disease and the use of agro chemicals among Sri Lankan farmers. Many types of herbicides,pesticides and synthetic fertilizers are imported each year and it's postulated that these things contribute to the kidney disease.

It's revealed that famers have more affected than others but they are not the only victims. These chemicals accumulate in the food chain,pollute water ways and enter our bodies through food and water. What will these chemicals do to us after entering our bodies?? If you pay attention to the society you will notice there is increased incidents of cancer patients in the society within the past few years. Could it be related to these chemicals? It may be, but I'm not a researcher and I'm just saying my openion.

When my parents were little,they used to grow vegetables,fruits lentils etc in there gardens. They could pluck any amount of green leaves when they went to the home garden.They used cow dung,leaves and composted materials as the fertilizer. They took seeds for the next harvest from the previous harvest and never bought seed from a shop. Even now they can remember the taste of those foods they ate at that time.

Well..All the things in the society have changed during the past few decades including the agriculture and farming. People started to use machines and synthetic chemicals and they were given seeds which were crossed to yeild more harvest. In the process of yeilding better and bigger crops they invented gene modified organisms (GMO) and hybrid seeds. Some says these things are necessary to fulfill the growing food requirements in the world but I don't know. They are not natural! Hybrid seeds will grow well and give better harvest but the seeds obtain from them will not grow and give again a harvest,therefore farmers have to buy seeds next time. Furthermore these seeds do not grow well with normal conditions and fertilizers from the seed company have to be bought and added to the field. In this way farmers have had to be dependent on companies.
There's a new trend to grow food at home base and organic farming, which is a very good thing and these things have to be promoted more.

Chillies on a flower pot.

Okey. Considering all of the things, I think going back to basic and grow our own food is the best option. It's very easy to go to the market,spend money and buy food but growing your own food is a bit difficult. But it's very rewarding and there's no pleasure other than plucking a fruit or vegetable from a tree that you have planted by yourself. I also don't have a garden filled with vegetables and others.I have few plants that I have planted but I'm still trying and learning to do better.

Tomato plants in polythen bags.

As you may have seen in tv,news papers or magazins you can plant them in beds,pots or in used plasric bottles,old rice bags etc. Starting and maintaining will be bit difficult but using organic fertilizers and insecticide methods you will get a harvest which is healthy and tasty. Save seeds from the harvest to use in next time.

                            
I have few green peppers and they are just enough for a meal.. :-)
There are few helpful leaflets by Department of Agriculture and you can download them from this page. http://studentlanka.com/2017/04/22/download-agriculture-books-publications-free/

 I'm not an expert in this field but I'm still learning and I said what I know. If you have better ideas I'll be happy to hear them..
Bye for now. Wish you good luck!! :-)

Butterflies in Sri Lanka

Are you interested in butterflies?? Well I do... If you are not,I invite you to go to your home garden (preferably in the mornings) and have a look!

These days I go to our garden and I see hundreds of butterflies, emerging from north west and headed for south-east across our garden. I've never seen such large number of butterflies at one place in my life. May be it's because I didn't look for them before. May be they are going to 'Sri Paadaya' (Adams peak).

I can see black, yellow ,white, brown and all sort of colours of butterflies flying near me & above me & it gives me a really joyful feeling.I can only recognize some of them by their name.There are Ceylon Tigers,Common Mime,Blue Mormon,Common mormon,Crimson Rose,Chocolate Pansy & many more. :-)

I tried to get some photos but I couldn't, because I do not have a good camara and most of them were flying rapidly. :-( But I like to show you some of them & sorry for the poor quality of some photos.There are also some old photos I had taken for the last few years.

He looks like 'Chocolet Pansy'.

Can you find him? :-)

They are the commenest ones.

 This one is very pretty. Great orange tip.

One with a broken wing,ceylon tigers.They are very common too.

Blue Mormon from the side.

 He has just came out ot the cocoon.

 A small one.

 Common Mormon.

 Chestnut-streaked sailer.

I met this one on the way.He might be a moth.
Okk.I hope you enjoy these.Please remember that they are a part of the nature & we have a responsibility to protect them.Grow some flowers for them & save wild flowers for them instead of destroying them..
Bye for now.wish you good luck!! :-)

First one

Hi everyone!! This is my first blog post ever... As the name suggest I want to have a simple yet contented life. If you are already having that life or you want to have that life, I would like to hear your ideas about that.. :-)