Chapter 354 New Vegetation
The concept in the book is ecological balance. The ideal state is to create the most balanced and perfect planting method without using any human technology, including fertilizers and pesticides.
Zhao Yeqing originally thought so too. Things that are to be eaten should be grown in the most organic way possible, including pests, which should be removed by flushing or picking them off manually.
The most I can do is use some orange peel essential oil and tobacco water like I did two years ago.
But neither of these two things is of any use against this year's insect pests.
You can try this method in the book.
Zhao Yeqing closed the book and ran out of the yard, ran to the fish pond, and found the ten ducks playing happily inside.
The weather has been hot recently, so the ducks are allowed to swim in it during the day to cool down.
I used a long pole to drive all the ducks out of the pond. The ducks have grown a lot now and will become adults in less than a month.
As the ducks grew up, their fur color changed significantly, and you could tell at a glance that they were a group of green-headed ducks.
The male and female green-headed ducks are very easy to distinguish. Only the male duck has a green head, while the female duck is brown with gray spots all over. There are seven males and three females in the ten ducks.
Normally, when these ducks played in the fish pond, they would be allowed to play until the evening before being sent back. However, today, they were sent back after playing for only a short time, and they were quite reluctant.
The ducks were driven to the greenhouse in the backyard. Mu Xi opened the door of the greenhouse fence and let the ducks go in.
This place is usually sealed off. It was the first time for the duck to come in. It was a little wary at first, but the next second after seeing the insects on the fruit tree, it rushed forward and began to peck at the insects on the fruit tree. It was so fast that Zhao Yeqing could vaguely see its afterimage.
The peppers and tomatoes have grown quite tall, and the vines of climbing crops such as cucumbers and loofahs are all on racks more than one meter high. The ducks can't reach the insects at such high places, so they want to flutter up and fly to eat them. Mu Xi hurried forward to stop them.
If they all swarmed over, the plants and the racks would probably be crushed.
Zhao Yeqing connected a long hose to the faucet, pulled it into the greenhouse in the yard, pinched the water pipe opening to increase the water pressure, and flushed the insects in the high places to the ground.
The water splashing on the ducks will not scare them away. Instead, they will run under the rack and eat the insects washed to the ground, enjoying the cool water washing over their bodies. After eating, they will shake off the water droplets on their feathers and walk away.
Ducks and chickens can catch insects, but if you put chickens in the vegetable garden, the fruits and vegetables there will be in danger. They will eat up all the vegetables and meat, just like the weeds in the backyard.
The duck, which had eaten its fill in the greenhouse in the yard, came out staggeringly and headed back out of the yard, intending to go back into the fish pond to soak.
The two did not stop him. After all, the weather was still hot. Soaking in the water could not only cool them down, but their poop in the pond could also become fish feed.
A small pond was dug next to the fish pond, and a lot of snails were placed in the pond.
Now it is almost time to harvest the rice fields. The water in the fields has been drained, and Zhao Yeqing threw the snails in them into a newly dug pool, about two square meters in size.
A small amount of rice field silt is laid at the bottom of the pond to help the snails adapt to the new environment more quickly. A few stones are also laid inside to make it convenient for the snails to climb up and rest.
It took less than half an hour to dig this pond. I plan to give it a try first. It doesn’t matter if it can’t survive. It didn’t cost much anyway.
Unexpectedly, the snail had a good ability to adapt. Not only did it not die, it also laid eggs on the rocks. Every day when Zhao Yeqing fed the fish, he would throw some chopped vegetable leaves into the pond as feed.
The small pond where snails are raised is slightly surrounded by bamboo poles to prevent ducks from going inside, otherwise all the snails that are raised with great difficulty will become their feed.
Late August, early September.
The rice in the paddy fields has finally finished filling and can be harvested.
Zhao Yeqing finally put down the worry in his heart. After all, it had rained very frequently recently. Sometimes there would be three consecutive showers in one day.
Under the nourishment of this climate, the two men's previous worries that the meadow vegetation would gradually decrease due to too many herbivores are no longer possible.
The highest temperature at noon now will not exceed 35 degrees. The climate is warm and the air is humid. It has been less than a month since the wheat was harvested, but the weeds in the wheat fields are already half as tall as the calves.
There were also many more plants in the meadow and nearby woods that had not been there before, and it was unknown whether the seeds were brought by the wind or by animal fur.
After harvesting the rice, the two men wanted to take advantage of their free time to harvest some more hemp to make ropes for future use.
When we walked outside the pine forest, we actually saw a small patch of false calamus near the original ramie field.
This thing definitely didn't exist around here before. You could only find a few of them in the sunny woods at the foot of the mountain.
The meadow is at a high altitude, with extremely cold winters and extremely hot summers. This thing didn't grow here before, and they have never seen it in the years they have lived here.
Most of them are distributed in Guizhou Province, Guangdong Province, Guangxi Province, Fujian Province, and the largest number is in Yunnan Province.
In the past, a colleague from Yunnan Province brought this plant to the company. We fried it and ate it during team building. We just washed the green leaves, coated them with batter on both sides, and fried them in a pan.
I also made triangular rice dumplings with fake loofah and fried beef with fake loofah.
This plant is a close relative of pepper, has a unique aroma, and has a special flavor when fried.
Zhao Yeqing didn't expect that the climate had changed and she would still be able to eat this thing.
"There's a pine forest next to it, and animals often appear here. I think they were brought here by the animals. Let's make sure it's safe first."
The two looked around for animal footprints and asked Xiao Hei to patrol the area. When they saw that Xiao Hei was wagging his tail and didn't look like an animal, they touched its head with confidence.
After harvesting a cartload of ramie and returning home, Zhao Yeqing did not forget to pick a basket of false beech leaves. He also dug up two plants and took them back to plant.
Now that we have a new ingredient, it will be our family's dinner as expected.
Fried false beech leaves are a must, and then make fried false beech meat and false beech leaf soup.
The nature of Pseudo-Trichosanthes kirilowii is warm. Eating more of it will not cause internal heat nor chill the stomach. The slight bitterness is accompanied by a refreshing aroma, which is very suitable for summer when you have no appetite.
Zhao Yeqing took out the amount he needed for cooking from the basket, and gave the rest to Mu Xi to dry and store in the original owner's house.
In addition to being used as a food ingredient, this false trichosanthes is also a medicinal ingredient. It can treat swelling and pain caused by injuries, as well as the most common colds.
The two originally thought that the false beech leaves were already a pleasant surprise, but they did not expect that this "tropical rainforest" would bring them much more surprises than that.
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