GARDENING ISN'T ALL JOY (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

GARDENING ISN'T ALL JOY

7:52pm Sunday 12th June 2011

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Gardening to some is an all consuming passion whilst to many more of us it can be a source of pleasure and inspiration but not even the keenest gardener will say that there aren’t some pitfalls and garden pests rate very high under this heading. However careful you are and however many precautions you take at some point your garden will come under attack from a variety of different pests. But, despite appearances, the range of different pests likely to be a problem is relatively small, unfortunately they make up for this by the sheer quantity of their numbers. However, help is on hand as there is a wide range of both organic and chemical pest killers on the market, all are fairly straight forward to use providing you follow the manufacturers’ instructions carefully.

Caterpillars are the larval stage of butterflies, sawflies and moths. Their soft tubular bodies are often covered with bright markings or white hair. They have voracious appetites devouring their way through both young and old leaves but have a preference for the soft, green sections of the leaves ignoring the harder leaf veins. Butterflies lay clusters of small eggs on the undersides of leaves. Both eggs and caterpillars can be picked off by hand and destroyed. If you decide to use a chemical spray every caterpillar must be hit for it to work.

The much hated slugs and snails are slow movers hiding during the day and coming out in the evening to feast on our plants, particularly hostas, salad crops, bedding plants and strawberries. They are almost impossible to control and your best friends could be frogs, toads and hedgehogs, it really pays to encourage these in your garden. Scattering sharp grit round susceptible plants does help. Slug traps filled with beer I am told are very effective but you will have to dispose of the bodies. You could try one of the biological controls obtainable from any garden centre. As a final resort turn to slug pellets but only in very small quantities because of possible harm to wildlife.

Probably the most common are aphids which includes both greenfly and blackfly. They love new plants and given the chance quickly establish themselves in great numbers on the leaves and shoot tips. They cause damage by sucking out the sap causing the leaves to become twisted and often tinged with yellow. If you decide to use a spray make sure that both sides of the leaves and flowers are well coated paying particular attention to leaf joints. In severe cases where individual leaves are covered in greenfly these can be picked off and manually destroyed.

Whitefly are the dread of greenhouse owners and can be a problem outside during long spells of warm weather. They tend to love the same things as us, such as tomatoes, peppers and fuchsias and distort the plants by sucking out the leaf sap. Ready-to-use sprays can be helpful making sure to cover the undersides of the leaves well. Biological controls are highly recommended or you may prefer to try yellow, sticky traps which should be hung in the greenhouse to catch the flying adults.

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