Please, guide me, oh wise ones of the Forum. X
Frannerz
Posts: 72
Honestly I'm not one of 'THOSE' people, 
. I'm normally pretty chipper whatever life throws my way and never more so than when I'm gardening, which was a huge surprise to me. (I was a painter/decorator at a holiday park and one day got asked to De-bramble an enormous rhododendron. I had so much fun, that was it for me, HOOKED).
Anyway MY garden at home is finally a garden and we have thoroughly enjoyed every second of getting it tidy and building planters, oh and of course choosing bulbs etc.my fella has been like a kid, impatiently waiting for something to break the soil surface.
Well plenty green now but ever since the first shoot it has been a nightmare. Name a pest that destroys foliage or root systems, I have had infestation of it, they went, and currently every pest I know of is slowly decimating all our plants.
I really don't know what to do to get rid of them all. The birds do a bit-ish but I have 3 cats. I have had 2 ladybirds visit which cheered me up but they promptly cleared off never to return.
Feeling really despondent with it all, we worked so hard to get it right.
Can you offer any advice for the pest situation ?? We have every colour aphid in existence, on everything. SLUGS, Snail, leaf hoppers, flea beetles. ETC.
I'm a moth and butterfly fan so, So far I have 8 caterpillars in new jar houses. Found devouring Dhalia and decimating sunflowers leaves. Also sunflowers have huge slug damage and aphids all over, despite my keen waterpistol shootouts. now, they have that bug that goes mining between the layers of leaf, aswell . Poor things.
Then, a big dollop of icing.
My Sparaxis, flowering beautifully, had all their healthy blooms blown off by strong wind.
This guy does make me smile though. Eat, doze off whilst eating, wake up and continue eating. POOP POOP POOP and poop, doze.
Posts
Oh dear. Its a tale of woe and misery but there are things you can do.
Aphids are easily squished by hand if you don't mind getting a bit messy, and you have the satisfaction of knowing that it was your efforts that got rid of the blighters.
Slugs can be caught in traps using beer. I make my traps out of drinks bottles and one can of beer will do for four traps, or one plus a bit for yourself. Cut a rectangle from a plastic bottle about 6 to 8 cm from the base then bury the bottle in the garden so that the slugs have to crawl 3 cm to get into the trap. Keep the top on the bottle so that rain doesn't dilute the beer.
I'd try a different strategy.
Study the 'pests' and discover how interesting they all are
It works for me
In the sticks near Peterborough
You have a perfectly wonderful sense of humour and that's the first thing, and the most important. Now I need to walk my dog but I will pipe up again.
You've been reading some very odd story books
ugly ducklings grow into swans!
Caterpillars turn into butterflies
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Look at it this way, you could have moles and badgers as well. We have!
And now for the encouragement. You say this is a new garden? Therein lies the problem and in a way the solution. There is no ecological balance .....yet. That takes time to come about, but it will in the end. The hoverflies, wasps and ladybirds and other aphid eaters will appear. Frogs and toads might assist you in the mollusc reduction, Birds will eat other pests and in the end you will learn to live with the occasional disaster.
Get the birds in by feeding them nuts and seeds etc then when they are in they will notice the slugs and other pests. Put bells on the cats the birds will be protected then. I love cats but love my garden more so won't have any now.
Yes. Exactly what Berghill said. I know it is frustrating to be told "Everything will be well in time", but to a degree, it really is true. Of course you need to be vigilant in the beginning, and do your best to steer your little semi-private ecosystem to the advantage of the plants rather than the pests, but things become easier as the plants, a bit at a time, mature.
The best you can do (unless you want to go all the way out with the chemical warfare, which I do not recommend), is give the plants the best growing conditions. Decent soil, a little judicious feeding, regular watering in time of dry weather etc. Mulching helps a lot to buffer some of the weather extremes. Adequate shelter from high winds also helps. If a plant is regularly wilting in high sun, consider rigging up some temporary shade in very hot weather... Like poeple, plants are less resilient when stressed.
I don't know what weather you are having but for us in SW France it's been an exceptionally hot and dry spring and summer so far, and young plants suffer the most. Weather vagaries of any kind are more detrimental to vulnerable young things than to established specimens. When a plant is weakened by weather conditions it has less resources to fight pests and diseases, so disaster follows disaster. Not much you can do about it except helping the plants to overcome the hard times. There are always losses in new gardens (and in old gardens too... because the more you learn the more reckless and experimental you become!)
I know it is frustrating. But hang in there
I felt my optimism come rushing back as I read your wise words and when I went back out in the garden I thought, actually, warts and all, it's kind of beautiful out here.
will put up some pics later.
Thankyou all again, very much. X
Hurrah!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.