Pests!

There's not much to do now that the warmer weather is here, other than a little light weeding. One constant job is keeping an eye out for pests. I try to garden organically, so avoid using sprays. Most pests have a natural predator, and they usually turn up before the infestation gets too bad.

I always have greenfly on my roses, but it is a joy to see the blue tits, coal tits and sparrows hopping around cleaning them off, and taking them to feed their chicks. What they don't find gets eaten by the ladybirds and their larvae. The roses are usually clear of aphids by the time the buds open.

One pest which is a nuisance is the scale insect, which arrives on my Japanese maples each spring. They have a protective outer "shell" and seal themselves in with a sticky white substance. They look like this:

Nothing seems to eat them, and if left they can kill the trees. They are easily controlled in the early stages by wiping them off with a tissue and squashing them.

Another regular pest is the lily beetle. These are bright red and oblong and seek out lilies and fritillaries. Their larvae are slimy little blobs that look like bird droppings, and they can strip a lily of its leaves in no time. The best control is to patrol the lilies regularly and pick off the beetles before they get a chance to mate and lay eggs. Their bright colour makes them easy to spot from a distance. Their main defence is to drop to the ground on their backs, exposing their black bellies, which makes them difficult to find on the soil. If you put one hand underneath them, before knocking them off with the other, they are easy to catch as they fall. Then I drop them on the paving slabs and squash them with my foot. These beetles have arrived recently from continental Europe, and as far as I know have no natural predators in the UK, apart from gardeners.

Slugs and snails are always a problem in my garden and I have found nothing that works effectively to eradicate them. Some of them get eaten by the frogs and birds, but there are simply too many to control completely. My main defence is to buy things they don't like eating - hairy plants like alchemilla  mollis, sappy plants like euphorbia, and grasses, lavender and box. This year, I have managed to establish some fennel plants, which usually fall prey to slugs, and there are considerably fewer signs of slug damage than usual. I assume this must be due to the cold winter and cool dry spring. One plant that has fallen victim to the slugs is my sunflower. From my sowing in March, I had one seedling which avoided being slugged in its pot and grew to about 10 inches high. As soon as I planted it out, it was reduced to 5 inches high, and it has now disappeared completely.

On a more positive note, the garden is now looking good with the borders filling out. The alium hollandicum "Purple Sensation" has taken over from the tulips to add a bright burst of colour into the borders. They cover a gap before the roses bloom in June.