How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Jelly_Sheffield]

APHIDS!

The rose hedge is absolutely crawling with them, worst I've ever seen.

My partner specialises in weed & pest control for a living and is concerned that they're so established already this year if we try to control them with just spraying, they will end up becoming resistant by the end of the season.

So we sprayed the whole lot yesterday, and I have ordered 1000 ladybird larvae and 1000 lacewing larvae online to add to the rose hedge.

The spray should have broken down by the time the insects arrive, and then those larvae can munch on all the survivors to stop them spreading their chemical resistant genetics.

 

[dobbslc]

You can buy Ladybirds?

 

[badabec]

You can rent lady boys

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

You can buy Ladybirds?

Yep, adult or larvae, delivered by post, there's lot of other "Biological Controls" available too.

Similarly you can rent bees by the day to pollinate fruit trees, soft fruits, beans or oilseed rape.

Going back to (bigger) pests, when I worked on landfills we would hire falconers in by the hour a couple of times a month to scare the gulls away...

Their bird(s) didn't take many gulls compared to the population, but the fear created by birds of prey was more effective than lethal controls.

We also fitted owl boxes at one of the food waste transfer stations and stopped putting down rodenticides... Turns out given plentiful enough prey, three pairs of barn owls will coexist in pretty close proximity and eat a hell of a lot of rats whilst they're there.

 

[Onoff]

APHIDS!

The rose hedge is absolutely crawling with them, worst I've ever seen.

My partner specialises in weed & pest control for a living and is concerned that they're so established already this year if we try to control them with just spraying, they will end up becoming resistant by the end of the season.

So we sprayed the whole lot yesterday, and I have ordered 1000 ladybird larvae and 1000 lacewing larvae online to add to the rose hedge.

The spray should have broken down by the time the insects arrive, and then those larvae can munch on all the survivors to stop them spreading their chemical resistant genetics.

Try neem oil in an organic soap solution.

 

[redlig]

You can rent lady boys

Renting them is the easy bit ,or so I have been told , getting them to lick the Aphids off of your roses is a whole different story.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I've used Pyrethrum when all else has failed but it's indiscriminate so only ever use sparingly as a very last resort when things are totally out of control and other methods have failed.

It's based on a plant extract I believe...

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

It's based on a plant extract I believe...

It was discovered in Chrysanthemums, after an Austrian industrialist started marketing powdered dried Chrysanthemums to treat lice based on an product used by the ancient Persians.

The entire pyrethroid class of pesticides uses the same basic molecular structure, with most of the modifications being to increase it's stability outside of a chrysanthemum as the natural molecule breaks down quite quickly in the environment.

Permethrin as used in mosquito nets, ant powder, and flea treatment for dogs (but not cats who are poisoned by all pyrethroids) is probably the most common synthetic variant.

 

[Pond frog]

The old wooden raised beds completely rotted away so I’ve made some steel replacements and got them galvanised so they should last a while.
Just filled with fresh topsoil this morning ready for planting up.

 

[addjunkie]

The old wooden raised beds completely rotted away so I’ve made some steel replacements and got them galvanised so they should last a while.
Just filled with fresh topsoil this morning ready for planting up.

View attachment 492844

Now thats a dam fine idea!

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

APHIDS!

The rose hedge is absolutely crawling with them, worst I've ever seen.

My partner specialises in weed & pest control for a living and is concerned that they're so established already this year if we try to control them with just spraying, they will end up becoming resistant by the end of the season.

So we sprayed the whole lot yesterday, and I have ordered 1000 ladybird larvae and 1000 lacewing larvae online to add to the rose hedge.

The spray should have broken down by the time the insects arrive, and then those larvae can munch on all the survivors to stop them spreading their chemical resistant genetics.

Just got sent this pick from earlier today...

The ravenous predators emerge!

They definitely have enough growing to do to go through quite a few aphids each, I will say that.

 

[Kram]

Ash is awake

 

[JOEPRO]

I planted these new trees last autumn. Pleased to see an apple tree has blossoms on it which I presume means we may see fruit from it.this year?

I planted 2x apple trees the other one is slower to sprout it's a bramley cooking apple tree and even though we are in the town some of our neighbours also have apple trees.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I have 2 apple trees on the allotment...they're been trained/pruned to be a nice flat 2D shape which works really well especially along a fence or wall. I prune them ever winter to keep them under control.

I'm sure there's a proper name for it!

Edit...Google says maybe Espalier.

 

[Kram]

Neighbours maple, beautiful tree however it is getting big and a foot or so over the boundry growing towards the light. I gave it a light prune last winter and it will be a yearly task to keep under control.
The hole you can see was caused by the removed camellia bush that blocked it from the sun, hopefully that area will sprout.

 

[Greeves246]

A oddity, a white bluebell

 

[Greeves246]

Wisteria in full bloom

 

[dobbslc]

A oddity, a white bluebellView attachment 494565

We've got a few of these.

 

[Onoff]

A oddity, a white bluebellView attachment 494565

An invasive Spanish bluebell most likely or a hybrid.

 

[droopsnoot]

I also have them, and some that might be slightly pink.