When gardening goes wrong: battling organically and enduring bad weather
Even the most experienced gardener will have problems with garden problems, pests and diseases. Don’t worry about it too much. Your garden is an ecosystem, and the best thing you can do is try and live in harmony with the creatures that live there, too. And don’t give up too easily – here’s my advice on how to rescue failing seedlings.
If anyone says their garden doesn’t have problems, quite frankly, they’re lying and need to confess all. There are things you can do to make pest or disease attacks less likely. Ultimately, we’re in the hands of our prevailing climate/weather/soil type and dominant bothersome creatures.
Mild winters don’t kill off aphids; slugs stay active and continue to breed, increasing their numbers vastly. Damp weather also favours gastropods (slugs and snails) and downy mildew. When it’s too dry, powdery mildew will set in on vulnerable plants. You can’t win.
Garden problems, pests and diseases – Keep your eye on the forecast
The best you can do is to know your average weather conditions. Watch the forecast to see if there are any abrupt changes in the short term and prepare accordingly. If you’re hardening off plants and there’s a sudden fall in temperature (which always happens here in May), plants will be set back or even die – see here for plant hardiness ratings and cold protection.
Also, extremes of rainfall, leading to drought or flooding and waterlogging, are increasingly becoming problems. There’s no such thing as an ‘average year’ anymore. Of course, there are not just wild pests and weather-related problems to contend with. Our pets and the birds we encourage can be a complete pain in the ass at times.
I love my cat George dearly, but I’ve lost so many plants because he thinks any newly-cultivated area of soil is a litter tray for him. That cat can defecate on one leg, avoiding numerous spiny branches I try to protect things with.
Stringing you along…
Birds in the garden I like, but the masses of sparrows and dunnocks around nick every bit of string they can around nest-building time, much to my annoyance. There are also wood pigeons, probably the world’s most idiotic and greedy birds.
They make a beeline for broad bean/runner bean shoots, especially, so I use a giant inflatable eyeball and a model bird of prey to keep them on their claws. There’s also the question of organic v chemical treatments – I think the vast majority of us want to be organic.
Garden problems, pests and diseases – Do some people use illicit pest killers?
I also suspect many so-called ‘organic’ gardeners out there are secretly using Napalm (or its equivalent) for their perfect plots. They’re probably the very folk who say their gardens don’t have problems. Accept that things are going to go wrong. It’s a part of the bigger picture (see Monty Don’s views on a Buddhist approach to gardening). It’s a thought-provoking read.
My biggest pest battles are with snails, red lily beetle, vine weevils and powdery mildew on susceptible plants. My advice – grow a few extra really easy plants in pots to fill in gaps. No one will notice. That’s the easiest way to hide garden problems, pests and diseases!
