_{Photo by David Dennis CC}

Ant at work. You have to admire the industry and organisation of ants.

Ants will be a common feature of any garden. To some extent, there is not much you can do about ants. In the garden they are a nuisance, but, sometimes it is just easier to live with them. Ants are more of a problem when they come into the house.

In the garden, you will notice ants, when areas of fine soil are created. (This actually makes very good topsoil). They are unlikely to do much lasting damage to your plants.

Generally, in the garden, I prefer to just tolerate ants, it isn’t really necessary to start using chemicals to kill them.

In the house they are more of a nuisance. But, before resorting to chemicals, simply try to block their entrances and keep areas clean of food.

Ants and Aphids

_{Photo by Martin Labar CC}

This image shows ants and aphids working together. Ants are often attracted by aphids for the juice they excrete. In return, ants help protects aphids from predators.

How to Deal With Ants

• Ants follow trails of food. Make sure you don’t have trails of food to your house
• Ants do not manage to cross sticky substances. Using a jelly or slippery grease will prevent ants climbing in.
• Often the easiest and most effective way of preventing ants entering in the house is to locate the hole where they are managing to enter. (Often ants follow a trail and you can see them returning out the same way they came – carrying food with them.)
• If you find a colony of ants in a plant pot, you could drench the pot with water. (though make sure you don’t drown your plants.
• Boiling water on an ant hill may also kill many of the ants in their. Though in the garden it might not be worth it.
• Use Chemical pesticides.

Ant Spray at Amazon.co.uk

This ‘double glazing for plants’ is getting these early onions off to a good start at the beginning of March.

Each plant has its own baseless pop bottle for individual cover. Then there is the glass sheet that will keep off the snow and the sink sides to keep out some frost. Intensive care for plants that can be treated as individuals may be worth the effort when our local vegetable show comes around (no wonder I have lost to this neighbour before.)

This is another of the local money free protection schemes where the Leeks are grown in lengths of drain pipe. I guess this helps with blanching  but more importantly extends the cropping season. Talking of Leeks, yesterday I bought some seed of Swiss Giant Zermatt to pick from July as baby leeks and some Blue Green Autumn Neptune for resistance to Leek rust disease.

‘Understand the pest and you are part way to controlling the problem.’

Aphids
Of the many species the green or rosy apple aphids and the woolly aphids plus the pear-bedstraw aphid can be very troublesome. Aphids mate in Autumn leaving eggs to over winter on spurs crevices and tips. Heavily infested shoot tips and flower cluster should be cut out and destroyed. Encourage beneficial insects like earwigs and ladybirds.
Plant extract controls are permitted like pyrethrum and potassium soap sprays. Unfortunately leaves may have curled protectively around the insects. Spray fortnightly in September and October when there are no curled leaves to prevent the laying of overwintering eggs.

Moths
Serious damage can be done by moths. Codling moths lay eggs in June, singly on fruit then the grub burrows into the growing fruit, to emerge as a second generation in September or next spring. Tortrix moth caterpillars feed on the edges of clean fruit. Winter moths are becoming more of a problem particularly to Bramley apples overwintering in mild winters.
Cultural management helps control moth larvae by thinning damaged fruit, applying grease bands to trap wingless females, cleaning debris and encouraging predators. Biological control now includes phermone dispensers to interfer with reproduction.

Apple Sawfly
Reductions in crop yeilds arise from the larvae burrowing under the skin and leaving a brown frasss and ribbon scar. Each insect can attack several fruit. Ground beetles eat eat sawfly pupae and sticky traps may help with control. Pyrethrum spray when 80% of petals fall is the optimum time for chemical help.

Weevils and Suckers
These pests also attack Pears and Apples. In addition to the treatmet above a parasitic wasp may be used on weevils.

Scab and Powdery Mildew
The most economically important diseases for orchards with the corky lesions and early leaf fall are scabs. Heavy infestations one year and a mild winters and wet summer increase scab to epidemic proportions. Use scab resistant varieties. Prune away badly infected wood and fruit. Early season sprays of copper and sulphur-seaweed mix may be of some benefit

Canker
Canker affects older trees and fruit will not store as long from an infected tree. Pruning out and avoiding susceptible varieties are the best controls.

Brown Rot
This rot is associated with storage when a fungus permeates the fruit. Fruit on the tree can be mummified and this prolongs the life of the fungus. There are no effective organic sprays so rely on good cultural management. Take care picking and storing fruit.

from Thompson Morgan

Solve the problem of seedlings ‘damping off’ by watering your compost before sowing seeds with Cheshunts Compound a soluble fungicide. Damping Off is a fungal disease that attacks seedlings causing them to suddenly wilt, keel over and die. Damping Off is a particular problem when sowing seed indoors or under glass.

Damping Off can affect most seedlings, particularly under levels of high humidity, poor air circulation, low light and temperature that makes seedlings grow slowly and if seed is sown to thick.

Preventing Damping Off

* Raise seedlings in commercial growing compost, which is usually free of the key fungi.
* Ideally, use new pots and trays whenever raising seedlings. If they must be re-used, wash them thoroughly and treat them with a disinfectant such as Jeyes Fluid.
* Never reuse pots and trays in which damping off has been a problem.
* Sow seedlings thinly to avoid crowding.
* Use mains water when irrigating seedlings grown in pots and trays. If using rainwater, ensure that the water butt is covered to prevent the entry of leaves and other organic debris that could harbour some of the damping off fungi.
* Keep seedlings well ventilated to reduce humidity. Do not over-water.

Cheshunts Compound

* Can be used on all seedlings whether edible or non-edible.
* Easy to use, dilute and water the solution onto compost before sowing and repeat after the emergence of the seedlings.
* For transplanting, water seedlings with the solution before and after the transplanting.
* Suitable for organic gardening.
* Cheshunts Compound uses inorganic salts copper sulphate and ammonium carbonate so it is the same type of copper-based fungicide as Bordeaux mixture.

Available from Thompson Morgan

Acidity and alkalinity are measured on a pH scale. Below pH 7.0 is verging towards acidic so pH 4.5 is very acid. Test kits are available from many sources.

Increasing Alkalinity.

For vegetables a pH of around 6.5 is ideal and to achieve this it may be necessary to add some lime into the top 6 inches of your soil.
Garden lime is available from most garden centers. Builders lime or quick lime is more aggressive to plants.
If your soil is around a pH of 7.0 (neutral) I would not bother to try adjust it. Above that it is limey soil and less suitable for acid lovers like rhododendrons and blueberries.
Adding lime helps vegetables take up nutrients. It also suppresses club root in members of the brassica family.
Manure then a couple of weeks later lime your soil during winter, it helps to break up the soil.
For lawns, shrubs, roses, fruit or trees, apply lime before planting.
Calcified seaweed and ground chalk or powdered limestone are other forms of calcium carbonate that will help reduce acid soil.

The RHS has a table of lime quantities needed to correct different levels of acidity read more

Acidifying Soil

To change the pH of the top 6inches of soil from neutral pH 7.0, or slightly alkaline pH 7.5 to slightly acid pH 6.0-pH 6.5 sulphur powder may be required.
Aluminium sulphate or Ferrous sulphate can also be used as a soil acidifiers. The effects are rapid, but large quantities can interfere with phosphorus levels in the soil and may also reduce pH excessively.
Soil-acidifying materials can be applied at any time of the year but products containing sulphur take longer to work when the soil is cold so are normally best applied from spring to autumn.

Does your soil sticks to your shoes and garden tools like glue? Is your soil slow to warm up in the spring and hard to manage? If your soil is slow draining, forms big clods, crusts over and cracks in dry weather then you have clay or even heavy clay soil.
Clay soil is made up from very fine particles that make pure clay good for potters but not plant roots. One redeeming feature is that clay soil is generally rich in nutrients.

Improving Clay Soil

• If gritty sandy soil is the opposite of clay soil it follows that mixing the two may get the best of both worlds. Add copious quantities of grit or gritty sand to your clay soil to open it up. Do not use builders sand as it is very alkaline or fine sand that will set like concrete.

• Add even more copious quantities, 6 ” plus, of organic matter such as compost. I have tried wood chippings, spent mushroom compost, old feathers, composted bark and various other items to open up the texture. Dig it well in to the top 10″ as you not only incorporate the organic matter but you add air to the soil and help drainage.

• Mulch with compost as often as possible and let worms drag it down into the soil.

• Earthworms thrive on humus and breed rapidly if the conditions are right. You only need a handful or two to get things going so put a few on the soil when incorporating the compost.

• Improving your clay soil will take time and patience.

Plants for Clay Soil.

• Special seed mixes of wild flowers are available from Amazon

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If gardeners have left wet leather gloves or shoes in a mild garage since summer they may now be covered in a white dusty substance that is powdery mildew. Powdery Mildew can affect many garden plants and it is especially vexatious on Gooseberries, Roses and Peas. The greying of leaves leads to yellowing, distortion and falling, it is unsightly and damages crops.

Mildew Causes and Cures

Stress through dryness at the roots can make plants vulnerable. Water well in dry spells. Do not plant too close to dry walls or in a rain shadow. Add a water retaining mulch.
General maintenance issues Bin any fallen or damaged leaves. Well fed plants will have more resistance to disease, apply Growmore or Blood, Fish and Bone at the start of the growing season. Select varieties that are less prone to mildew like Klevedon Wonder Peas or Cascade Brussels. Do not encourage sappy growth with too much nitrogen based fertilizer.
Good air circulation will restrict mildew so prune or thin out branches to create an open framework. Damp humid conditions also favour mildew so water the roots not the leaves. Mildew is spread by spores so do not shake infected material.

If all else fails there are proprietary fungicides and sprays including organic Fish oil blend or Sulphur powder which can help particularly on roses. Powdery mildews spend the winter as dormant infections resting structures or leaves which then release spores the following spring.

Oh and if your boots have mildew you are not doing enough gardening.

Insects, grubs and slugs are all garden pests at one time or other but the gardeners ideal is to have a natural balance and enough predators to save your specimen plants. Below are some quick tips of environmentally friendly measures you can take. If everything else has failed you could always play them this record ‘Insecticide’ to create your own Nirvana.

Preventing Pests better than Cure

• Camomile deters small flies. – Make your own pesticide by infusing flowers in hot water for 10 minutes. French Marigolds, Rue and Tansy also have repellent properties.
• I dot onion plants around the garden to deter pests and larvae – they don’t take up much space or look out of place. Greenfly do not like garlic so try odd plants grown from garlic cloves.
• Protect some plants and prevent larvae hatching by surrounding plants with a cardboard collar.

Pest Treatments

• Birds are amongst the best insect catchers so encourage Robins, Finches and Blackbirds.
• A pond will encourage frogs or toads who will then eat slugs and snails.
• Good house keeping, clearing dead foliage, will help control the number of pests by removing their food
• Sulphur dust or powder can cure mildew on your prize roses but keep it away from ponds as it kills fish.

How Do You Stop Rabbits in the Garden ?

• Rabbits are harder to repel but scattering dried holly leaves or other spiny leaves is said to keep them off your tender vegetables.
• Plagues of Rabbits need to be fenced out with wire mesh starting 10″ underground and standing 2 feet high with a top 6″  bent away to stop them climbing (a bit like Colditz).

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Jasmin nudiflorum

‘If winter comes can spring be far behind’ or should that be changed, due to global warming, as the season merge. Due to lack of seasonal frost many spring flowers have been appearing through late Autumn and my Primula and even Wallflowers are showing lots of colour.

What we need is a series of crisp hard frosts to let everyone and everything know that the season has changed. Animals can go into hibernation (instead of the squirrels stealing the bird food) and plants can become dormant or die back as they are programmed by nature to do.

My Dahlias have given sterling service but now I wish the stalks a happy burial on the compost heap but I always wait for them to catch the frost first. Other plants are looking forward to getting frosted and what will the ’sprouts taste like without a bit of cold weather.
If it was rain that encouraged winter dormancy then everything would have shut up shop way back. The soggy ground would appreciate some frost sending worms deeper and breaking the claggy ground.

Bulbs need some cold weather to develop the best roots so come on Jack lets have some cold weather. In previous years I have lifted crowns of Rhubarb to get a bit of frost but I am leaving them in the ground this year and will see if it has a negative effect or not.

So come on Jack Frost get on your Icicle and pedal down and arrange a cold snap for British gardeners.

Mushrooms and toadstools are having a good season due to the mild weather in October. Like bracket fungi they produce large fruit-bodies as reproductive organs above ground and are called macro-fungi. Some are edible whist others hallucinogenic or deadly poison. The fungus proper is the mycelium a web of of thread-like growth known as spawn in mushroom growing.

Most toadstools grow in rings outward from a point of origin as the spawn grows.This can be troublesome on lawns particularly Marasmius oreades the fairy ring fungus. Spike areas affected then water every day for a month and feed the lawn with nitrogenous fertilizer.

Fungi vary in size and colouration but none use chlorophyll for colouring or food synthesis. Fungi are all parasites on living or dead matter. They can cause a variety of plant diseases such as scab, mildew, black spot, rust etc. Never the less fungi are important in breaking down dead matter releasing valuable chemical plant food.

Honey fungus attacks trees and shrubs with rhizomorphs which travel underground from root to root killing the tree in the process. Affected plants need to be dug out and burnt as there is no chemical control.

Identify Mushrooms