Summer scourges

As ever life is a battle here in the plague garden. The enemies this year are familiar foes, with a few newbies thrown in to keep life interesting.

Last couple of years have seen leaf miner damage on chard, spinach and beets; this year the victim was my new sorrel plantings. Here's what it looks like when the situation gets out of hand:



I finally pulled all the diseased leaves off and sprayed with neem oil and it seems to help, though I do find that neem seems to burn the leaves. Apparently the trick is to spray in the evening. when the good bugs have gone to bed and the leaves have time to absorb the neem and avoid sunburn. Perhaps I need to adjust the dosage.

Codling moths have been at my apples again this year - slackness with tree banding on my part; now I gather I'm supposed to pick and destroy infected fruit - it's edible but doesn't store well once it's been tunnelled. None for the compost, since that would just give them a nice warm place to overwinter. Apparently they have 2-3 generations per year. Here's what the entry channel looks like from outside and in:



Two damp springs in a row have escalated the scab on my poor yellow transparent apple tree. Quite a few more apples affected this year, but such a heavy crop it may not matter. Bordeaux Mix dormant spray is said to help as a preventive measure; I'm also told to use compost tea as a foliar spray to generally boost the tree's immunity, but the tree's very large and I'm just getting up to speed with the tea production this year. And pruning is supposed to help as well, but the tree is so big and lush it's hard to know where to begin, although I've worked at it - summer pruning of water shoots and shaped for easier picking.



The zucchini I bought as seedlings from two different nurseries are both developing blossom end rot. Depending on who I ask, I get the answer that it's either due to lack of calcium, lack of water, or lack of pollination. I've put finely crushed eggshells on them now and hope that will help with the calcium; being in pots they are most likely thirsty too so am trying to be more diligent there.



I don't think there's any question who's been eating the healthy zucchini either:



This year's slug battles have been very hard on a couple of bean plants; this one is making a plucky comeback now the overshadowing pea trellis is gone, and is even producing beans now, though is still embattled.



and these beets which were nibbled down to the stem - probably by birds - are growing new leaves!



But. It's not all bad. My plum tree yielded a fair crop of small, tart plums before it was decapitated (leaning heavily on the fence) - as did the neighbour's - two batches of jam and one of chutney so far. And I made some Rote Grütze with plums and other fruits (cherries, blackberries, blackcurrants, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries) from this year and from the freezer, and canned that to have on my yogurt through the winter. And my zucchini is coming - not too fast



and there are some footsoldiers working hard to keep the ecosystem in balance:

More crawlies

It is very much tent caterpillar season. Here is one with the mark of satan on its brow: a parasitic (ichneumon?) wasp has laid its egg on this unfortunate. There's a moral choice here: kill the caterpillar for a swift death, and wipe out a beneficial insect? Or leave the caterpillar to experience an Alien-type of death? Nature can be a difficult place.



Spring is also a time of digging in the garden, and I had an interested bystander last week who watched me carefully to make sure I had not uprooted the rock that was its home.



I decided to extend a little patch of garden by digging a couple of feet into the lawn



which meant digging up some grass and, in the process, a large population of wireworms



as well as a large population of leatherjackets, a couple of snails



and a cutworm larva.



My war against slugs continues, and I think I'm getting the upper hand, mostly by hand-picking at night. But I complement this activity with some slug traps made out of used styrofoam or plastic cups,



baited with home brew (water, yeast, sugar and flour) and it attracts a good number of drinkers who hang out in the bar past closing and then fall in.



I have been surprised by my slug populations' fondness for onions.



The chives are in full blossom, which is good for my salads and visiting bees:



The garden spiders have moved to the strawberry pots:



My overwintered artichoke has offered a second bulb and seems perfectly happy under the downspout of the garden shed, surprisingly. Plagued with ants though, and I'm not sure if that's harmful or not. More research needed.



The potato car tire experiment continues, behind the shed, next to the fence, so well out of direct sunlight. They seem happy enough so far, as do the burlap bag specimens.



The leeks are looking better in the pot than they do in the garden (where I suspect wireworms have been nibbling on their feet), and the radishes are helping to pass the time between them:



Lots of flowers on the fava beans:

Creepy spring

Last year's battles with tent caterpillars were gruesome, but I have (so far) managed to find and destroy the few nests that are turning up in my apple tree. Not so with the ones in my neighbour's plum tree - I have visitors dropping in periodically - but hopefully they will go away soon.



I believe this is a sowbug,



one of the night-crawling culprits who (together with the slugs) are making my rhubarb look like this:



I have been on slug patrol the past few nights and found so many slugs I lost count. Most are babies. I have been putting out slug brew for them (served in plastic party cups) and had quite a few takers, but will need to go slug-picking more often to keep them under control.

Meanwhile, I discovered several conglomerations of spiders, which I think are baby Garden Spiders. I would like them better if they ate slugs...



More potato experiments this year. I'm trying them in a burlap bag



as well as car tires again, and some in the earth as well. Meanwhile, the artichoke I planted last year survived the winter and looks like it will offer me something nice to eat this spring...