My garden has been specialising in miners. They have taken up hard-eating residence in so many plants, I can't keep up with cutting off affected leaves.
I'm uncertain what to do about old leaves on the ground. I've left them for the over-wintering of insects. And there's the contradiction. It's all very well being ecological and nature friendly and all that - but you don't get to choose your guests and quite a few of mine are unwelcome. In some places, I've scooped away winter ground cover. In others, I'm nervous. Lots of bulbs have their green spikes well above ground but they are still new. If we have a frost, I'd be sad if they were zapped.
I'm uncertain what to do about old leaves on the ground. I've left them for the over-wintering of insects. And there's the contradiction. It's all very well being ecological and nature friendly and all that - but you don't get to choose your guests and quite a few of mine are unwelcome. In some places, I've scooped away winter ground cover. In others, I'm nervous. Lots of bulbs have their green spikes well above ground but they are still new. If we have a frost, I'd be sad if they were zapped.
But sawfly have decided my garden is a well stocked hotel and I suspect they are just waiting to leap out of the debris / surface earth at the first sign of spring. Indeed, I don't think they've stopped munching all winter.
I took this photo at the beginning of December. From the house, I could see the leaves of the blackcurrant bush were in trouble. They were not having a happy autumn so I went to investigate. This little chap was curling the edge of a leaf and tying itself in with silken threads. It did not like being disturbed and was surprisingly speedy.
Because it is on a blackcurrant bush, I took it to be the larva of a Blackcurrant Sawfly but, when I looked them up - they have clear, black dots - which this doesn't. Maybe the dots come later. Anyone know?
All the leaves fell. Buds for next year arrived. They look fine. Fine and healthy.
I'm nervous though.
Look closer.
Threads.
Of course, it might be that a spider has taken a wander but . . . .
Something's been at the bulbs I didn't get round to re-planting after my autumn dig. (Mouse?)
And something else is nibbling holes in the red veined sorrel.
The Choisya Sundance is turning to mush.
I'm thinking
of giving up and digging it out.
A nasturtium leaf is providing shelter for quite a large grub of something.
One of the bay plants is providing sustenance for a couple of other creatures. (Bay leaf cutters killed of a couple of the very small ones.)
But, but, but . . . despite the feast the caterpillar I showed in a previous post was making of the rainbow chard before the weather turned wintry (though not very wintry) tulips are coming up in its shelter. I doubt the caterpillar will bother with them. (I doubt it's still there. If it is, I think it may have gone underground.)
I'm looking forward to frost. I wish I didn't try to be creature-friendly. This garden is small. This garden is too small for all of us - me and the miners and the eaters and the carvers and the mushers - and I think it's me that's being edged out!
P.S. Apart from the photo of the sawfly larva, which was taken on 9th December 2011, all photos were taken today - January 15th 2012.
11 comments:
With the cold spell we're currently having some of those critters might be zapped by tomorrow. I've been keeping an eye inside our greenhouse too after finding a couple of caterpillars a few days ago.
I know, it's always something, if not one kind of pest it's another. I love columbines, but mine always get miners.. still I keep them. The hollyhocks were disasters last summer. Irises were beautiful in bloom, then immediately all became ill. Still, we gardeners keep trying. Good luck with yours. At least you seem to have sighted the enemies.
Hello Mark and Gaz. Our garden is so sheltered, it rarely gets frost, even when we can see it in the street and on the roofs around - which is both good and bad. Caterpillars - it's annoying. We like butterflies but can't have one without the other.
Hello Barbee. Trouble is, I may have a rough idea of what's bothering the plants (though the choisya problem is a mystery to me which is why I'm thinking of digging up the plant) but I don't know what can be done. I don't use pesticides and sawfly grubs are quick, assiduous, ravenous and hibernate under the soil (at least, some do - not sure if that is true of all).
I wonder if there would be any way to use Diotomaceous Earth. Have you ever used that for anything? I know it is used to kill fleas, mites, and slugs. I used it around my pansies one summer and the slugs quit eating the blooms. Problem is rain washes it away so it has to be reapplied. Just wondering if it would help to put some around the base of the plants. You are probably familiar with the product, if not, Google it and see what it says.
Hello Barbee. Thanks for that suggestion. I hadn't heard of Diotomaceous Earth before so I followed your advice and looked it up - very interesting. Unfortunately, I don't think it would work here. Apart from it being very expensive and despite the people selling it saying it is safe for pets - the Wikipedia article says care has to be taken not to breath it in. It wouldn't help with the mining insects but initially I thought it would be brilliant for the sawfly because they over-winter in the earth (when they get around to it!)so they'd have to get through Diotomaceous Earth to climb the blackcurrants and, presumably get zapped en-route - but this would happen when the weather is dry and cats are pottering in the borders . . . and breathing.
I was, none the less, very interested to read about something I've not come across before.
(I'd also have to cover the whole garden with it, which wouldn't be practical . . . and it is indiscriminate so I assume it would harm worms, lady birds etc.)
LOL! Yes, the cats would have to breathe. Well fiddle sticks! I am out of ideas. Sometimes I wonder where all the insects come from and how they find my plants so quickly. Example is the asparagus beetle: Never see them around anywhere else, but just let me plant some asparagus and here they come. Makes me wonder if eggs were already on the baby plants.
Esther my nuisances are rather large in comparison...before the snow it was the deer chomping everything in sight...I expect the voles are doing likewise now under the snow...it is always something.
I am a firm believer in denial - even when confronted with nibbled and damaged plants - only the appearance of the the Lily beetle force me into action because I don't want to lose my precious Fritillarias.
I know I am going to lose the battle against pests so I have decided to conserve my energy for the battle with the Squirrels.
Barbee - I'm sure that's right to some degree - that some pests come in with the plants. But I think some have a particularly good sense of smell which is why some vegetable gardeners sow carrots between rows of onions - to put carrot root fly off the scent. Don't know how far an asparagus beetle is prepared to travel for a good meal.
Hello Donna. I'm glad I don't get deer in my garden. Everything would be demolished in a minute! Though even a deer would probably do less damage than a locust if the locust brought its friends along (which it probably would!).
Hello Easygardener. I think denial is a good approach. Memory is another. I was showing my husband where the chocolate mint used to be until a couple of weeks ago this morning. I can do a conducted tour in which the imagination has to be paramount. This is where x used to be but it got eaten. This is where y used to be until cats sat on it. You get the idea.
Garden pests, I can relate to that. I am hoping for some really, really cold winter days to get rid of some if not most of the garden pests. The cold days, unfortunately, will not get rid of deer, voles woodchucks ...
I'm sorry about the insect damage, Esther. I suppose this means I should be grateful for our cold winters and frozen gardens.
Last year I thought it was birds snipping off the tops of pea seedlings, but since I have a hoop house over one of our vegetable beds this winter, now I know it must have been voles. I was really looking forward to winter radishes, but all that's left of them is the seedling leaves. I don't think anything else besides voles could get in there, and I've seen them scurrying over the snow looking for their hidey-holes. Very disappointing.
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