SowHow, (Pavilion, 2017) by Paul Matson and Lucy Anna Scott features a fresh bright design and clear-cut instructions, it includes entries on more than 30 easy-grow vegetables to sow throughout the seasons, form kale to runner beans and carrots to cucamelons. Matson is a visual designer he uses beautiful design and clever infographics to simplify gardening and help first –time gardeners produce first-class vegetables. Scott is a writer with an artistic interest in stories that explore how plants, trees, and landscapes help us better understand ourselves. The following excerpt is from the “Problem Solving” section.
Pests are the pits for plants but are an inevitable part of gardening Many chemical solutions are available but these potentially toxic remedies aren’t the only way Birds, bugs and amphibians – natural predators for many common menaces – are the gardener’s greatest allies.
Big Beasts
Snails
These common garden critters chew holes in leaves, stems, flowers and bulbs. Encourage natural predators like toads, by providing moist hiding spots. Hedgehogs, another natural pest controller, will be drawn to piles of fallen leaves, dead vegetation and twigs. Snails are also a tasty meal for song thrushes and spotted flycatchers.
Alternatively , try filling a plastic tub with beer and sinking it into the soil. Snails are attracted to the smell, then fall in.
Slugs
Feeding at night, slugs inflict most damage during warm, humid spells, making holes in foliage and leaving slimy trails in their wake.
Encourage hedgehogs, slow worms and frogs and toads. Meanwhile, raking over your soil in winter will expose slug eggs to the birds.
You could also refrain from planting seedlings outside until they are sturdy young plants. Plant these ‘teen’ plants with a protective ‘bottle and copper’ cloche.
Pigeons
A pest-and-a-half for gardeners, these birds peck away at foliage until all that remains is a skeleton of stalks and leaf veins. Anti-bird netting prevents access to crops. For a low-budget solution, drape a net over bamboo canes, fence posts or stakes, and anchor it to the ground with bent wire.
Cats
Cats like to use vegetable gardens as toilet areas. Nice! You’ll spot strong-smelling excrement in the beds or buried in holes. Try netting and keeping soil watered (which cats don’t like). You can also cover bare areas with planted lollipop sticks, which deter cats from roaming.
Ants
Ants won’t do your garden too much harm. The main problem is they have fostered some ecological pact with aphids – which are an issue. Ants protect the aphids from predators and carry them to host plants. In return, the ants get first dibs of the honeydew that the aphids excrete.
Ant colonies are best left: a new colony will quickly claim the territory of a destroyed nest So why not make a home for insect-eating birds instead, attracting them with watering spots, perches or bird boxes?
Rabbits
Rabbits feed between dusk and dawn but can also help themselves during the day. You’ll notice stems razed clean to the ground, and holes and scrapes in lawns and beds. Rabbit-proof fencing is a costly option so instead protect individual plants with wire-netting barriers.
Tiny Bugs
Aphids
Most plants are susceptible. Aphid infestations can be seen on shoot tips, around buds and under young leaves. You can squash the infestations with your fingers (eggs are laid on lower leaves).
Blue tits, ladybirds, lacewings and hover fly larvae, will feast on around 50 aphids a day. So grow a ‘welcome mat’ of plants to seduce these predators. Coriander, dill, fennel and dandelion are among the many species that will offer them shelter and other sources of food.
Cabbage Whitefly
These white-winged insects love kale, cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Small populations only infest the outer leaves of brassica plants, causing little real damage, but larger ones cause sooty black moulds to grow on the honeydew the insects leave behind.
Blast the whitefly away with a jet of water and grow marigolds and caraway to encourage natural predators, such as ladybirds and lacewings. If the infestation is serious, burn the foliage or bury it to destroy any eggs.
Glasshouse Whitefly
Cucumbers , melons, tomatoes and peppers in greenhouses are vulnerable to this white-winged pest, which thrives in warm conditions. Identifiable by sticky honeydew, black , sooty mould and lacklustre plants, these pests are rapid breeders. You may also see scale-like nymphs.
Inspect plants daily and act on an infestation as soon as you spot one, by removing infested leaves. Hang yellow sticky traps to catch adults.
Vine Weevil
These beetles love container-grown plants, eating leaves and severing roots. They’re not fussy; indoor and outdoor plants are equally vulnerable. Plants wilt and die, and their roots wither away.
Birds, frogs, toads, shrews, hedgehogs and predatory ground beetles will prey on adults and grubs. You should also inspect plant pots, flushing these nasties out by shaking pots over an upturned umbrella. You can also spread pots, benches and canes with a sticky insect barrier glue.
Two-spotted spider mite (or glasshouse red spider mite)
A prolific mite that sucks sap from cells, causing a mottled appearance and leaf loss. As it thrives in warm, dry conditions, you’ll see it between March and October.
Aubergine/eggplant, cucumber, pepper and peach are at risk, with infected plants displaying yellow flecks and stunted growth. If the infestation is severe, you may even see fine, silk webs. It can be tricky to deal with as it reproduces quickly.
You can remove eggs by hand. Try killing off over wintering mites by washing down empty greenhouses in spring with disinfectant and removing weeds.
For more from SowHow:
• Compost Fundamentals
• Dos and Don’ts of Sowing Seeds
Reprinted with permission from SowHow: A Modern Guide to Grow-Your-Own Veg by Paul Matson & Lucy Scott, published by Pavilion Books.
