Unfortunately, not everything in my 'garden' is looking so happy... over the last few weeks this seasons aphids have arrived and are going strong. It seems that they attacked the lavender's first, which I guess may not have been too happy after the winter since Scotland isn't exactly the mediterranean type climate that they prefer. Bizarrely, one lavender has faired much better than the other, despite both being heavily infested. I'm not quite sure why this might be, but unless the really sick looking one puts out some new growth and improves soon I'm thinking I might send it to the great compost bin in the sky! The lavenders were both plants I bought last year, a variety of Lavandula stoechas (French lavender) called 'Jamboree' and I suspect that they simply were not really hardy enough to live happily here (although one pot is ok - so maybe one side of my door way is more sheltered?). I'm thinking that I might replace the really unhappy looking plant with a more resilient and tougher Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender). Oh, I should mention that the 'happy' lavender is actually growing in a much smaller pot than the 'unhappy' lavender - so it isn't as huge as it looks in the photos!
In the meantime however, the aphids have spread to the pot of tulip leaves next to them (the flowers are mostly over), and onto my heuchera which is looking decidedly unhappy - although thankfully it is showing signs of survival as it's starting to put out new leaves. I'm thinking i'm going to bin the tulips rather than wait for the last few bulbs to flower... it's not looking good in that pot!
I need to find a solution and am considering ordering some ladybirds through the post. Either that, or making up some sort of organic spray to wash over the leaves as I'm not keen on using an insecticide. The only problem is that as the plants are in containers, I'm concerned that the spray will then become really concentrated in the compost that they're in - whereas if used on plants growing directly in the ground the spray would be more able to dissipate through the soil. I think the ladybirds would be fun to try though so I'm favouring them at the moment - unless any of you have any ideas?! Or I might try growing a pot or two of something oniony, like chives, and see if that deters them. Pesky critters... mutter mutter...
3 comments:
My garden has some plants that are not doing well too. I always think that they are calling for our attention :-) Once they are cared for, they would get well. Good luck in finding a solution to get rid of aphids.
Hi Stephanie - I think that you may be right about my plants calling for attention. I've been meaning to remove the pot of dying back, aphid infested, tulips for a month now... and still haven't got around to it. I fear it's an aphid stronghold from which they're planning their attacks on the nearby plants!
I just squeeze mine off, you have to keep on top of it, and it's not always an easy job.
You can use a soap solution, but it needs to be traditional soap without the added nasty chemicals (sorry, I can't remember the name, it's pink though and smells bad without the added perfumes and found in traditional harware shops, I would think soaps from luch or bodyshop should be harmless to the soils too???). The aphids don't like the soapy layer and will die/move on...
I've had to resort to it this year due to the warm weather the Aphids have exploded, and I can't keep on top of them.
Also make sure you have no ants, as they 'farm' the aphids, protecting them from ladybirds and such. As you have no garden, I guess you're ant-free?
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