Aphids

Some weekends start off perfectly - the slow and steady rise from sleep to wakefulness, the smell and taste of a fresh brewed coffee and the deliciousness of a cooked breakfast.  Finally as the sun starts to warm up the garden you get motivated to go outside and enjoy the day by being productive outside.

 You take a slow stroll around the garden creating a mental checklist of what needs to be done when you stop short.  What on earth has happened to my beautiful plants?  They were fine yesterday (or whatever day I was last out here!) Now suddenly they are in dire need of a little TLC. The perfect weekend is slowly spiralling downhill.

Even through the cold months insects and disease can play havoc in our gardens.  An easy way to keep insects and disease at bay is to keep our plants healthy.  Fertilising with a complete organic slow release fertiliser every three months or at the change of season is a great way of helping our plants stay strong and able to fight off disease and insects.  Sometimes though even the best laid plans go astray and plants unfortunately will get disease and insects, it even happens to the best of us green thumbs!

At the moment I am finding that aphids are having a feast in my garden.  With the warm days many of my plants have tender, yummy, new shoots appearing, just what aphids love.  There are many different species of Aphids; they are all small sap sucking insects that vary in colour from green to yellow and black. Aphids don’t just suck the life from your plants they also transmit virus diseases such as broad bean wilt. Natural predators are lady birds but if you don’t have enough of these you may need to spray with the chemical Imidacloprid.  The brand I use is Conguard by Searles.  

Azaleas will also benefit from a spray of Imidacloprid (Conguard) at this time of year.  If your azalea leaves have lost their colour and lustre (may look sandblasted) and have black spots on the underside of their leaves – you have Lace Bug. Severe infestations of lace bug can lead to reduced plant vigour and loss of leaves. You may need to spray a few times to control your infestation and unfortunately once the leaves have that sand blasted look they will stay that way.  A good trim and fertilise though will help promote nice new healthy growth to cover the unsightly affected growth.  If you don’t like spraying with chemicals a new range of azaleas have been released that are lace bug resistant. This is called the Encore Range.  My favourite is Autumn Twist.  It is mauve with a dark purple stripe thru the flower.

The Imidacloprid based sprays work on a Systemic action – absorbed through the foliage and moves throughout the plant to control insects.  They are safe to use on most plant types and you need very low concentrations to be effective.  The most important thing I find is that Imidacloprid based sprays are low toxic to beneficial insects such as ladybirds and bees.

Start and end your weekend perfectly by giving not only your garden but the birds and the bees some TLC.