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Henry's Garden Hints & Tips 7

Guides to growing vegetables, hints & tips to help you get more from your plot from forum member mkhenry

Natural Helpers against Aphids

We all know that no matter what we do sooner or later aphids will attack. There are however lots of beasties available to us to help reduce or even prevent any infestation.
Lady birds are very well known helpmates, but there is one other who quietly does a stirling job and only needs a little persuasion to live in our vegetable patch.

Behold the little insect with a veracious appetite, the bee look-a-like, the super worker the "Hover Fly"!

Plant some Poached Egg Plant (Limnanthes Douglasii) or some Buck Wheat (Fagopyrum Esculentum) and you may get 20 plus species of natural aphid predator to lay their eggs and help to protect your crop.

Plant the Tobacco plant (Nicotiana Sylvestris) and its sticky leaves will trap white fly by the hundreds.

Remember if you rid your garden completely of one insect the chances are you will let another take over. Its best to try for a healthy balance. Try not to overkill anything there is room for most of these beasties and they all fulfil a purpose.

Avoid Spreading Clubroot

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We all know that lime helps prevent the dreaded clubroot, but not everyone knows that weeds like Shepard's Purse and flowers like Stocks and Wall flowers are highly susceptible to this nasty infection.

So clear your plot of these plants and weeds on sight

One reason clubroot stays in the ground for so long, even if you don't grow brassicas, is that the problem affects all members of the crucifer family. Aggressive weed control will certainly help.

Don't forget that the humble radish is a brassica. If harvested when ready then they do not cause a problem but if they bolt, pull them up before they act as a reservoir for clubroot.

Extending The Usefulness of a Cold Frame

Cold frames are a great way of starting some seeds and plants off but, come the warmer weather, they can get very hot indeed, Removing the glass can help but plants can still be scorched by the sun.

So to help you use the frames for longer in the growing year, cut up some old net curtain to the size of the top of the cold frame and using that sticky backed Velcro tape stick it on the top edges of the frame and around the edges of the old curtain making a cover that will let the light and air in but will stop the scorching effect of the hot sun.

The Velcro will let you remove and replace it quickly when needed.

When sticking the Velcro on the curtain its works best if you can iron it on a flat surface. When sticking on the frame, if it's wood, I found that a couple of staples added to each bit of Velcro makes it last all season.

It also has the benefit of keeping out pests like aphids, butterflies and even cats!