There are just so many things I could have include here; black birds, potato beetles, the citrus gall wasp that is attacking my potted citrus, some seed’s poor germination rates, cabbage white butterflies, powdery mildew and so on but in the end I chose the 5 below. What they have in common is that I feel relatively powerless in the face of their attacks. Yes there are ways of working around them but frankly I simply wish they didn’t exist and then I could happily garden away feeling that absolutely no problem was insurmountable.
1. Slugs & Snails – I know how to deal with slugs and snails. I check under every pot weekly. I put in my beer traps. I used to put down bait – in a time before small children roamed my patch. I get rid of a lot of slugs and snails…but then I become complacent and no sooner than you’ve said newly planted pea seedlings they are levelled and you are left pealess for another year. Arrrgh!
2. Aphids – Normal aphids I don’t have any great problem with. Ants farm them on my tamarillo occasionally, I see the occasional outbreak on the leaves of my Tuscan Kale (there were more on the pic above but I squished them pre photo), but neither of these are a big deal. What I really dislike is when aphids lodge themselves in broccoli heads, so that no matter how much you wash that broccoli you just know you’re going to end up eating some. Urrrgh! The other aphid problem I have is with the black ones that attack my alliums. First it was the garlic and recently it has been the garlic chives. I’ve tried squashing them, I’ve tried spraying pyrethrum and both have kept them at bay for the briefest of brief periods. I have absolutely no idea what to try next.
3. Rodents – Now my problems with rodents are nothing like Michelle’s at Seed to Table, but I’m still not comfortable with the tell tale teeth marks they leave on the broccoli stalks, the nibbled radishes and carrots, the digging up and under the compost bin and the piles of poo they leave about the place. Icckky and nothing seems to keep them away. We’ve tried and failed with traps and we can’t bait because of the kids. I come from a long line of cat haters and whilst I don’t share their anti cat passions I don’t want one either – I would be too distressed when if instead of rodents it brought me one of the white checked honeyeaters that nest in my passionfruit vine.
(Ironically as I type this I can hear the tell tale scratching of mice in the room, or perhaps in the wall cavity behind me – urrgh).
4. The Weather – This week Daphne posted about the extreme fluctuations they are having with their weather. Here, if there isn’t a drought, there’s a flood. Any Melbournian will happily regale you with tales of dead plants during our 10 year drought, and equally they will tell you about the demise of many of the plants that did survive when it suddenly started to rain, and rain, and rain. Talk to any Sydneysider this summer and they will tell of the gardening problems of too much rain. Then there are the years when it doesn’t get hot in summer – the tomatoes, capsicum and eggplant refuse to ripen and all that you’re left with from your summer harvest is a few lovely but inadequate cucumbers. Of course there are also the years when it gets too hot. Read Diana’s blog and you’ll hear tales of destruction wrought but the extreme heat of an Adelaide summer. And all those are just fairly normal weather cycles. Then there’s the damage a weather event can do – like the destruction of Phoebes summer vegetables by our Christmas Day hailstorms. All in all its enough to drive a gardener round the bend. Oh for a perfect year with; average rainfall, a nice warm summer – warm enough to ripe tomatoes but not so hot they refuse to set fruit, and a cold but frost free winter – cold enough for the garlic to produce beautiful divided heads but not so cold that the lemongrass freezes in the ground. One year it will happen – but probably not soon….To be fair this year has been pretty good in Melbourne, hailstones aside.
5. Trees – This last one is really an opportunity for me to vent, yet again, about my next door neighbours ridiculously large eucalypts. Not only do these trees shade my garden from about 2pm onwards every afternoon. Not only do the particular species of eucalypt she is growing have the propensity to drop limbs for no obvious reason. Not only do their roots suck moisture from my soil. Not only do their roots penetrate my sewerage pipes and block them (actually this could also be my two year putting things down the toilet that he shouldn’t….). No those are not the only issues – one of the most annoying is that being eucalpts they emit a substance that makes plants not want to grow underneath them. Whilst this is manifestly useful to trees in the wild – less competition for resources and all that, it is very annoying when you find some nice shade loving vegetables and they still don’t look that happy underneath them. Incidently the photo above was taken last year – they are even bigger now…Whinge over and I do feel much better now!
