Garden pests n the rest

Broccoli

The leftover tomato plants under the rosebush
Beautiful mallow
Greenhouse life: white sage in the pots, basil, chilli,squash







I was out for a hunt this morning, this time for greenflies and caterpillars. I decided to give a break to the slugs:)
This year so far has been a bit of a challenge (a very educational one, I don't mean it as a complaint, rather a collection of experiences to remember;-), at least that's what it feels like after last year's relatively easy and pest-freeish year of abundance.
It started early in the spring, with an unbelievable greenfly infestation on the propagator, setting back the basil, pepper, chilli, tomato and aubergine plants by weeks. Daily pickings of the little green monsters and litres of garlic spray.... Scary to think they could've all died... But hey, loads of tomatoes waiting to ripen, peppers and chillies flowering away and the aubergines are growing their first little flowers too!
Then an accidental overheating of the propagator.... human stupidity pest;-D
Then the cabbage root fly raised the death toll, my goodness, nail biting every morning-"I wonder how many more brassicas are wilting and need to be pulled up today"... Mad production of collars saved about half of them, thankfully, I'd really miss the broccoli, calabrese, and 2 types of cabbages. I guess the rest is gone...:(
Then the slugs, as the rain arrived. Invention of different ways of torture... Dark corners of the soul, certainly.... It is entertaining though to compare methods of slug-torture with friends, trying to decide who is more cruel...;-)
Human stupidity number 2: rather have ventilation in your greenhouse when its very humid and cool weather than keep the doors closed for heat purposes... Else, you'll end up with MOULD!!! Spores everywhere... Tomato leaves (now cut back...to reduce the spread of mould and increase ventilation), Basil (oh my sweet basil, putting my freezerless preserving experiments in danger by lack of supplies!!!)...
And then, caterpillars. On the basil!Chilli!and Pepper plants!!!!! not only on the brassicas! wow. Now that suprised me I must admit... I don't even know what to say;-)
And the return of the greenflies, well actually they never fully left, however we had the most amazing ladybird population boom around the garden:) But my precious californian white sage plants (i know, i'm trying to prove they can cope with the irish climate ha ha ha;-), they still need the regular green-monster pick...
This year's courgette boom is not happening, to my greatest suprise, but I diagnosed it as having a bad batch of seeds, at least I couldn't find the reason of lacking fertility in a richly autumn-mulched bed which spits out huge heads of cabbages and lettuces and mangetout by the bucket;-) I'm gonna be out for a hunt, marrow=greatest chutney material, I miss you!:)