Bugs in my veg patch
- SciEnvy
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Happy bug week! For my bug week blog post, I thought that I would take the opportunity to talk about my veg patch – it doesn’t take much to get me talking about it….
Firstly, I will start with why I have a veg patch. This has been something I have always been interested in and feeds into my interests of farming, cooking and being outdoors. Obviously, I am very lucky as a PhD student to have access to growing space, but if you do (even if it is a windowsill), I recommend giving growing your own food a go, it will destress you and will definitely give you something to obsess over plus some delicious fresh food.
Anyway, back to bugs. In this blog post I will talk about 2 pests I have had on my veg patch. I will firstly talk about my battle last year with the “Cabbage White” on my Curly Kale. After this I will talk about the Blackfly aphids that I have been finding on my beans this year.
Cabbage White
When I planted out my Kale last year, little did I know that it was going to be savaged by caterpillars! Last year was my first-year upscaling my veg patch and I was a bit late in getting it all ready so did not set up the appropriate defences. According to the RHS website (the gardeners bible), the Cabbage White butterfly in its larval stage (caterpillars) will eat the outer leaves of all brassicas – not very useful when you want to eat the leaves!
My veg patch last year with no defences (kale on the left and right). I also grew squash, cauliflower, sweetcorn, and attempted peas
Unfortunately, I was not proactive enough last year to prevent an infestation, so ended up with LOADS of these pests on my Kale. I tried picking them off individually, but eventually had to resort to 2 rounds of an organic pesticide to remove them, otherwise I would have been left with nothing. This year, I have been able to follow the RHS advice on the caterpillars and plant my brassicas under a fine netting. I have also planted them alongside marigolds, which have been found to repel the caterpillars. I am yet to see if this has worked though – but no caterpillars so far!
As you can see from the image above, I have been a lot more prepared this year and hope that I can use these preventative methods to prevent further infestation. The netting for the carrots is to prevent carrot fly and the egg shells have been found to prevent slugs. I also have marigolds around my tomatoes.
To find out more about Cabbage White: https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/cabbage-caterpillars
Blackfly
The only problem I have encountered this year is blackfly aphids on my broad beans. According to the RHS, these aphids are up to 2mm long and dense aggregations of them can rapidly develop on soft shoot tips, flower steps and on the underside of young leaves which can weaken host plants and potentially reduce your yields.
Despite this pest being quite abundant on my beans, the RHS recommend that these aphids are tolerated where possible so that is what I am doing! Where I have had a big issue, I have cut off a really infested leaf or squashed them with my finger. I have also gone scouring my garden for ladybugs and have transferred them to the infested plants as ladybirds are famous for their ability to eat aphids. I still have lots of beans to pick on the infested plants, so we are all winners really!
To find out more about black fly: https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/blackfly
Conclusion
I have learnt a lot about insects and pest management whilst working on my veg patch for the last few years. It has been a rewarding (and sometimes frustrating) process but has definitely taught me a lot about food production and how to manage pests effectively at the same time.
I hope you enjoyed reading and happy gardening!
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