David in Normandy wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
David in Normandy wrote:
Bobbie wrote:
David in Normandy wrote:

Better still, give up using chemicals and pesticides. Go Green, go
organic. So much better for you and the environment.
I have a large garden, and a my husband has a good sized vegetable
garden, we don't use any chemicals. The veg are doing well and so
are the flower beds.


What do you use to prevent / cure rust on the onion family? My chives
seem very prone to attack at this time of year. Similarly how do you
prevent / cure blight on potatoes and tomatoes?


Would you believe me if I was to tell you that so far we have not been
blighted in this way.
I think a lot has to do with being able to use untainted compost. from
our own compost heaps. Made up of goat, horse, and chicken manure, to
which we add kitchen waste, and garden waste. Maintained, organically
and allowed to rot sufficiently to produce a viable sweet smelling
crumbly black final compost. Added to that, possibly the most temperate
climate in England, warm and sunny Dorset. I don't grow for instance,
plants that I know to be prone to disease, aphids are dispatched with
soft soap solution or simply by hand, same with slugs and snails.
Grand-daughters are bribed into hand picking any caterpillars that dare
to escape all other methods of removal. John uses cages and lots of
netting. We lose a few things to inclement weather but fingers crossed
we haven't come across anything that hasn't responded to a little extra
tender loving care, and a lot of Mozart.
There are any number of good organic remedies for most garden pests and
vegetable blights.
I confess to a bad case of powdery mildew on a honeysuckle but
amazingly it survived and this year is looking and smelling lovely


Bobbie


Organic gardening is something I aspire towards but haven't quite made
it. The only non-organic things I use a

1. Glyphosate, but that is mainly for my drive which is around 300
metres long and needs treating several times a year to keep it weed
free. There are also other parts of the garden (just over an acre) that
have weed problems. We have one area set aside as a wildlife area and
allow everything to grow there untouched by human interference. There is
a nice mix of grasses and wild flowers but also a number of nettles and
brambles which make the area impenetrable (for humans).

2. Slug pellets. I use these sparingly, sometimes too sparingly as the
slugs and snails occasionally destroy my seedlings. I've lost an entire
batch of lettuce this way. I don't tend to use slug pellets on the
garden when plants are more mature, just when they are young and
vulnerable.

3. Fungicide. Bought last year as a result of rust on my chives. It
seems effective at curing the problem. I've also given my tomato plants
a preventative spray and similarly one of the potato patches which looks
like it is a bit ill.

4. Most of my fertiliser is from my compost heaps, but some plants get a
scattering of general purpose granular fertiliser such as the potatoes.
Other greedy feeders such as the runner beans get a treat of Miracle
grow periodically, as do the strawberries, courgettes and tomatoes.

Other than the above I shun chemicals. I tend to spend an average of
half an hour every day in the garden weeding one patch or another, so
the glyphosate is a godsend in untended / jungly areas and paths.

Maybe in time I will end up fully organic. It seems to be a juggling act
between conflicting interests including a lack of time to spend on the
garden and getting reasonable veg yields.

We do get a lot of wildlife in the garden which I try to encourage in
various ways. Today I saw a little red butterfly, first time I've seen
one like that. Only small, but red all over.


It takes time, and a determination to put up with a few losses in the
beginning. I garden my ear, but I do have a very good collection of
gardening books that I refer to when in doubt, and of course there is
urg. It has taken me several years of trial and error to garden without
the use of chemicals. Careful choice of plants. ( I do love Hostas) .
Of course I couldn't have contemplated going wholly organic if I had
still been working, no time for messing about, but now I am retired I
have much more time, and a lot more determination, plus a lot of animals.
I'll look out a few book titles that have helped me.

Bobbie

http://www.smudgespatch.co.uk/newhome.html