AIthough it's easy to get hung up on plant pest problems, let's be honest, it is hard to reconcile an organic and wildlife-friendly approach to your garden when pests are doing their level best to disfigure your plants.
Last month I looked at ways to minimise the effects of plant diseases; this month I'm dealing with plant pests: not the birds and mammals but the invertebrates - the insects, slugs and snails that can be among the most dispiriting of garden visitors.
But let's get real. You are never going to banish them completely, and in a garden run on organic lines they are, like it or not, part of the food chain. Even wasps - which everybody seems to detest, mainly on account of their sting- contribute to pest control as they feed on small insects such as aphids, as well as sugars in the form of nectar and honeydew.
Learning to develop a more relaxed approach will not only help lower your blood pressure but, once the food chain has settled into a natural cycle, you will notice fewer epidemics since the natural predators of certain plant eating or sap-sucking insects will have been allowed to build up in numbers rather than being discouraged by the use of non-selective insecticides and chemicals.
Even products that only target greenfly and blackfly are by their very nature removing a part of the food chain that supports valuable predators, so even they interfere with the natural order of things. What's important is that you have a garden where occasional rises in the population of certain pests will almost always be temporary, thanks to the intervention of other forms of life that feed on the things we consider the baddies' - the plant pests.
What are plant pests?
Esta historia es de la edición August 2023 de BBC Gardeners World.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición August 2023 de BBC Gardeners World.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
We love June
We're cruising towards midsummer: this is a month full of love and abundance. Wherever you look there will be something in your garden that lifts the spirits and makes you glad to be alive. We have colour to cheer us, we have leaves that still have the bounce and freshness of small puppies, we have the first berries fattening up, there are birds frantically parenting very demanding broods of chicks, the bees are all over the place, it's prime barbecue and picnic season, and we have lawns as lush and green as billiard tables. What a month to fall in love.
Your wildlife month
The female will usually lay one clutch of up to eight eggs
An edible garden in pots
Join Lucy Bellamy in creating an edible container garden for all seasons, as she harvests what's ripe now and starts later-season crops
Garden craft with kids
Fill the summer holidays with fun nature makes for kids, including botanical printed t-shirts, seed sowing in upcycled food containers and a hanging home for beneficial insects. Jaime Johnson and family show you how
Secrets of a COLOURFUL GARDEN
Using a colour theme is an easy way to give any garden a strong, unified character - Nick Bailey shows you how
Indoor plants, outdoor treats
Break the rules and give your house plants a summer holiday, with Michael Perry's mixed pot display ideas
YOUR PRUNING MONTH
The first few weeks of summer are a good time to get spring-flowering plants in shape. Follow Frances' guide for best results
Gardening for wellbeing
As the pressures of modern living bear down, our outside spaces can provide soothing respite for our minds and bodies, says Arit Anderson
Your greenhouse guide to A fruitful summer
Get the best from your greenhouse fruit and vegetable crops this summer, with these tried and trusted growing tips from Adam Frost
Stars of the show
Agapanthus is the perfect midsummer plant, flowering with spectacular blooms from June onwards and, as Monty explains, it loves to grow in a pot
