Trials and tribulations - the 2013 pest and disease chart rundown

An update on the pests and diseases in my garden. 

Coming in at number 4 in the Chart of Pain...blackfly - last year's out of the blocks winners. They decimated the Red Devil apple and the Heptacodium Jasminoides but their 2013 effort seems so far not to be quite as pithy....I have soapy water at the ready to spray the little buggers if they turn up.

This year's highest new entry is blossom wilt - my Granny Smith -  a wonderful old tree that we inherited with the garden has already lost a considerable number of shoots and I am watching with some anxiety to see how it spreads. So far we have cut off the infected parts but I'm loathe to spray partly because I don't like chemicals and partly because it's too big a tree to treat easily. It still feels very cold to me especially at night for the time of year and I just hope things warm up a bit to inhibit the fungal growth, although I have no scientific evidence that this will make any difference, and hey - this is the UK!

Another new entrant for the Nice Tree garden is - for the first time since we moved here  - powdery mildew, which is busy attacking one of my climbing roses (small pink flowers, don't know the variety) . This, despite being cosseted within an inch of its life. There's no pleasing some plants!

And finally, news on the Cherry Sunburst - apparently amazing sweet fruit, not that I'd know. Every single ripe and delicious cherry was eaten by birds last year. This year every single pea-sized unripe and almost certainly not delicious cherry has been eaten by something again....along with all the leaves. Pigeons? Caterpillars? So I will be cherry deprived again and am wondering really, how on earth to people end up with any fruit at all?

These things are sent to try us blah blah blah....and actually there a loads of great things happening too...the ceanothus is putting on its usual fabulous display and covered with bees, my Tetrapanax is growing strongly and my Abutilon x Suntense is bedecked with most delicate violet flowers despite having been out unprotected during a very cold winter indeed.

Filming today at the Earth Trust in Little Wittenham as part of their drive to promote carbon footprint reduction...will post pictures later!

If you would like to follow Nice Tree on Twitter you will find us at @nicetreefilms.

Have a great day!

A day out with the NGS, some filming in Berkshire and a deadly fruit attack...

It's been raining like crazy here - but at least the wind has died down. The garden is lush and lovely but mostly green still, other than the tulips which I just love and must remember to plant more of come November. 

Cow parsley which self seeds each year

Tulipa Orange Princess

The warm wet weather is the signal for the pests to move in - my Heptacodium Jasminoides has developed holes in the leaves but so far I have been unable to find the culprits. I will need to keep a close eye out for aphids, too, which caused major damage to both it and my Red Devil apple tree last year. 

Before the attack

The worst thing though is the total devastation caused practically overnight to my cherry tree - I don't know who to blame - the pigeons perhaps - but the crop of cherries which in flower made the tree look like a comedy clown's  outfit has been 99% demolished. I hope the culprit has a tummy ache!

After the attack

Last week I was filming for a new project about people and their gardens - more of that coming soon - with Lady Catherine Stevenson, former High Sheriff of Berkshire and self-taught plantswoman extraordinaire.

Lady Catherine is a seed addict - she has trees in her garden which she has sown from seed - and you can visit her garden in late August as part of the National Gardens Scheme.

Paeonia mlokosewitschii - 'Molly-the-witch'

Her garden is just starting to unfurl its secrets including a fabulous Ceanothus Puget Blue, a spectacular if unpronounceable Paeonia Mlokosewitschii, and a host of herbaceous perennials and cottage garden favourites. I thoroughly recommend a visit. You can see more images from the trip at the Nice Tree Films Pinterest page.





Meanwhile a busy weekend was spent helping out at another NGS garden on the Hackney Islington borders - only the second year this one has opened, and a huge thank you to all 92 people who visited.


This garden, owned by journalist and fitness trainer Jane Taylor of If Ginger Can Do It, was designed by Carol Whitehead 

Carol Whitehead, garden designer

who transformed what used to be an uninspiring urban plot dominated by a huge and ugly concrete stairway accessorised with bindweed and fox poo, into an oasis full of surprises large and small, including a stunning Tetrapanax Rex which wouldn't look out of place in the Kew palm house. 

Abutilon Suntense

Tetrapanax Papyrifer

The garden is now 6 years old, and an unbelievable living testimony to the transformative power of plants.

The sun shone, home made cakes were enjoyed, new plants discovered and new friends made. Roll on next year.

Bergenia

Owner Jane Taylor and visitor