How does your garden grow?

[Tartar Horde]

This years harvest so far has been very good, with my fruit bushes being very productive. The biggest surprise is how well the sweetcorn is doing, 6ft plus and the cobs are swelling nicely. For North East England it's not bad at all. Even my outdoor Tomatoes are full of fruit, Wobal Gloaming, I love it.

[Skean Dhude]

After such a good start I've been nuked by butterflies. They seem to have been attracted to many of my plants and have exterminated them. So much for no chemicals. The chickens love those juicy caterpillars though although they also dig up the plants so that doesn't help. I'm going to get a few miles of netting for next time and put everything in cages.

[Straight Shooter]

Living where we do Trees have now become a big problem...the buggers keep growing and taking the light, but all the same having a not bad crop, when I put up the polly tunnel I cut down loads of trees .....but they are back , along the west elevation ...they now block the sun by mid afternoon...this means war of course , come
autum I wil fell the buggers , plus a major cutting and thining of shrubs taking over paths , damsons, quence aplenty . Across the valley my pal has a small farm, sun all day you should see MY plants there .....a sight to behold,. I will get back on track in the coming months and get it all in shape .

[MaryN]

I've had a good year so far. The rain early in the year swelled the fruit on the trees and soft fruit bushes - we've been inundated, and the freezer is full.

After last year's butterfly armageddon I got OH to erect a large cage covered in anti-butterfly netting. All brassicas are in it and not one butterfly has managed to get in. No caterpillars munching away on the leaves and with any luck we'll get brussels sprouts this winter, along with nice cabbages and purple sprouting. I would recommend this to anyone plagued by butterflies.

The only thing not so good this year have been runner beans - they have swelled and gone hard too quickly, so the crop is a bit reduced. I have no idea why.

Still, all in all, a fruitful year.[/b]

[Tartar Horde]

One thing I have noticed is that the imported species like Corn, Toms and tatties seem to have little or no insect damage, whereas My peas have been decimated early on, and to be honest I haven't grown any Brassicas this year, because the amount of effort to keep them bug free without chemicals is not worth the work for the rewards. As always the most useful veg are the tatties, and next year I will be planting more than ever.

[bigpaul]

our main trouble is slugs and I'm sure the blighters can fly...their on everything even if we put stuff around to stop them climbing up....that's why I'm sure they can fly!!!!

[Tartar Horde]

Get yersen a "slug stick" BP, a handle with a large nail in the end, go out after dark and get some payback by sticking em with the pointy end. If I'm feeling particularly mean I like to shoot snails out of my "catty" at the wall and watch them explode

[Lightspeed]

[T-oddity]

Personally I'd spend my money on physical barriers against pests rather than chemicals, safer on food crops and can be used multiple times if you get quality stuff and look after it.