Even the most optimistic gardener cannot imagine that the summer season will pass off without some bug, beast or blight marring the beauty of the flower bed or the orderliness of the veg patch. Pests and diseases are a fact of life – wildlife – and along with bees, birds and butterflies they are an intrinsic part of the garden.
Next month I’ll be looking at the pests that can wreak havoc in your garden, along with the responsible and sustainable methods of minimising their predations. But in this issue diseases are in the spotlight. They needn’t always be fatal and many of them can be avoided by good cultivation techniques. I’m an organic gardener, not a chemical man, so don’t expect a long list of potions for this and that, but with more and more chemicals being withdrawn from the market it makes sense for any gardener to look to alternative means of avoiding epidemics. I
