Search - Articles

Protected from predators and the risk of dehydration inside its moist ball of bubbles, the juvenile yellow-green froghopper (or spittle bug) is busy sucking plant sap. It's quite harmless unless it's attacking the shoot tips, which can result in distorted growth. The adult frogho...

.rosemary, lavender, sage, Russian sage, thymelate-summer, autumnAdvice on growing herbsTaking rosemary cuttingsDealing with cuckoo spit on herbsPicking herbsAdvice on growing medicinal herbsVideo demonstration of planting herbs in a window boxVideo advice on how

insects - which have a fluffy white covering - carry on feeding on the sap, prolonging the problem. Prolific breeding in summer means the symptoms don't disappear. Young, winged, sap-feeding insects attack young bay foliage, discolouring and distorting it

with the biological control Steinernema carpcapse.With heavy infestations, use an insecticide based on pyrethrum (only use once a season on crops).brassicas and nasturtiumsearly spring to autumnCommon problems when growing vegetables

hot spells and provide shading. Promptly pick off any split tomatoes before they start to rot.tomatoessummer to autumnCommon problems affecting tomatoesTomato leaf mouldTomato blightTomato frost damageBlossom end rot

Poor early-summer weather, with a prolonged cold spell, and few insects results in poor pollination. This means courgettes fail to develop, and they quickly rot on the plant. However, this is only a temporary problem, and once the weather starts

Pea and bean weevils are a nuisance but rarely a major problem on the veg patch. The larvae live in the soil and feed on the root nodules. Then when the adults emerge in June and July, they climb up the plants and eat the edges of the leaves

The winding trails on leaves are caused by the larvae of a small, dark fly. During summer, the females make little nicks in the leaf surface to lay their eggs. A week later, these hatch into larvae, which tunnel along just under the leaf surface to feed. After 2-3 weeks, the larv...

The fungus that causes this problem spreads rapidly in the warm, humid conditions of a greenhouse. It usually becomes apparent on the lowest tomato leaves from early or midsummer, which develop yellow blotches on the upper leaf surface. The leaves

, onto lower leaves where it encourages black sooty mould to grow. If left, this weakens the growth of the plant.When you brush past your plants in the greenhouse clouds of tiny white flies fill the air.Hang up yellow sticky traps to catch flying adults