critters in my fruit and veg

[Farmer_Gyles]

i picked broccoli, peas and raspberries from the garden
the raspberries had a few little white maggots in
found a couple in the peas too
found a huge caterpillar in the broccoli
it's putting me right off the fruit and veg at the mo

i soaked the peas in cold salty water before blanching - 2 little caterpillars / maggots floated to the surface of the pan - peas blanched, cooled and looking ok now

i washed and soaked the broccoli in cold salty water - i thought i'd checked carefully, but not carefully enough - blanched it all, then when taking it out of the pan, found a big fat white caterpillar - no way i can face eating that batch of broccoli now so it got binned

washing the raspberries, noticed a few maggots - whole lot binned

not to mention baby slugs in the lettuce, blackfly on the broad beans, and so on

the time and effort and money (compost / seeds etc) it takes to grow stuff and beat the weeds and bugs and critters just doesn't seem worth it any more - i'll be better off working an extra couple of hours a week and paying for bug-free food from sainsburys

[BumbleB]

Oh dear, I do know what you mean. I think the heat has taken our patience etc. It does seem like a lot of work and effort for every other creature to feast on first. I think I have learned a fair bit this year and set up nets etc earlier. All you can do at harvest time is what you are doing, wash, wash, wash. At least you are getting a harvest, some critters get there before you can even do that.

Re washing veg. I have been looking for a salad spinner like my mother had in the 70's.

[Two_Sheds]

FG, you really aren't getting any pleasure from your garden. Why don't you knock it on the head until you are feeling stronger

[Rocketron]

I agree with Two Sheds. Your health is the most important thing. You have posted two threads which show your (momentarily) inability to cope with your allotment and garden, because of your ill-health.
Stop now and resume when you are more able. This is not a sign of weakness, but an acceptance that (momentarily) you are ill.

Get well soon and astound us all next year.

[taff]

If you were on top form, they'd be minor annoyances. Because you aren't, they're huge ones.
I grew broccoli a few years ago, grew well, looked great, washed it, steamed it, sat down toe at it, ate half of it [so did my MIL], found some weird green shoots, turned out to be steamed caterpillars....I didn't eat or grow any more for a while
And there was the time i stood on a slug in socks [me, not the slug...] when it popped under my foot I couldn't eat sausages for months....
Think positive...it happens to everyone, perfect fruit and veg is for the supermarkets, and it's tasteless...yours is lovely.

[di]

FG Me Dear...take a break!!!Understandably,you're heart just isn't in it this year.Maybe your subconscious telling you your efforts would be better spent dealing with other stuff???
I shelled half a carrier bag of peas tonight,maybe got 3 ladlespoons of edible peas,the rest,along with the maggots shall enhance the compost heap!...yep,would've been far easier & maybe more economic to go buy a bag of frozen ones from the Coop,but I doubt I'd have enjoyed them as much!
Don't totally give up now,but accept that this year is perhaps not going to be as fruitful as you'd have hoped,get your nose into some books to learn different gardening methods that maybe require a little less effort,concentrate more on your health and hopefully next year you'll be up for starting afresh.
ps...my Auntie used to tell me that the best way to pod peas was in the dark!...myself???I meticulously check every pea.

[rana]

With an ID like Farmer_Gyles I would have thought you'd be prepared for the odd bug. Theres nothing wrong with a bit of extra meat in your diet and at least you know where your veg has come from and its history - unlike the stuff from the supermarket.

[Incy]

FG,
Yes you could buy your food from Sainsbury's but it wouldn't taste anything like as good. I agree with the others, give yourself a break this year and start again when you are better. I know how you feel about the caterpillars...I have a chilli plant currentlt being monitored in my office due to a caterpillar attack there were 100's of the little blighters
Thought I'd got them all but the plant is turrning into a lacey doiley! found another 5 that had been in hiding yesterday! It's disapointing but so long as you get sopme harvest it's better than nowt.
Keep smiling and concentrate on getting better

Re washing veg. I have been looking for a salad spinner like my mother had in the 70's.

Bumble bee, you can buy these from amazon.

[Two_Sheds]

I have been looking for a salad spinner like my mother had in the 70's.

I got mine from Lidl, about 4 quid. It's brilliant

[Sue]

I often wondered at that quote stating we all eat (was it 1lb) of insects a year...
Now I've got an allotment I can understand it!

FG that does sound bad though, but even though it takes hours to pick over fruit and veg I still couldn't go back to getting washed and bagged veg that's come from God knows where and has been grown in God knows what and with what.

I do think this heat is getting to us, me at least, I couldn't even raise the energy to plant out a tray of lettuce yesterday and now they've wilted and I've got to start again.
Sue

[coreopsis]

Sometimes I'm wondering-how all of you manage to grow everything?It's constant battle-nervous sowing season,is it going to be warm/wet/dry enough for all the seedlings and then fighting all the pests in the garden.not to mention bolting and the other stuf.I hate failures,I had too many of them but what's pushing you forward all the time?

[Dolly13]

Oh my! I think I'm on a similar wavelength to FG today. I had an "almost broke the camel's back" moment earlier this evening in the garden after finding yet another thing trying to undo all my hard work.

I really love spending time in the garden, and watch with amazement when seeds grow into beautiful bounding plants filled with flowers and fruit (well, mostly - haha). I treat each one like my baby and give them lots of time and care. It is a great big learning curve for a novice like me, and I'm almost using this year as a testing ground. Testing both my knowledge and patience

But I think that's why it's so upsetting when things don't go to plan. You think you've done all that you can to help each plant along, only to find something eating/killing/wilting the plant.

I admit, I am a bit of a perfectionist at times - and in my "real life" if I put this much work (and money) into something I usually expect to reap the full rewards for it - particularly as I'm self employed. So, guess it's an education to sit back and not get so stressed or upset and just let things be.


From what I've gathered from talking to some more experienced gardeners, and from what I've learned myself so far is that the thing that keeps people going is the wonder of nature. Just being able to nurture and care for a plant is amazing. Gardening does have it's pitfalls in all you've mentioned Coreopsis, and I was in the same mind frame earlier, but once in the garden I find my mind just relaxes and gives me a break from everything else. And when I do get to harvest something that is actually edible it's really amazing, and does taste so much better than anything you'll find in the supermarket

[Two_Sheds]

Sometimes I'm wondering-how all of you manage to grow everything? ... is it going to be warm/wet/dry enough for all the seedlings and then fighting all the pests in the garden....what's pushing you forward all the time?

I guess it gets easier (or at least less stressful) the more you do it.
You win some, you lose some, so diversify. Some years will be good for French beans, others for lettuce. Grow a little bit of everything.

Grow a few things well, and don't try to do it all, all at once. Start with easy crops (beans) and leave the challenging stuff (brassicas) until you're more experienced.

A bit of basic biology helps: knowing how plants grow and reproduce, about photosynthesis etc.

Accept that you are growing food, so other organisms will eat it too. Accept that weeds will grow faster than your crops, because they have evolved to.

Gardening ain't easy ... conditions will be right for one plant but not another. Again, diversify ... so you can eat kale if your sprouts fail.

Learn from your mistakes. Read around your subject. I'm constantly surprised that people don't/won't use Google, or read gardening books. The Grapevine is an excellent resource, but I always check the facts with the experts ... Dr Hessayon or the RHS for instance.

I have my down days ... when the greenhouses are full of plants and the lotty is too cold/wet/dry to plant in. Then it's a mad rush to get it all done in the small window of opportunity that the weather affords you.

You have to love it ... or else it's just hard work.

[Lottieval]

I think that if we have a failure we mustn't take it personally, it's not us that has failed, so often we are juggling many factors which don't always come down in the right way. So many things we can't control, weather, soil type, insect invasion, our own health and the time we have to do our plots and so on. When one of these factors goes out of kilter we may have less success than we'd hoped for or even a downright disaster, so -that's what happens, it'll be different next year - not necessarily better, but different.

I'm a perfectionist in many things that I do, but I'm not a control freak, you cannot be one of those and be a gardener!

With regard to the insects and creepy crawlies there are two options, take reasonable methods to avoid them or use chemicals, OK so you won't have nibbled veg but you won't know what you are ingesting with those veg.

Remember too that all of those insects that plague our plots are part of an ecosystem. If we get rid of all the slugs and snails what do the thrushes feed on, they are already seriously in decline, and so it goes on.

Sorry this wasn't meant to be a sermon, just thoughts after many years of gardening, but you can't get away from the fact that when you grow something and bring it home from the lottie or in from the garden your heart skips with joy.

[Hilary B]

I think that if we have a failure we mustn't take it personally, it's not us that has failed, so often we are juggling many factors which don't always come down in the right way. So many things we can't control, weather, soil type, insect invasion, our own health and the time we have to do our plots and so on. When one of these factors goes out of kilter we may have less success than we'd hoped for or even a downright disaster, so -that's what happens, it'll be different next year - not necessarily better, but different.

I'm a perfectionist in many things that I do, but I'm not a control freak, you cannot be one of those and be a gardener!

With regard to the insects and creepy crawlies there are two options, take reasonable methods to avoid them or use chemicals, OK so you won't have nibbled veg but you won't know what you are ingesting with those veg.

Remember too that all of those insects that plague our plots are part of an ecosystem. If we get rid of all the slugs and snails what do the thrushes feed on, they are already seriously in decline, and so it goes on.

Sorry this wasn't meant to be a sermon, just thoughts after many years of gardening, but you can't get away from the fact that when you grow something and bring it home from the lottie or in from the garden your heart skips with joy.

The one bit I won't agree with here is, the birds don't need the slugs in my garden! (if they did they would come and eat them).
Yes I WILL use slug killer (the less-toxic one if possible) on my veg patch, it's a very small veg patch (and most of the veg are in containers/grobags) and the rest of the (pretty small anyway) garden is decidedly jungly (apart from a small triangle of incredibly scruffy lawn), so the slugs and snails can stay there, and so can the slowworms and the occasional toad which seem to be the only slug-eaters I get visiting.
We have had one 'feed' of the veg patch so far this year, new potatoes, sugarpod peas, and french beans. Hoping to get a second of the same tomorrow to go with the 'Sunday roast'.