Walled garden harbours damp and pests

[Marb67]

I have a small walled back garden with a small veg patch and greenhouse. This time of year the garden is damp and full of whitefly, greenfly and evidence of the damm flea beetle all over everything. Even salad and leaf greens grown in the greenhouse soul border show signs of being eaten, distorted leaf etc. I am pretty depressed at how this small garden seems to harbor all these pests year after year. I dont want to cut back everything because i want to have some cover for birds that feed in the garden. I am just starting throwing waste veg/fruit onto the borders so worms etc will pull it down into the soil over winter which should be ready to give nutrients to crops next season. I just need to get rid of *+#}%{} flea beetle which does untold damage to newrly all my crops late summer/Autumn.

[Scarlet]

Waste fruit will definitely bring in fruit flies. Personally in a small plot I would put all your waste and compost in the compost bin and wait for it to rot down before spreading it. I would clear all leaves etc too.

[Marb67]

fruit flies are harmless. I will cover it with soil to speed up the process. it doesn't matter what I do or don't do, the pests will be there next year. Just praying for a very harsh winter to cleanse the garden. These still, humid damp, muggy mild days don't help we have had since summer.

[veggiechicken]

Leaving rotting fruit and veg on your beds will attract all manner of pests - flies, rats etc. If you don't want to put it in a compost bin, could you dig a trench, put your waste in and backfill it.
Worms can't deal with big stuff anyway - they only have little mouths!!

[Bill HH]

You have my sympathy. My garden is surrounded by walls on three sides and the house on the other, it is permanently damp. I get green algae on all my paving stones and decking and and mildew on many plants. But I dont get cattle.

[Jungle Jane]

Flea beetle overwinter amongst leaves & under the soil,the fruit & veg waste will be an early food source for them. You could try hoeing the top layer of soil over january & february a few times to expose them to birds & the frost? A couple of years ago I grew a trap crop of radish,to keep the flea beetle away from my rocket,it helped a lot but I should've waved some sticky yellow paper traps over it to reduce the problem & to get rid of them. I didnt do anything but I planted flowers there this year & planted my rocket well away from that area,in pots & raised troughs,had no damage from flea beetle by keeping the plants off the ground. Maybe try growing beans or something in the greenhouse border soil next year that flea beetles don't like?

[bearded bloke]

Marb, it seems to me that your problems started a long time ago & have just continued at the same level since you "imported" your first load of horse muck, basically your problems will continue until you have disposed of all the soil that was contaminated at that time & replaced it with good quality topsoil/compost.

[4390evans]

Would digging a hole and filling it with all your left overs then cover it not benefit you more than just leaving them to rot on the top of the soil?
Try using the chilli/garlic spra6 to kill of your pests, its natural and wont do any harm it worked for my aphids xx

[Alison]

it doesn't matter what I do or don't do, the pests will be there next year. Just praying for a very harsh winter to cleanse the garden. These still, humid damp, muggy mild days don't help we have had since summer.

There's some good ideas on the thread, definitely worth a try and very logically however you seem very down about it all. Whatever you say, doing things differently CAN make a difference but it isn't always easy. I am however continually confused about your humidity comments and have asked several times which part of Cheshire you are located, I'm at the top end but have friends spread around the whole county and all of them report that he only high levels they've encountered thus year where back in July and it's actually been pretty low this year. Seems odd that you're in the same area and experiencing totally the opposite conditions and I wonder what it is that is causing this strange local anomaly and if that can be addressed.

[PyreneesPlot]

Interesting - we only have plagues of flea beetles when it is hot and dry. Indeed raising the humidity by watering in the middle of the day reduces their impact. And makes life better for the slugs
Can you remove parts of the walls - windows or small gaps rather than whole stretches - to improve air flow into your garden? If you could have a ground level gap it may encourage hedgehogs in?

[Nicos]

Have you thought of giving your wall several coats of lime wash?
The lime wash allows the wall to breathe and at the same time prevents pests.

It's something done regularly as a pest control here in outhouses etc...it's a cheap, natural method of pest control.

It'll also reflect light into your garden and help the plants as it leaves a lovely white surface.
As it washes off slowly over the years, it may slightly alter your soil pH....but not dramatically.

Certainly worth a try Marb!

I have done it in our chook house, and fingers crossed never had fleas, mites or lice in there.

[Nicos]

Here you g0...here's a piccie I've found of a limed garden wall in Edinburgh...I have no doubt those walls would be damp!

Looks lovely doesn't it????...and with added pest control too!



(you'd need to reapply every year or so as it will flake a bit where it is damp - but it's just one quick watery coat after the initial painting!)

[Aberdeenplotter]

When I was a youngster, I remember my uncle having an outbreak of salmonella in the young calves on the farm. Once cleared up, an important part of ensuring there would be no recurrence was to paint the byre walls with a solution of slaked lime and water. That generated a huge amount of heat. I seem to remember a stirrup pump being used to splatter the stuff onto the walls and it was then finished off with brushes.

[BUFFS]

I collect all the kitchen waste into a 20ltr tub and wait til I have it full, so its half rotted before it goes onto the compost bin, in the autumn I then dig a trench, as deep as possible(my topsoil is 3ft deep) and throw in all the kitchen waste, covering it lightly each time until full and then start another trench beside it,i work my way across the garden moving any perennial plants out of the way as I go. as for the bugs, I would get a couple of bantam chooks and let them loose to hoover up all the little nasties, I always did this with my chickens(Victorian walled garden) and I still have never had to use any chemicals at all in the 15yrs we have been here, if the branches are spread out the chooks will even get all the gooseberry sawfly , given the chance, I had to give the chooks away due to mobility problems but the bugs still don't seem to have recovered....

[Marb67]

Would digging a hole and filling it with all your left overs then cover it not benefit you more than just leaving them to rot on the top of the soil?
Try using the chilli/garlic spra6 to kill of your pests, its natural and wont do any harm it worked for my aphids xx

Sounds interesting. Tell me more about the garlic and chilli :-) as long as it doesn't harm the good creatures.