Cornerstones of my Kitchen Garden No.4
Protect and serve! Minimising losses for more bountiful harvests!
The one incontrovertible truth in a gardener’s life: There will always be other creatures eating your crops! Unless you’re growing in a hermetically sealed bubble, this has to be expected. It is the real baseline! If you stress over every little nibble and blemish, you’re in for a rough ride. Lower your expectations. Leave your ego indoors. Leave ideas of perfection at the gate. Do this and you’ll be all the more happier for it!
The real garden pests
The vast majority of our garden species cause little to no damage. In fact, they’re essential for a healthy balanced garden and they should all be welcome. It is only a tiny fraction that can really create any tangible damage and only a handful of those are capable of wiping out a homegrown crop, but only if they’re unchecked.
These are the actual ‘pests’. But, to use poisons indiscriminately, just to control the tiny minority, is utterly abhorrent. There is no justification whatsoever. Besides, who really wants to eat vegetables sprayed with pesticides, or grown from soil laced with poisons??? Polite pass on that! Who knows how that cocktail of chemicals will affect us after decades of consumption?!
Poisons aside, what options are there? How do you keep those real pests away from all your delectable vegetables? The slugs, snails, caterpillars, flea beetles, grubs, larvae, and aphids. Maybe you have rabbits, deer, and hungry pigeons too? If you’re growing organically for your health and the health of your garden, there shouldn’t be any chemicals to reach for. So how can you protect your crops?
To my mind, growing organically in a home garden setting requires a modest compromise. The compromise I suggest is ‘protection over aesthetics’.
Cover-up
It may sound trivial, but many gardeners want their vegetable garden to look beautiful and homely, possibly even nostalgic or dare I say romantic? You know, that rose-tinted vision of a classic potager. Where one gently potters in the warm sunshine, serenely strolling along the path, accompanied my the reassuring summer hum of bees, plucking the most perfect of harvests.
It’s okay to dream… The reality is that, if you’re growing organically, you will either need to: A) Accept damage and looses; B) Be present in the garden all day every day, fussing over every square centimetre of leaf and soil; C) Keep your sanity and your veggies by employing some form of ‘crop cover’ aka row cover. My money is on “C”.
Row covers, in various gauges, essentially create a barrier to keep out adult winged-insects and stop them from laying their eggs on leaves or on the soil. It’s an important distinction too make as it’s typically the ‘larvae’ that creates all the damage. Not the butterfly or moth which are essential pollinators.
If you can keep out the winged adults, your crops will survive and potentially thrive, with more bountiful harvests, almost entirely free of pest damage. The row cover truly is the simplest, most practical, and most effective method to protect crops against a wide range of minuscule but voracious herbivores.
It’s also worth mentioning that covers aren’t required year round, for all crops. With a little research you’ll find that many winged-insects are only on the wing at certain times of the year. So the garden needn’t look like an active crime scene, littered with CSI tents. You can also plan your crops so all those that require protection are grown together in the same area.
Human error?
Even with covers in place, you will still need to be vigilant. You may accidentally trap a butterfly or moth inside when you remove the cover to check on your precious crops. Or, the crops grow large enough to have their luscious leaves pressing against the mesh - passing butterflies can potentially lay their eggs on the leaves through the mesh. You will also need to be timely… There’s no point in buying covers if you can’t be bothered to put them on.
I just can’t stand covers!
I maybe wrong, but I think some growers won’t use covers simply because they're kind of ‘ugly’. Certainly not the look of a quintessentially romantic potager! If that’s you, you might be interested in Bacillus thuringiensis (aka Dipel DF) a rather ingenious natural pesticide that targets the damaging larvae of moths and butterflies, among others.
Gardeners that already deal with box tree caterpillars will be aware of this, available under the brand name Xentari by TopBuxus. The advantages of BT is that it’s highly targeted and harmless to everything else apart from the larvae eating the crops that you’ve specifically sprayed. Important:, only spray it on your crops. Do not use it indiscriminately to ‘protect’ your whole garden. So, if you don’t want covers over your brassicas, BT could be the answer. Just know that it’ll need to be reapplied, regularly, throughout the growing season.
Going ultrafine
BT on its own won’t stop them all. The only thing I have found to be universally effective are covers. I use one called Ultra fine Veggiemesh® with a weave so fine it will keep out the full gamut of garden pests, even the tiniest: flea beetle, cabbage root fly, carrot fly, cabbage white butterfly, pea moth, leek moth, cutworm, onion fly, leaf miners and many species of aphids.
The only real drawback is that most covers are made from a UV-stabilized polyethylene and I’m loathed to add plastics to the garden. It will last for many years and, for now, I still prefer this option versus spraying crops. There are natural fibre alternatives entering the market. They have a shorter lifespan and higher price tag, but definitely worth consideration.
Weather-shield
The added benefit of these fine mesh covers is that they’ll also help protect crops from adverse weather. They can shelter crops from wind, diffuse heavy rain, even deflect hail, etc. Horticultural fleece covers protect young or tender crops from frosts. Although they’re light enough to lay directly on the plants, any leaves in direct contact with the fleece may suffer minor frost damage.
Hungry birds?
I use bird netting to cover and protect my brassicas in autumn, through winter, into the following spring. The netting keeps off voracious wood pigeons that will happily shred brassicas to stalks! It’s a useful and practical cover. Usually black, the netting almost disappears from view, so not as obtrusive as the white-mesh row covers. Critically, you must secure bird netting tightly! If there’s any sag or folds, birds can get caught-up with disastrous results. Thankfully, that’s never happened here, as I keep my net as tight as a trampoline!
Supports
Covers will need supporting. Only horticultural fleece is soft enough and light enough to lay directly on young plants. Traditionally, you would force canes or stakes into the ground, place small upturned pots on the tops, then drape the cover over the pots and pin down.
It seems more common these days to use hoops. These can be made of 4mm mild steel wire, cut to length, or you can buy ‘hoops’ ready made. From my cottage renovations, I had lengths of 22mm ‘push fit’ piping that I cut to length and forced into the sides of the raised beds. Although made of plastic, they’re a cheap alternative support for covers. The cane/stake method is still best for taller crops like kale, sprouting broccoli, and Brussel sprouts.
The gardener’s nemesis…
Frustratingly, covers will not deter slugs and snails. Neither will smart-arse ‘barriers’ that only seem capable of wasting time and/or money. Assume these malevolent molluscs are everywhere! In mild winters and long wet springs, it can seem like a plague. Entire sowings can be wiped out. Leafy greens decimated overnight. This year (2024) was the worst I’ve known with even the poor daffodils munched to the stem. A first for me!
Yes, it can be demoralising. It can be heart-breaking. It can even force you to ask “What is the ****ing point?!” It’s near impossible to avoid them altogether, but there are simple practical steps that can limit their nightly rampaging and the emotional torment to the gardener.
Nematodes
To reduce the overall population of these marauding molluscs, I use nematodes - naturally occurring, soil-dwelling, microscopic worms that hunt down slugs and kill them. It’s a natural bio-control, in powder form, that you mix with water and pour onto the soil/compost with a watering can. In raised beds, they can be a highly effective tool to reduce entrenched populations of slugs.
The main drawback is that nematodes cannot distinguish between friend or foe. Not all slugs are bad. Only 20% of the forty slug species (UK) cause any real damage. Nematodes will happily eliminate the ‘pest’ slugs, but also the majority of ‘helpful’ slugs. Those that just recycle decaying matter, or predatory slugs like the Leopard Slug that will also hunt down and eat other slugs.
Another minor drawback is that nematodes will need to be reapplied as they only survive for six weeks or so. There’s also the price. A £14 packet of slug nematodes will cover approximately 40m². For example, I use one pack to fully drench my six beds and its 27m² of growing space.
Nocturnal hunting
Unfortunately, nematodes have little to no effect on snails, so these require both vigilance and nightly forays with a head torch and bucket (gloves recommended). Physically removing snails and disposing of them (as you see fit, but let’s keep it humane) is really the only certain control for the organic grower.
I move snails to the compost bays and they seem quite happy as there’s a constant supply of greens to munch. It’s not a pleasant job, but it’s effective. During the Great Slug Plague of ’24, when mollusc populations were seemingly beyond reckoning, I spent one week heading out each night with torch and bucket. The first night, I just stopped counting at 100… However, by the fifth consecutive night, it was less than twenty and I really had to search for them.
Tip: Milder and rainy evenings are ideal for a good old-fashioned slug/snail hunt.
Don’t make it easy for them!
taught me the importance of keeping my growing area ‘tidy’. Slugs and snails enjoy moisture and dark cover during the day. Lay a wooden board or upturned plant pot on the ground near your veggies and the next morning you’ll find them hunkering underneath, out of view. If you remove all potential cover you’ll therefore remove all potential hiding places. This includes: Removing old boards, paving slabs, large stones, bricks, or logs nearby; Any weedy patches or long grass edging the veggie beds should be kept short; Pruning off and composting any and all yellowing leaves, especially those lying on or decaying on the soil. Also, if you have raises beds, keep the timber boards in good order, otherwise slugs and snails will take up residence in any cavities.
Use covers. Stay vigilant. Apply nematodes. Hunt at night. Tidy-up.
These five simple methods will make an enormous difference. Together they can drastically reduce pest damage to homegrown crops. Combined, they’ll also reduce the amount of stress on the gardener, especially if these are all applied in a timely fashion!
Coming up…
The fifth and final instalment of the Cornerstones of my Kitchen Garden series! Exploring the importance of vigilance and simple practical steps to limit the impact of various garden pests and diseases.
Excellent!
Nice post Elliott, is realistic!