Visitors to our gardens include birds and small mammals which make their homes with us. Most are welcome non-paying guests. Many are not, and here I am thinking of some of the smaller and more unpleasant rodents which come into the garden and sometimes into our homes. These include mice, rats and even small snakes. Worse still to me are the bats.
There are a lot of minute, some might say microscopic, organisms which visit us. Some do little harm and exist by feeding on dead wood like the wood lice. Others make their home in the soil and help to break down vegetation which has fallen onto the ground, and which ultimately enriches the soil and makes it the precious commodity it is. Many visitors play a more sinister role. They tend to eat the garden. It is generally true that there is an underlying reason why plants become sick. If you have a rose bush infected by powdery mildew there is something wrong with it in the first place.
Some visitors do a great deal of good like the ladybird. You can minimize unwelcome visitors by growing your plants in the very best soil and light, and making sure they are not too close together. Getting rid of the weed competition is very important. Get all these things right and you’ll find you will hardly need to worry about pest and disease control, but you always have to keep your eyes open for the unexpected.
Some years ago I had a rose bush which was growing in the shade of a mango tree. It was not getting enough light because of the shade cast by the mango, and not enough water and nutrients because it was mostly being taken by the mango tree. It was weak and therefore susceptible to attack by diseases and also pests. Plants growing in a position where they do not have to compete with others for the essentials are going to grow well, and not have problems with pests or diseases. But starve them of sunlight and nutrients and they become sickly, just as we do ourselves when starved of sunlight and the right food.
Of course plants that are grown in shady conditions tend to produce shoots which become spindly and weak and pale. You can get plants in the garden which are growing in good light that also look pale, but which are stunted rather than spindly. Pale and spindly generally means shortage of sunlight, and the answer is to move the plant to a better position. Pale and stunted means they are suffering from something quite different. In this case the trouble is more likely to be shortage of the right food. The remedy is simply to feed them and remove the competition of weeds which always take more than their fair share of food from the soil. There is another possibility. Pale and wilting may mean that the ground is waterlogged due, say, to a leaking water pipe. Get it fixed or move the plant.
Several years ago I lost my only plant of Stephanotis floribunda. The Bridal flower has to be one of the most attractive and beautifully scented plants it is possible to have in your collection. It was growing in a tree, and perfectly happy and flowering well. After I had returned from holiday I found that my then gardener had pruned the tree and exposed the plant to the blazing sun and that was that. The same tree had played host to Hoya carnosa, called the wax flower, which was growing and flowering very well. The tree was never pruned afterwards.
That’s gardening for you. Full of joy and drama.
May your God go with you. Take care of your plants as well as yourselves. Here in England we had four inches of snow last night and it is freezing now. Until next week.