Greener gardening - pest control

Can you hold your nerve and hold off on the chemicals when it comes to aphid attacks?  Pesticides are harmful to people, pets and the environment, and using these chemicals can be incredibly damaging to the fragile ecosystems within our gardens – they kill off beneficial organisms as well as the pests you’re trying to control.  The same goes for home-made and organic solutions too.

The charity Garden Organic recently named 2025 as the Year of the Aphid, as its research showed these tiny invaders were spotted in huge numbers, clustering on broad beans and brassicas across the country.  Garden Organic’s experts have shared a few tips to help tackle the issue this year, should they return in great numbers: 

• Create a balanced, biodiverse garden rich in habitats.  This will encourage birds, bats and insects that feed on aphids such as ladybirds and earwigs.
• Grow flowers that attract hoverflies, lacewings and ladybirds such as anise hyssop, bird’s foot trefoil and phacelia.
• Avoid using too much nitrogen-rich fertiliser, which encourages the kind of soft leafy growth which aphids love to munch.
• Inspect plants regularly and squash any aphids that are seen.  Pick off heavily infested shoots and leaves and drop them into a bucket of soapy water.  A strong jet of water can also dislodge them.
• Aphid populations usually come crashing down in early July and even if your plants look awful in early summer, they usually make a good recovery – so resist reaching for the chemicals!