logo
I'm a gardening pro – my easy steps – including a £2.25 Dunelm trick – will banish garden pests like aphids this summer

I'm a gardening pro – my easy steps – including a £2.25 Dunelm trick – will banish garden pests like aphids this summer

Scottish Sun2 days ago

WE may well be seeing lower slug and snail numbers this summer thanks to colder weather in winter and the recent dry spells.
But mother nature never makes it easy for us. Instead - of course - there's a new pest in town.
2
RHS members have found aphids to be the biggest problem this year
Credit: Getty
2
Adam Woolcott told Sun Gardening how to get rid of garden pests
Credit: Supplied
Aphid levels have rocketed this year - and the RHS reckons it's top of the list of gardening queries to their hotline.
There's over 500 different species found in the UK - and can be red, yellow, black, green, brown or pink.
They feed by sucking sap from plants - and can cause severe damage - including distorted growth, sooty mould and plant viruses - and sometimes plant death.
Chelsea award winning gardener Adam Woolcott - and Webb ambassador - gave Sun Gardening some top tips on how to tackle the most common early summer pests.
APHIDS
Physically remove the aphids from the stems and leaves.
Use natural insecticidal soaps.
Blast off with water jets.
Encourage predators such as ladybirds, lacewings, and hoverflies
VINE WEEVIL
Both the adult vine weevil beetles and their larvae cause damage.
Adults — all female — chew distinctive 'U-shaped' notches in leaves, particularly on evergreen shrubs like rhododendrons, escallonias, and viburnums.
Underground: larvae feed on plant roots and can kill container plants like Heucheras.
Remove adults at night when they're most active
Break the life cycle with biological controls such as nematodes (apply in spring and autumn when grubs are active) Chemical treatments are a last resort, but offer longer-term control
LILY BEETLE
The bright red beetles and their larvae are both covered in their excrement. They can strip a plant in days, affecting flowering and bulb health.
Remove beetles by hand where practical
Encourage wildlife into the garden. Birds and ground beetles will eat the larvae
Grow a resistant variety.
Tolerate some damage if you can — total eradication isn't always necessary.
CATERPILLARS
Especially troublesome in veg patches. Cabbage white butterfly caterpillars love brassicas, while box tree caterpillars are spreading rapidly across the UK, stripping foliage as they go.
Remove the caterpillars by hand if you can and destroy any badly affected plants (if practical) to stop the infestation from spreading.
Use biological sprays like nematodes.
In some cases, hot water and a mild detergent can help. Ecover is on sale at Dunelm for £2.45.
As a last resort, chemical controls can be effective
Also in Veronica's Column this week...
Top tips, Gardening news, and a competition to win a £250 lawnmower
NEWS KING Charles made a surprise visit to Windsor Flower Show last Saturday. Celebrities including Alex Jones and Kirsty Gallacher were at the one-day show - which had wonderful village fair vibes, vegetable and cake competitions and fantastic floral displays.
TOP TIP JUNE is actually a good time to take Hydrangea cuttings - and get your own plants for free. They'll have produced some soft green growth - which is what you want. Choose healthy, non flowering shoots that are 10-15cm long and cut just below the node (the leaf joint). Don't collect cuttings from plants with leaves that are turning brown. And try to collect in the morning if you can.
Remove the lower leaves - leaving just one or two at the top.
Then dip the end in rooting powder or gel - then pop it straight in a pot. You could splash out on seeding and cutting compost - but multi purpose will do - just add a bit of grit or perlite. Then keep them out of direct sunlight and keep moist. They should have rooted within about a month.
NEWS A RARE 'sheep-eating' South American plant has flowered in an English primary school for the first time. The Puya Chilensis, with its iconic spike pattern, is normally found in the Andes in Chile. But after it was planted 10 years ago by school horticulturalist Louise Moreton, it has sent out a 10ft spike at Wicor Primary School in Portchester, Hants. It's called a Sheep Catcher as it would normally entangle wildlife, hold onto it - and then when the animal died - would take the nutrients. Ms Moreton said it was exciting but a worrying sign of global warming.
WIN! Keep your lawn looking its best this summer by winning a Webb Classic Self Propelled Petrol Lawn Mower worth £249.99. To enter visit www.thesun.co.uk/WEBBCOMP or write to Sun Webb competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Entries close 11.59pm. July 5, 2025. T&Cs apply.
TOP TIP IF you want to get more flowers from your sedums (now called Hylotelephiums) and prevent them from collapsing - pinch them out around now. Pinch off around four sets of leaves down - which will make them bushier.
JOB OF THE WEEK Weeds thrive this month - keep on top of them by hoeing. Tie in sweet peas, and give your plants a good feed - liquid seaweed feed is great - and Tomorite works with nearly everything. Give agapanthus a high-potash feed every couple of weeks.
For more top tips and gardening news, follow me @biros_and_bloom

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

The allure of the walled garden, and 10 of the best to visit
The allure of the walled garden, and 10 of the best to visit

Telegraph

time12 hours ago

  • Telegraph

The allure of the walled garden, and 10 of the best to visit

The productive walled garden was a quintessential part of every large house, estate and mansion in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the richer you were, the more elaborate the glasshouses, pineapple pits and stove houses became. A homegrown pineapple or an exotic orchid gave you all-important kudos, and the more common or garden produce supplied the whole household with a varied supply of fruit, cut flowers, potted plants and vegetables. And then the First World War intervened and, devoid of care, they became sad relics of a bygone age. Thankfully, that's all changing. Many of our walled gardens are being revived, often at great expense, and offer lovely places to visit on a summer's day. Here are 10 to add to your list. Holkham Hall, Norfolk Holkham's six-acre walled garden, laid out by Samuel Wyatt in 1782, has just become an RHS partner garden. It's two thirds of a mile away from the main house, because gardeners and the smell of horse manure were kept well away from house guests. Wyatt's neoclassical vinery houses citrus plants, some direct descendants from the original orangery. You will find 16 different types of oranges and lemons, including the rarely seen Buddha's hand from Japan. The original swarthy-skinned citron lemon, described by head gardener Mark Morrell as 'the size of half a rugby ball', is equally fascinating. Kirsty Gwilliam, the vegetable gardener, grows two cool-tolerant Russian tomatoes outdoors – 'Skykomish' and 'Moskvich'. Kirsty is also growing two South African cucurbits, a squash named 'Rolet' and a white pumpkin named 'Van Niekerk', because the 7th Earl of Leicester, who died in 2015, was born in Rhodesia. The vegetables supply the household and Holkham's Victoria Hotel. Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire Andy Mills is the head gardener in charge of this massive 10-acre walled garden, one of the largest in the country, if not the largest. Construction began in 1704, before the palace was built, in order to feed the workforce. These days, the enormously high brick walls, up to 16ft in height, provide the perfect microclimate for vegetables and fruit. There's a one-acre no-dig garden producing salad crops, beetroots, carrots and brassicas, and they're interspersed with plenty of flowers to draw in the pollinators and beneficial insects. Dahlias, cut for the house, feature heavily in the potager area. A biomass boiler, using woodchip from the estate, keeps the melon house, lean-to glasshouse, vinery and peach house snug in winter. There's a butterfly house to visit, and a maze to explore, and new developments include a central pond to capture rainfall, and a small vineyard. Cambo, Fife Cambo's 19th-century organically run walled garden is more than two acres in size, and concentrates on flowers and fruit. The softly hued late-season displays, in the Piet Oudolf style, are a Cambo trademark. The sandy paths are home to at least 12 species of ground-nesting bee, and insect life abounds, from butterfly to dragonfly. The head gardener, Callum Halstead, is proud of the wildflower meadows on either side of the burn, and a recent botanical count recorded 50 wildflower species, including three species of wild orchid, which, he says, have all returned of their own accord. The oldest plants are the apples and pears, and there are 70 varieties here. The soil is in excellent condition and Cambo is running Composted – a Festival of Biodegradable Ideas until July 27. Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion Patrick Swan, Llanerchaeron's adviser, calls John Nash's Georgian two-acre creation from 1795 'a garden with its muddy boots on', because growing fruit, vegetables and flowers has been going on here for more than 200 years. The head gardener, Alex Summers, deliberately preserves 'the patina of age', because this secret garden is a nostalgic throwback to a simpler time. You're in the thick of it as soon as you go through the anonymous door. The heritage orchard contains a registered collection of Welsh apples, including 'Croen Mochyn', a russet with a name that translates as 'pig skin'. It's one of 53 varieties. Some were planted in the 1850s, and in those days there were only three walls. The gap allowed spring frosts to drift away from the blossom. There's a no-dig system for vegetables in this organically run garden, and there are plenty of colourful cut flowers tended by the gardeners and 10 willing volunteers. There are plenty of buyers among the visitors. Chartwell, Kent There aren't many walled gardens that have bricks laid by their owners, but Winston Churchill began working on Chartwell's walls between 1925 and 1932 as a form of relaxation. During his second term as prime minister, between 1951 and 1955, fresh fruit, flowers and vegetables were transported up to 10 Downing Street every week, a common occurrence for many London-based landowners. Christopher Lane, Chartwell's garden and outdoors manager, says that the one-acre vegetable garden contains traditional crops 'that could feed a British army'. Potatoes, carrots, parsnips and cabbages mingle with soft fruit and flowers, and any excess is donated to a local food bank. Part of Chartwell's charm is the contrast between the simple wildflowers in the orchard and the hectic mix of colourful flowers, fruit and vegetables within. Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk Tina Hammond Liew-Bedford, who has been the head gardener here for 26 years, was influenced by the King's organically run walled garden at Highgrove in the early 1990s. The protective high walls in Felbrigg's four-acre garden encourage pomegranates to flower and fruit on the south-facing wall. There's a rarely-seen tender California bay, also known as the headache tree or Umbellularia californica. The garden is sectioned by high inner walls, so the garden unfolds, rather like a Russian doll, adding 'mystery and suspense at every turn', according to Hammond Liew-Bedford. It's all about theatre and drama here, with handsome foliage, three-dimensional pyramidal apple trees and a walk-through pumpkin arch. Several bantam hens eat pests, including lily beetles, snails and box caterpillars, and there's always a buzz of life above the flowers. Nasturtium foliage gets devoured by cabbage white butterflies and pot marigolds are used as companion plants to deter soil-based pests. Buscot Park, Oxfordshire There's a sense of fun in this two-acre walled garden because the old-fashioned roses are planted with quirky climbing vegetables that scale the walls from late summer onwards. The green and yellow, almost reptilian 'Speckled Swan' gourds can reach a foot in length. 'It sometimes works and sometimes fails,' Lord Faringdon told me. The collection of old-fashioned roses was chosen with the expert help of the late rosarian Graham Thomas (1909-2003). The rose collection thrives on being pruned hard every year and the Portland rose Rosa 'de Rescht' is Lady Faringdon's favourite. Three more walled gardens to see Packwood House, Warwickshire One for family fun – alongside the restored kitchen garden, there's a yew garden that's perfect for games of hide-and-seek. Berrington Hall, Herefordshire The curved wall in this Capability Brown garden of 1783 has survived for centuries, almost entirely intact, and it's a unique example. Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire The south-facing wall of this sloping garden houses a collection of Victorian fruit, and the frost gate at the lower end helps the cold air to escape downhill.

UK garden birds' favourite foods and how to stop 'greedy' squirrels
UK garden birds' favourite foods and how to stop 'greedy' squirrels

Daily Mirror

timea day ago

  • Daily Mirror

UK garden birds' favourite foods and how to stop 'greedy' squirrels

If you're hoping to attract more birds to your garden, it's worth knowing that different species have different tastes If you've gone above and beyond to spruce up your garden this summer, it might be a bit disheartening to see no birds making themselves at home. But don't fret. Experts suggest that with a few simple additions, you can transform your green space into a bird paradise. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) reveals that over 140 bird species have been spotted in British gardens, but only 30 are considered regular visitors. It might surprise you to know that each species has unique preferences, so understanding the treats they can't resist is crucial for making your garden more attractive, reports Wales Online. ‌ "Use different foods and recipes to attract a variety of birds," RHS experts have advised online. "Although fat is important, especially in winter, also provide a grain mix or nuts to maintain a balanced diet. ‌ "No-mess seed mixes are pricier, but the inclusion of de-husked sunflower hearts means there's less waste and debris under the feeder. Inferior mixes are often padded out with lentils and wheat. Many birds have 'favourite' foods, so choosing certain types can affect what you see feeding in the garden." While there are countless preferences to consider, specialists highlighted the following key points: Finches favour berry cakes Goldfinches favour niger seed Starlings favour peanut cakes Tits favour insect cakes Blackbirds and thrushes favour over-ripe apples, raisins and other fruits Nuthatches, sparrows and finches favour sunflower heads Wrens and small birds favour chopped animal fat and grated cheese In addition to this, it's worth noting that mealworms and seed mixes are popular snacks among various bird species. If you're eager to control which animals can access the food, placing these in an enclosed feeder with an outer cage is recommended. If you leave treats on a standard bird table, bigger birds like magpies could dominate the space, potentially pushing smaller birds aside. Squirrels, notorious for monopolising food, might scare off the birds, too. Despite their cunning nature and occasional success in breaching 'anti-pest' enclosed feeders, you can reduce this risk by placing them far from overhanging branches and other simple access routes. Jean Vernon from Richard Jackson Garden said: "Squirrels are rather partial to a lot of things in our gardens, especially the bird food. But they will also dig up tulip bulbs and eat them. They love apples, squash and sweet corn and collect masses of acorns, conkers and nuts. "Why not feed the squirrels with a special feeder full of hazelnuts, then you get the best of both worlds, you can watch the birds and the squirrels too." RHS specialists added: "A good population of birds in the garden is part of a healthy garden ecosystem, helping to keep caterpillars and aphids in check, which can damage garden plants."

'Favourite foods' of garden birds - and how to stop squirrels from stealing them
'Favourite foods' of garden birds - and how to stop squirrels from stealing them

Wales Online

time2 days ago

  • Wales Online

'Favourite foods' of garden birds - and how to stop squirrels from stealing them

'Favourite foods' of garden birds - and how to stop squirrels from stealing them The Royal Horticultural Society has unveiled popular foods for garden birds in Britain - here's what you need to know Around 30 bird species are considered regular garden visitors in Britain (Image: Jellybean49/Getty Images ) If you've gone the extra mile to beautify your garden this summer, it might be disappointing to see no birds settling there. But fear not. Specialists suggest you can turn your green space into a bird haven with a few simple additions. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) reports that more than 140 bird species have been observed in British gardens, but only 30 are considered regular visitors. It may surprise you to learn that each species has unique preferences, so understanding the snacks they can't resist is essential for making your garden more appealing. ‌ "Use different foods and recipes to entice a range of birds," experts at the RHS have explained online. "Although fat is important, particularly in winter, also provide a grain mix or nuts to maintain a balanced diet. ‌ "No-mess seed mixes are more expensive, but the inclusion of de-husked sunflower hearts means there is less waste and debris under the feeder. Inferior mixes are often padded out with lentils and wheat." Many tit species favour insect cakes, according to experts (Image: Getty Images ) "Many birds have 'favourite' foods, so choosing certain types can affect what you see feeding in the garden." While there are countless preferences to consider, specialists outlined the following key points: Article continues below Finches favour berry cakes Goldfinches favour niger seed Starlings favour peanut cakes Tits favour insect cakes Blackbirds and thrushes favour over-ripe apples, raisins and other fruits Nuthatches, sparrows and finches favour sunflower heads Wrens and small birds favour chopped animal fat and grated cheese Beyond this, it's worth acknowledging that mealworms and seed mixes are popular snacks among various bird species. Placing these in an enclosed feeder with an outer cage is advised if you're keen to control what animals can reach the food, too. For instance, if you leave the snacks on a traditional bird table, bigger birds like magpies will likely take dominance, potentially pushing smaller birds off. Squirrels are also infamous for hogging food and may even scare birds away. ‌ Although squirrels are clever and can sometimes break through the bars of 'anti-pest' enclosed feeders, you can limit this risk by positioning them away from overhanging branches and other means of easy access. It's also believed that goldfinches especially enjoy niger seed (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto ) Jean Vernon, of Richard Jackson Garden, has also advised: "Squirrels are rather partial to a lot of things in our gardens, especially the bird food. But they will also dig up tulip bulbs and eat them. Article continues below "They love apples, squash and sweet corn and collect masses of acorns, conkers and nuts. Why not feed the squirrels with a special feeder full of hazelnuts, then you get the best of both worlds, you can watch the birds and the squirrels too." Meanwhile, experts at the RHS have added: "A good population of birds in the garden is part of a healthy garden ecosystem, helping to keep caterpillars and aphids in check which can damage garden plants." Have you got a story to share? Get in touch at

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store