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PESTS
Pests in the veggie garden are many and varied. We have had some problems with a moth grub attacking our chillies, capsicum and tomatoes. These have caused enough damage for us to take action and begin spraying with Dipel bio-insecticide.
Most other pests have not caused major damage but we do use some snail pellets (there are literally thousands of small snails in this area) and we have used tomato dust.
Where possible we try to use sprays that are not heavily reliant on chemicals and we mix up garlic, chilli and lemon with water to discourage some of the more common pests.
Another weapon in our arsenal is pyrethrum spray on insect killer but next season we will try to plant some pyrethrum daisies around the veggie beds to make a more permanent deterrent.
The reason we don't want to rely too heavily on chemical pesticides is that, besides being bad for us to eat, they are indiscriminate killers and destroy all the useful insects like ladybirds that help keep the pests in check.
As time goes on we are finding that insect pests can take a large toll on our veggies. Our weapons against them have now extended to White oil and Confidor.
Companion Planting
Companion planting is a well know technique of planting certain types of plants together to help protect from pests etc. One planting we have discovered is Vietnamese mint (laksa plant) and kayle. Planted on its own kayle will end up looking like this :
Planted next to Vietnamese mint it will do much better :
Another plant that is useful to grow in your veggie patch is pyrethrum daisy. These are slow growers from seed but once established can be propagated and spread through out the garden.
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