I was trying to come up with a good Title for this post that would describe the nature of it at a glance and I couldn’t decide whether “Operation Lemon Tree” or “Lemon Tree Rescue” would be more appropriate. The gist of it is that my poor Lemon Tree has been under attack by black, green AND woolly aphids and other things I could not identify. Since January I’ve been trying to [...]

I bought a little peppermint plant on Sunday – on an impulse – because I love the smell, and it looked pretty. Now of course I had to do some research because I need to find a good spot for it in my garden. Mine is called “Mentha peperita nigra”. It looks like a dead ordinary mint plant to me – I remember these from my childhood – we had this in [...]

Oh dear! I feel that I have neglected you and my garden this week! I have been so busy with my mind on work, that my eye did not catch the mildew growing on my squash plant! I saw these beautiful butternut squashes growing and I was so excited! Now, they have all been destroyed by some bug, I think! It looks as if something has ‘stung’ the squash and I think [...]

Ants, Ants Ants … they are everywhere in my garden at the moment … I thought I had got the main “nest” about 10 days ago and today I discovered another one on the other side of the house. So I spent my precious “gardening time” today once again with the sprayer, spraying ants! They seem to be particularly prevalent this year. I’ve never had such an ant invasion since we’ve lived [...]

Now that I think I’ve identified what’s going on with one of my Lavender plants, I’ve been trying to research it online. And I’m not finding much. Doing a search for “Mildew on Lavender” doesn’t bring many results that I can learn from so I think I might have the terminology wrong? But here is what I have learnt so far: Powdery Mildew is a fungal disease that can affect indoor and [...]

I welcome these wonderful creatures in my garden – chameleons. I have not seen them around of late. Actually, I have only seen two in my Dad’s garden. So, how they came to live in my garden is a funny story. There were two young boys running around the neighbourhood ‘selling’ them – I guess for pocket money. Shame, so we were their best ‘customers’. We paid R2.00 for small ones and R5.00 [...]

Now check this out!  With the macro lens on my camera, I saw this and got a big fright! They are just eeeeeuuw! What are they?  I see that the ants are ‘farming’ hundreds of these little nasties. With the naked eye, it looked like a fungus. They could be aphids but they look like scale. I am not sure. Do you know what this could be? My poor lemon tree is riddled [...]

I have been having a long battle with this pest in my Lemon Tree. It is a true infestation. I did some research and this is what it is and how to treat it with natural products. Citrus psylla is the vector and transmitter of a major citrus disease known as Greening.  Citrus trees have 3 normal growth flushes during the year: spring growth during August/September, followed by a second in November/December [...]

I spent the day in the garden – not gardening – but taking photo’s of all I see. I am looking through the lens of  my camera and using my hubby’s macro lens. Wow! You cannot believe what we miss with the naked eye. Here are some shots of the pests in my garden. The Grasshopper thingy was happily eating the leaves of my Quince tree. It could be a locust, so [...]

I wanted to show you the tomato plants and the sweet basil that I grow together. These are grown direct from seed and the ones I was able to salvage from the chicken attack! Still mad about that, you know! Anyway, here you can see that they are doing well. This way of organic planting is called Companion Planting. I did alot of research into this and it is a pesticide-free way [...]