Do you have to use pesticides to have a nice garden? – Hayley Matthews

Hayley Matthews appeals for help as a new gardner who doesn’t like the idea of poisoning the bugs eating her plants.

This weather is beautiful and I’m so grateful for the sunny days sitting in the garden with the boys tending to the flowers. I’ve said before how I’ve really got into the gardening recently but I’m not the most green-fingered nor am I able to keep any kind of plant type thing growing for long.

I’m now realising how naive I’ve been about the amount of work, research and understanding that goes into growing a successful lush green space. One of my neighbours asked during the week what the s**t storm of plants was all about. I have to admit it’s looking a bit limp. I’d had grand visions of growing something similar to a mini-Amazon. However, in reality what I have is a lifeless cherry tree and a few roses covered in green bugs looking like they’re at an all-you-can-eat buffet for beasties.

I’ve sprayed them with bug killer but I’m not convinced it’s the best thing to do as I hate killing anything. I’m that person running around trying to catch a daddy longlegs to save it before one of the cats eat it, so purposefully killing something feels sad.

I also read on the spray bottle how it kills caterpillars and now I feel even worse. But is this the price for a garden full of beautiful blooms? Killing the butterflies and their mates? I hope not because if that’s the case I think I’d rather go back to a garden full of weeds.

It’s a strange position to be in. On the one hand I want to grow beautiful flowers to help the bees and the cross-pollinators that keep the world going, but on the other I also don’t want to be killing the bugs or beasties that are enjoying a munch on a lavender leaf.

My new-found awareness of pesticides came after reading a Facebook post from a friend calling for help and advice on what she suspected was a paralysed bee. Paralysed due to pesticides or fertiliser. Good grief, I thought, am I killing the bees too with my bug spray?

I rave about our little fuzzy friends a lot, but until everyone understands the sheer importance of these creatures to our survival and ability to grow crops, and ultimately being able to feed ourselves, then I’ll keep banging on. Seeing the video of the poor little bee wriggling away in agony jolted me into doing some research on fertiliser and I didn’t like what I read. Like we don’t put enough poison in the atmosphere already.

As I sit deliberating on my plantspraying the garden is slowly drooping like a saggy bag of spanners so before everything wilts away I would love to find a non-toxic alternative to keeping the garden green. However, I’m not holding out much hope as the chemicals always seem to be the winner.

So what do I do? I have a rather wilted looking cherry tree that’s been with us less than a month, a clematis that’s lost all her flowers and a jasmine plant that’s going a terrible shade of brown whilst crisping up like a sausage roll that’s been left in the oven on high. And yes I’m watering them all the time.

What am I to do? I’m guessing with the amount of times the Beechgrove Garden is on during the week, there are a lot of you out there who could help. I need all the help and advice I can get because even the hardy lavender is starting to look sorry for itself.

So what can I spray, what can I use and what can I do to keep the plants happy whilst not harming the bees and the beasties?

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