Never one for over-reacting but bugs, bugs, bugs! That’s it am declaring all out war on the little blighters, my weapon of choice organic pest control despite only aphids, slugs and snails bothering me so far.

My final working plan for the Cultivation Station raised bed has incorporated various hints and companion planting tips. This includes which plants can help each other and also which are good for controlling pests organically.

Companion Planting Hints and Tips:

• Carrot fly defence – marigolds/onions/garlic/sage
  • Onions are good for disguising the smell of plants like carrots.
• Aphid defence – marigolds/onions/dill/coriander
  • I have heard that diluted washing-up liquid in a spray can help treat affected plants, this helped me with my coriander.
• Cabbage white butterfly defence – rosemary, mint, nasturtium (may be a sacrifice to save the cabbage)
  • Or you could always feed the caterpillars to chickens?
• Cabbage likes to be with sage
• Broccoli likes dill and rosemary
• Cabbage not good with tomato
• Peppers – good with tomato and basil
• Shade creating plants such as beans can help broccoli from bolting

Arming myself with this information has helped me devise the following ‘plan’ and as you can see it’s not quite complete yet. My raised bed still has space left which I think may be taken up by the numerous cucumber and gherkin plants I am currently growing (a gherkin pickling post on its way no doubt)!

Marigolds were the first companion plants I heard about and I took it upon my self to grow some from seed as I was unable to find any plants in the garden centre at the time. If the truth be told I had no idea what they looked like so it is entirely possible I just walked past them. Anyhow for cost effectiveness the seeds were pretty cheap and have provided me with 20+ plants (with seeds still left), enough for myself and enough to share. These pests had best watch their backs!

The major development in organic pest control arose from Rich (my planting companion he he) who suggested we collect some canes, insect netting, cable ties and string and assemble one huge frame over the Cultivation Station for the ultimate in bug protection. It sounded like a big job, but a good idea nonetheless!

After a good couple of hours we stood in the spitting rain looking quite pleased with the finished design, sat over the top of the raised bed, the frame even had its own roll-up door to provide access to the plants! However it was then that we realised there was a major flaw.

Rich: “You didn’t want any plants pollinated did you?”
Me: “……yes..”

Of course, with not having a ‘bug checkpoint’ to sort the good from the bad, count the bees in and bugs out as it were, it’s a bit of a problem. So a re-think is on the cards which will unfortunately involve taking down the frame, something I simply don’t have the heart to do at the moment!

Bugs: One – Virgin Gardener: Nil