Garden Calendar

Now is the best time to remove the infected twigs of trees infested with Monilia tip drought. Remove diseased branches by cutting back into healthy wood by up to 15 cm. Spraying with fungus pesticides is no use at this point. Instead, we recommend promoting regeneration of damaged trees by treating with Super Strength Seaweed Extract.

To prevent ants from driving away beneficial insects such as ladybirds and encouraging aphids on your fruit trees: place a Greaseband around the trunks now. The ants stick to this on the way up, so they can no longer reach the crown.

This damage pattern may indicate infestation with powdery mildew. This fungus is particularly prevalent in sunny weather. Remove tips that are fully infested beforehand. These treatments also combat apple scab at the same time.

If vine leaves are covered with a powdery coating on the top and beneath the leaves, this indicates an infestation with powdery mildew. The coating later turns brown and moves onto the grapes and shoots. The grapes burst open and dry out. Ask at your garden centre for a suitable product to tackle this.

Downy mildew on grape vines shows up on the top of the leaves in the form of so-called “oil spots”. Heavy infestations cause the leaves to fall at a later stage and the grapes to dry up (leather berries).

Trees that overbear may succumb to the so-called “June drop”. This is often a natural reaction of the tree as it cannot feed the mass of young fruit. However, if the fruit appears to have bore holes, then this is the work of fruit maggots. Pick up the fruitlets to prevent them from ruining the remaining fruit.