Green Fingers

I never understood why anyone having a knack for gardening was labelled as having ‘green fingers’, until now…..

There has been a recent spike in aphids in the vege beds. It seems that they particularly like kailan and would cluster amongst the young leaf curls. They had previously appeared under the okra leaves and bits on the daikon. I have yet to find a solution to the problem…other than physically picking off the infected leaves or crushing them with my fingers.

They ‘collect’ the dew within the curled leaves and somehow secretes something to hold the liquid together.
Prior to this, I never knew that aphids had that many species and colours

Other than aphid infestation, we get white cabbage butterflies visiting and laying eggs around. Most of them seem to like hanging around the kailan and broccoli plants. I had initially tried putting white bread loaf tags on the leaves to deter them from landing (i’d read that they may be led to believe these plants are already being ‘occupied’ and thus fly away to search for another plant). Unfortunately after a week, the usual suspects were still hanging around. Perhaps like a friend said….reverse psychology has actually taken place…perhaps more of these butterflies are attracted by their doppelgangers, hence equals great place to hang out. Bummer…..

So it is back to physically removing them and well, squeezing the living juices out of them. And after daily rounds of aphid and caterpillar control, I can truly say that yesh, my fingers are green indeed…and kiddo is duly grossed out lol.

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