Thursday, May 22, 2008

What's eating my garden??!




Grrr! Something's been nibbling in my garden - any ideas as to what it is and what I can do about it??! It's mostly my cauliflower, broccoli and *sob* pak choy..

Also can anyone identify this plant?? It came in a pot of tomato plants I got at the last LETS picnic and has been quite happily growing ever since. More than likely it's a weed if I'm managing to grow it well :)

First picture shows the flower (obviously!), 2nd shows it's leaves.


8 comments:

The Tin House said...

Kez, looks like a classic case of cabbage moth to me. The come in and lay eggs on the back of the leaves. They're tiny whitish specks that spawn lots of disgusting, rotten tiny wee (for a while anyway) green camouflaged bugs. You nearly can't see them. But squash, squash, squash. Once you're happy you've got the eggs and caterpillars off your leaves, cover with some form of netting (old orange and onion bags are good). These little buggers nearly wiped out my growing challenge womboks. Lisa x

Kez said...

Aha, thanks Lisa. You're right - I just went out and turned over what was left of the leaves. Little bright green caterpillary type things all over them. I've been on a search-and-squash mission :)

I remember commenting about you using the bags now but I'd forgotten what for..

Minni Mum said...

Ah yep, I was going to suggest cabbage moth also, don't you hate the little buggers?!

I do recognise your mystery plant too, but no idea what the name is sorry! I just googled a couple of names that popped into my mind, but it isn't them - but I'm pretty sure it isn't a weed, LOL. If I'm right, it's a pretty little ground-cover. Cheers, Julie

Unknown said...

I know that the plant get dystroyed, but I love the lace effect that the bugs make. Natures art. I´m tempted to leave me on just to be able to see it.

Such a nice garden with lots of free open spaces. Loved it.

Chaunte said...

I've got something like this as well on my broccoli. They started to show just as I saw my tiny head of broccoli coming up. Then they ate ALLL of the leaves. Every last leaffy part and left nothing by the tough thick veins. I would hate to have to do this for a whole field of broccoli. Is there another option? How to organic large farms do it? Do they really hire someone to pick off every bug?

Kez said...

Chaunte - there's probably some sort of organic spray that's been made up for large applications. I'm not sure.

Anonymous said...

Organic means very little. they are still allowed to use pesticides, they just have to follow certain loosly defined FDA regulations. Organic doesn't mean good, clean, or natural (note that the word natural has no definition by the FDA. "Natural" means nothing on product packaging. My use of the word natural here is used to mean unmodified by the effects of any man-made substance other than compost)

Anonymous said...

Mystery plant may be sold in australia as Piss Off as it deters cats and dogs if it has a cacti like fleshiness to it and an unusual odour . if is more plant like ( like clover) it is a weed