Blogspot - Interia Dezain

The Chai Guild is your homegrown one stop shop for refreshing vitalising herbal teas and a living first aid cabinet. It also serves to attract a host of beneficial insects, provides habitat for many others, accumulates essential mineral nutrients and displays beauty and interest throughout the year. Oh  - and I forgot to mention the strawberries, currants and salad leaves. This is a perennial guild, meaning that the plants will live for more than two years, but in fact most of the plants in this guild will flourish for much longer than this. This community of plants is ideal for small gardens taking up no more than approx 6m2. It also works well in a larger space as a beneficial island that fills a gap within the wider garden ecosystem of fruit, nut and ornamental trees. Species Overview  All the plants in this guild (apart from Agastache foeniculum) are native to Europe and all are well adapted to the climate and ecology of the Northern Temperate zone. We have been growing...

Generally I live at ease with aphids in the garden. Occasionally they infest a bean plant but they are usually swiftly brought under control by the natural predators that roam the patch such as ladybirds, lacewings, hoverfly larvae and braconid/chalcid parasites before they do any lasting harm. They are also noticeably attracted to fresh apical growth of Prunus spp. such as cherry and peach, but soon come to the attention of a goldfinch that devours them over the course of a few sittings. However, in the greenhouse during the winter months, free from predation, they thrive and wreak havoc on the defenseless plants. My chilli pepper plants are the victims this year. Leaf from Capsicum chinense inhabited by various generations of  Aphis fabae subsp. Having been away for Christmas for a few weeks I returned to find the pepper plants in a spot of bother. The aphid populations, well established on the plants,  pierce the epidermis (plant skin) and suck the nutrient laden sap from...