For strawberry protection I paint rocks to look like strawberries, then set them put a week or so before the first berries get ripe. Birds peck at them and figure it out right away. Keeps them almost entirely out of the crop.
I’m not sure that would be good for the birds’ beaks though. The poor things could damage their beaks. Netting would be best, like they use for most fruit trees.
@@finagill pick rocks that look like small strawberries. Then base paint red, green for the tops, some I put small dot of black to look like seeds. After doing a few and putting g them out I skipped the black dots. They look plenty like strawberries under the foliage.
@@squange20 I guess, although the weight of a nonstationary stone would be pretty minimal. And I doubt they're slamming into them with their full force. More than likely they're expecting a soft strawberry so going in very soft at first, at which point they get a surprise from the rocks.
@@KDOGGER11 I’m sure you’re doing what’s best, and if it works, why not? I’m planting strawberries in hanging baskets close to the kitchen this year, and will put a few short , thin stakes around baskets, cover with netting and secure at the bottom, as we get strong winds this time of year. Let’s hope I get some fruit in spring. A bit late for it, but it’s been very wet and stormy for weeks this side of the world.
Lol. The look you give to the hacker, and then the middle finger. I would definitely subscribe to a “Spicy” Huw Richards channel as well. You’re my favorite
“These things called CDs” why do I feel old hearing that? 😂 Awesome video Huw as usual. Robins are on our strawberry patch every day so will these things called CDs 😄
Have mercy! I thought, “what? THESE things? How does he not know what THESE things are when they were such an integral part of my teenage years?!” Then I remember “oh yeah, I’m old!” 😂😭😂
"CDs protect your 'seedies'" (our grandkids will be doing the same one day... but they'll levitate their old 3d-holocubes above their treated lunar-regolith to focus the gravitational waves passing through their raised beds to scare away the encroaching space-herpes and electro-slugs, thereby leaving their crops un-eaten... yummo. If we're lucky, they may thaw us out long enough to chat with us and tell us how their growing season is panning out.) ((bonus points go to anyone who got the 'Ice Pirates' and 'Dark Star' references above))
Thank you so much for the CD suggestion. This morning I woke up to my garden being decimated from turkeys. The turkeys outnumber the people 50 toone in my area. So I hung a bunch of CDs up and I haven’t seen any turkeys yet.
Vine weevils are a scourge in my part of the country. They eat the roots and the plant is destroyed. I apply nematodes twice a year (April and September); they are the most effective remedy.
Thank you I'm going to try them all except one.. I love birds and even if they eat my fruits I don't mind, after all they won't eat the whole lot I guess.. I love sharing with birds..
Not only are you a great teacher for all things gardening and time / project management, now I finally understand why VPN is so useful - you are amazing! (very clever and funny “ad” too and great acting)! Your garden is looking soooo beautiful, just like the photos in your new book. And great videography too!
For scaring away rabbits it helps me on my field to have a vertical stick in the ground over wich is put an empty compost bag. Fix it only at the top so the bag is moved by the wind and makes some noises wich scares these animals . Now carrots can grow on👍🏼
Flea beetles decimated my eggplants for 2 years in a row. Completely skeletonized the leaves. This year, I had to keep applying DE until the plants were flowering and could finally fight them off. Got my first homegrown eggplants a week ago
Thanks for this informative video. A note on flea beetle, you mentioned they never an issue. I would love to send you a photo of the damage these flea bettle caused on our broccoli, kohlrabi and the like. Unsure if any harvest will be there. I assume it's to do with the climate as it is hot and dry here. Always looking forward to hearing about your experience and knowledge.
I'm having the same problem with flea beatles here in France. My young broccoli plantes had nearly all their leaves eaten and my roquette was completely destroyed.
Same problem for me this year too, I had absolutely hundreds of them, my Rocket was growing unprotected and it was almost totally wiped out in a matter of days before I realised what had happened. They also got into my main brassica bed which is very well protected with veggiemesh (which was covered in loads of them every day for a few weeks) and they caused a fair bit of damage to some young raddish, pac choi and turnips. It took about a week of daily hunting and squashing to clear them out. These were all new raised beds so these almost certainly migrated from elsewhere. I hear that marigolds and dill might be good as a deterrent.
Hmm I must have strange pests. Coriander and fennel and dill are pest attractors in my garden. Aphids and other small pests seem to adore them. It doesn't prevent me from having seeds later to collect, though I leave them to dry outside, so the insects can leave, die or get eaten. As pest attactors, they are also good pest predator attractors and nurseries. Right now, my preying manti have taken up their territories around the garden, and that seems to help a lot. Also the heat keeps the aphids down. I don't really have slugs here, but if spikes work, do slugs eat fuzzy squash leaves? Maybe make those into rolls along the sides of beds with crops the slugs like.
I've had idsues with weavel beatles destroying the leaves on my strawberry plants. I have to go out at night with a flashlight and physically remove them. Voles are a constant problem in my beds. They've eaten nearly 1/3 of my young corns plants' roots, killing the plants. Then there's slugs...Always a battle in the garden..
By happy accident I discovered that beetroot is a good trap crop for leaf miner since building a new raised bed near to an orange tree. As beetroot leaves can be harvested like chard the beetroot copes very well with removal of the affected leaves for disposal.
@Cranky Banshee I do this as well and then when they attack the beetroot leaves I spray liquid soap water mixed thisreduces them as much as possible. Nastursums make another excellent trap crop as well.
@@lindahipple4817 I'm pleased to hear someone else knows about beetroot and leaf miners as I've never come across it mentioned in literature as a trap crop. Nasturtiums happily grow wild a few hundred metres from my house, but they will not grow in my garden. :(
I also hate slugs. BUT I leart that fireflys (which I LOVE!) cannot live witout them! Since they all seam to have disappeared (I have not seen a single one since 15 years now), I carry all slugs on the compost, where they also help to "digest" it! Besides, Indian runner ducks love eating them!
Grasshopper protection ideas? We have family farm: 8 acres including orchards. Hoppers ate through mess fabric. They laugh at daily application at diatomaceous earth. We have tried soap sprays and neem oil applications too. Our garden is a loss except the raised beds inside the chicken runs. I will expand the protected perimeter with chicken tunnels. What else works?
You clearly don't have a big problem with leaf miner, Huw. I no longer grow alliums, especially garlic and leeks because of allium leaf miner. And I always have a problem with leaf miner in my beetroot.
FYI. Do not use the brambles tip. Slugs are not deterred by the prickles, and if you use fresh brambles you run the risk of the cuttings rooting into the garden. This tip just creates a prickly, potentially weedy mess that doesn't stop slugs at all. If you don't believe me, before trying this method, find a slug and surround it by a ring of brambles. See how long it stays in the ring.
Great video Huw. I sometime feel like Mr Macgregor and his invading Peter Rabbits 🤦♂️ I've started planting lavander and mint in the beds as they don't seem to like that so much too 🤔
Maybe plant a patch of clover away from your garden for the bunnies? My lawn is mostly weeds at my rental house and they happily munch that. Only crop they munch is the few kale in the dead of winter. They nibble the leaves to the stem, but happily it sends out new leaves in spring.
Question I've sown several brassica but they got beaten up pretty badly a few leaves remain, is it worth trying to save them? Or better to cut my losses 😪
I have herd about Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) being effective as an insect repellent and even rabbits ... of course, I'm sceptical as always, but has there been any truth to this in your experience?
I have an issue for the first time on my egg plants... May have gotten them from the nursery. I have flea Beatles. Does anyone know a way to get rid of them?
You missed the three urban vermin, foxes, squirrels and cats which will dig up your young plants for reasons only they know. The only (partial) defense I have found is just loads of Holly and bramble twigs. 😡
It enables him to do this so that you can consume his videos for free. If you want ad free high quality content you should be prepared to pay him for his hard work
I thought there was an income if enough folk follow. Sorry I am not too good on all this. I did not intend to cause any problems. I have bought his books too. Of course he should get funds for his great tuition.
I know a woman who bought 2 old chest of drawers at an auction for €2 each. They were in bad condition but the drawers were ok. She knocked the bottoms out and was left with 8 wooden frames which she then used to make 8 raised beds. 🙂
I found a Gray tree frog in amongst my rhubarb plants. It stayed there for about 3 weeks. Turns out, it found all the garden slugs and was enjoying the buffet!
The reason hanging CDs deter birds is not so much the flash directly in their eyes. It's more that the disks create moving spots of light on the ground, darting in random directions. This mimics the movement of a ground predator seen out of the corner of the bird's eye and it makes them too nervous to stay. Brilliant!
I dig a shallow dish into my garden so it’s close to soil level, I fill it with water and dissolve a teaspoon of dried yeast in it. The nest morning it’s half full of slugs. I tried this because I didn’t want to waste beer so thought I’d try the yeast and it works
Your channel is giving me so much inspiration through freezing Australian winter - not long now until seed sowing time though! You have so much knowledge and I appreciate it so much. I was saying 'huw on UA-cam says.... ' so much my partner has dubbed the channel 'HuwTube'
😄huwtube's great aye! Learn so much. Disappointing that there are no nsw veg garden youtubers (that i can find). All of them are in the northern hemisphere & I'm constantly having to 'convert' info to relate to the opposite season.
I really love your videos for all it's (amazingly) high quality gardening content🌱- but I have to say...that sketch about your sponsor (and especially the way you connected it to the rest of the video) was just so brilliantly done!! 🙌🏼 Thanks for the all around great video Huw!🌻
This year I managed to deter all slugs from my lettuces and seedlings by growing them on multi tiered shelves in pots/trays and using double strips of copper tape around the legs of the shelving. It has been my best year for lettuces
Love your videos. Here is a tip to prevent slugs and snails. They are repelled by caffeine. Save your used coffee grounds and sprinkle them on the garden soil. I haven't seen a slug or snail in the garden since I started this. About a quart of used coffee grounds does my 200 sq. ft. vegetable garden. One application in the early spring lasts all year.
Used coffee grounds have almost no measurable caffeine. They also are not acidic anymore. More likely they don’t like the texture of the coffee grounds when they dry up
That little, raised salad bed is a great idea! If the slugs are getting too plentiful, you can open a slug saloon. A pie pan of beer will attract them and then they drown. You could cover it with another foil pan with little openings cut all around, if you're concerned about other critters drinking it.
Loved this video Huw, you manage to make a film about pests both beautiful and funny. You missed my nemesis pest though - moles! Actually for us it's moles and voles and it's sometimes hard to figure out which of the two has just rummaged through a newly planted bed and turned our heavy clay, well composted soil into fluff and upended all my carefully planted out seedlings. I think moles are the worse culprits of the two, and the more moist and compost-rich the soil is, the more they love it and I can almost guarantee that they'll find a newly planted bed within a couple of days. They don't eat the plants, they just tunnel in search of nice juicy worms but in the process they do so much damage that some crops fail completely - I lost almost my entire crop of onions this year. I have to re-plant the uprooted seedlings and firm down the soil with my fingers and sometimes my boot - it can look not too bad until I get my hands in there and feel the tunnels collapse as I firm the soil down again. If I don't find the damage quickly enough the young plants dry out and die, so it can be a huge problem. I can't sow any seeds direct into the soil at all or they just end up in a mole tunnel, so I have to grow carrots in pots. A few weeks ago I planted out some young beetroot plants, and I was counting my lucky stars that they'd been left alone - maybe because of the hot weather, though I was watering the seedlings. But that all changed this week when a mole moved in - I replanted those beautiful healthy young beet plants 8 times yesterday alone!! I've tried those solar powered sonic deterrents (the moles tunnelled right next to them!) and I've tried to avoid trapping but I think we might have to resort to live traps. We have an orchard they can be released into, but I have a sneaky feeling they'll just laugh at me and move straight back into my cushy veg beds!
Some people will put a fine metal mesh in the bottom of a raised bed to keep them out - something to think about doing. I am considering doing it myself
@Life, Love and Mental Illness a vlog channel they reputedly don't like caper spurge plants but I haven't managed to grow them successfully on our heavy clay. Using mesh would be much too labour intensive and expensive as we have quite a few raised beds. Good idea for smaller gardens though.
So many good ideas, most of which I have used during my decades of gardening, but newbie gardeners need this kind of information, so great video!! Putting a seed tray table legs on blocks set in pans of water is something others have used and is the gardeners version of what I had to do in my house during the 10 years I lived in Arizona (US) and something pioneers in the old west did in their log cabins. I put the 6 posts of my bed frame up on glass blocks set in glass pans of water so *bark scorpions* could not climb up into bed with me! The tarantulas I had to trap with a large butterfly net and toss outside...it was an interesting life.
I had a perennial kale plant just infested with aphids and eaten to practically nothing and I saw on another video to hard (jet) spray it with a bottle or hose. It said if you get them off they don't climb back up. I tried the hose and the plant is thriving again.
Rodents, like voles, rats can taste hot chili powder. I used some in the spring around the holes, near any vegs they were going after. Just a sprinkle on any vegs will make them turn away. I think I found a female hole, was more lavish with the hot powder so the young would have trouble nursing, and she'd need to move them.
@@HuwRichards Do you have any help with it ie editing, filming, looking after the garden, pr, social media ect? It is an incredible amount of work for one person.
Flee beetles destroyed my eggplant transplants before I even got them in the ground. I was in the stage of acclimating them to the outside. Within a few days, the tiny leaves were almost completely eaten. Most of my okra was destroyed too
I have always succumbed to the carrot fly until this year. I grew my carrots in buckets and put them on the flat roof of our extension. It has worked a treat. For the first time I’ve got beautiful healthy carrots! The carrot fly couldn’t fly that high!
Slugs have decimated 90% of all my garlic’s leaves and I also found some of them beginning to munch on the garlic bulbs too 😱 So I had to dig them up before I would have liked, so my very first garlic harvest is very small this year… Onion fly got to that part of the raised beds and destroyed that. 😭 I am grateful for volounteer potatoes and self sewn gooseberries in a part of my hedge right now!
This spring, I had a pest completely devour my brassica roots. I suspected cabbage root fly but found absolutely nothing in the soil. It also demolished my garlic roots and onion roots. Again I found nothing in the soil. Where I did discover root maggots, was in my daisy plant whose roots were also completely devoured. In 35 years of gardening, I’ve never seen such destruction in the garden with no apparent culprit.
Hey, thank you for the video. Could you also highlight strategies for fighting with ants? Allmost no one ever mentions them when talking about pests, but they are often a real nightmare in raised beds. Thanks in advance! 😉
Lmao! Oh Hew, was a little sad at having to listen to a commercial, until you flipped the hacker the bird. Totally unexpected and prompted a solid LOL! Thanks for the info AND the laughs!
My problem is ants. The garden, raised beds and compost bin are riddled with them and I'm really struggling to get rid. You can see them running up to patches of aphids. How do you get rid?
I‘m a first time gardener and two days ago all of my brassica varieties were completely destroyed by the cabbage bug (Eurydema oleraceum) in just ONE DAY. I never heard of them before. The first day you see them pairing on a leaf you think „oh, how sweet & beautiful“, the next day there are hundreds an you see white lines in the leafs and you think „shit, these are from the bugs“ and the next day they were ten thousands everywhere… when they are ready the leafs are completely dry and crispy and the stems have brown lines… it was like in one of these horror films about clouds of insects come and eating a whole field within minutes… 😢 We‘re here out in the nowhere, in Slavonia/ Croatia close to the hungarian border, close to a Natural forrest reserve park, here‘s no intense farming and pure nature all around and it seems these bugs don‘t have any natural enemies…
I had chickens but earlier this year but decided to let them go. I had a friend with a farm and she was happy to take them. I still see them and have their eggs. I converted the main coop into a poly box but the small ark coop I turned upside down, lined and added a couple of feet and now have a very large trug and it’s snail free. The slugs and snails just don’t seem able to climb up that far. It was almost new and I would never have got my money back but the conversion is excellent. A pest free zone at waist height which is so much nicer for my back.
The garden is looking fabulous Huw. Local conditions vary too. For instance I’m in southern Australia and my Garlic got hammered by aphids/black fly last year, also red spider mite devastate Beans and Cucumbers in my garden. I also avoid certain pest issues with TIMING. I can’t grow early Beans or Cucumbers because of spider mite but they are not affected if planted later in the season. Same with Brassicas and Cabbage Butterfly, I plant in the cool season when the butterflies are dormant and avoid the Spring/Summer.
Mexican bean beetles get my beans every year, I'm in the U.S and they're worst in July. I still get a decent amount of beans, but I think it could be better if they weren't being skeletonized by bugs.
But the fleabeetles. We have here SO MUCH fleabeetles that no matter how big brassica seedlings i put in the garden, no matter what kind of netting, soap spray, agrohomeopathy or prayers i throw at the problem.. it all gets eaten down to NOTHING in a few days 😫😖😲 still looking for a solution for that.. next year i might try putting together a quail avuary and growing brassicas in there.. hoping the little birds eating those microscopic but catastrophic beetles!! 🕊🕊🕊
Try using petroleum jelly or any type of grease, smeared on a piece of paper or card to catch them when you pass it near the plant in question. I have trapped a lot like this and then I have covered the small plants in the vegetable netting bags you can get at the supermarkets these days to hold your fruit and veg in (they are very fine woven). This is how I stopped my pak choi plants from getting destroyed this summer.
11 Sept 2022 the Global Human Chain. Join together in the streets, take the hand of the person each side of you and come together in unity and strength. NO TO WAR, YES TO HUMANITY. Don't break the chain! Pass it on...
😃 good Tips, Thank you!👏👍 just a slight correction on the "rabbit proof" fence. Well I do agree with the shabe and all that, that really works. but that type of mesh/fence material... can be chewed thru... my Rabbit did it just last week, and has now the whole balcony instead of just his enclosure...😅🙈well until I fix that hole anyway...
I've just started my 1st ever vege garden and I'm so grateful for your videos, I've learnt so much. Thank you. I just have 1 big problem 🤦♀️ Ants. I'm from NZ and i get alot of problems with ants, Could someone please give me some hints on how to control them?
Im so old I remember when they used to put films on FILM BTW any way to get JAPANESE BEETLES to stop having their randy little netflix snd chill sessions on my raspberries??
Hi Huw & everyone, Huw When you say natural liquid soap are you able to give a few brand suggestions in UK please? Would these include Eco, Method, Astonish? Does anyone have success with spraying camomile tea onto plants which attract aphids? The biggest aphid problem I have is on my plum tree. I had so many last year on the tree that all the plants & garden structures underneath it were sticky. Any advice on fruit tree aphids?
3" copper mesh stapled to raised beds will prevent slugs from entering the beds. even without the 12v battery. 50% cornmeal 50% baking soda, will effect digestive tract of mice/voles, but not pose a threat to hawks and owls.
Great video! Can anyone give me an example of a natural soap? If not a brand, then what would the components be? I'm referring to the spraying of aphids. Cheers
Get my exclusive NordVPN deal here: nordvpn.com/huwrichards to keep your digital devices pest-free🌱
Nice nord VPN native advertisement integration. Digital Pests, LOLZ.
Not keen on these adverts. Nature and commerce are not a good mix.
WTF. Stick to the gardening stuff rather than pushing software, please.
For strawberry protection I paint rocks to look like strawberries, then set them put a week or so before the first berries get ripe. Birds peck at them and figure it out right away. Keeps them almost entirely out of the crop.
Do you just paint the rocks red or do you add more detail than that?
I’m not sure that would be good for the birds’ beaks though. The poor things could damage their beaks. Netting would be best, like they use for most fruit trees.
@@finagill pick rocks that look like small strawberries. Then base paint red, green for the tops, some I put small dot of black to look like seeds. After doing a few and putting g them out I skipped the black dots. They look plenty like strawberries under the foliage.
@@squange20 I guess, although the weight of a nonstationary stone would be pretty minimal. And I doubt they're slamming into them with their full force. More than likely they're expecting a soft strawberry so going in very soft at first, at which point they get a surprise from the rocks.
@@KDOGGER11 I’m sure you’re doing what’s best, and if it works, why not? I’m planting strawberries in hanging baskets close to the kitchen this year, and will put a few short , thin stakes around baskets, cover with netting and secure at the bottom, as we get strong winds this time of year. Let’s hope I get some fruit in spring. A bit late for it, but it’s been very wet and stormy for weeks this side of the world.
Lol. The look you give to the hacker, and then the middle finger. I would definitely subscribe to a “Spicy” Huw Richards channel as well. You’re my favorite
“These things called CDs” why do I feel old hearing that? 😂 Awesome video Huw as usual. Robins are on our strawberry patch every day so will these things called CDs 😄
Have mercy! I thought, “what? THESE things? How does he not know what THESE things are when they were such an integral part of my teenage years?!” Then I remember “oh yeah, I’m old!” 😂😭😂
@@petpawteek8776 The feels :D
He's clearly joking.
I am with you, I spit out my tea laughing when I heard him talk about the CDs...as I was putting a favorite music CD in my boombox...😏
"CDs protect your 'seedies'"
(our grandkids will be doing the same one day... but they'll levitate their old 3d-holocubes above their treated lunar-regolith to focus the gravitational waves passing through their raised beds to scare away the encroaching space-herpes and electro-slugs, thereby leaving their crops un-eaten... yummo. If we're lucky, they may thaw us out long enough to chat with us and tell us how their growing season is panning out.)
((bonus points go to anyone who got the 'Ice Pirates' and 'Dark Star' references above))
That blackberry cane slug prevention trick seems pretty genius 🤔 will defenitely try it!
😁Yo. Your Pivot from Pest to Malware Was Supreme 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Thank you again, Huw, for the information! Short and sweet, but condensed with lots of important stuff.
that was the funniest product placement ever
Dude! That transition from the slug fence to the vpn and pest/ hackers. Smooth!
Enjoyed this video Huw. Great to see the garden filled with so many flowers!
Thank you so much for the CD suggestion. This morning I woke up to my garden being decimated from turkeys. The turkeys outnumber the people 50 toone in my area. So I hung a bunch of CDs up and I haven’t seen any turkeys yet.
That add transition was brilliant.
Vine weevils are a scourge in my part of the country. They eat the roots and the plant is destroyed. I apply nematodes twice a year (April and September); they are the most effective remedy.
Thank you I'm going to try them all except one.. I love birds and even if they eat my fruits I don't mind, after all they won't eat the whole lot I guess.. I love sharing with birds..
Soak stinging nettles is water for 3 days and spray on aphids. Works on lots of the horibillies.
Not only are you a great teacher for all things gardening and time / project management, now I finally understand why VPN is so useful - you are amazing! (very clever and funny “ad” too and great acting)! Your garden is looking soooo beautiful, just like the photos in your new book. And great videography too!
What a lovely comment! Thank you so much :)
@@HuwRichards thank you for taking the time to reply. Am currently reading your book every night 🌱👍
For scaring away rabbits it helps me on my field to have a vertical stick in the ground over wich is put an empty compost bag. Fix it only at the top so the bag is moved by the wind and makes some noises wich scares these animals .
Now carrots can grow on👍🏼
Flea beetles decimated my eggplants for 2 years in a row. Completely skeletonized the leaves. This year, I had to keep applying DE until the plants were flowering and could finally fight them off. Got my first homegrown eggplants a week ago
I've just pick them off my eggplants 1x per day and they eggplants can thrive
Thanks for this informative video. A note on flea beetle, you mentioned they never an issue. I would love to send you a photo of the damage these flea bettle caused on our broccoli, kohlrabi and the like. Unsure if any harvest will be there. I assume it's to do with the climate as it is hot and dry here. Always looking forward to hearing about your experience and knowledge.
I'm having the same problem with flea beatles here in France. My young broccoli plantes had nearly all their leaves eaten and my roquette was completely destroyed.
Same problem for me this year too, I had absolutely hundreds of them, my Rocket was growing unprotected and it was almost totally wiped out in a matter of days before I realised what had happened. They also got into my main brassica bed which is very well protected with veggiemesh (which was covered in loads of them every day for a few weeks) and they caused a fair bit of damage to some young raddish, pac choi and turnips. It took about a week of daily hunting and squashing to clear them out. These were all new raised beds so these almost certainly migrated from elsewhere. I hear that marigolds and dill might be good as a deterrent.
@@gardeningforcatlovers39 thanks for the tip, I might try that. I'm starting to give up battling with them
Hmm I must have strange pests. Coriander and fennel and dill are pest attractors in my garden. Aphids and other small pests seem to adore them. It doesn't prevent me from having seeds later to collect, though I leave them to dry outside, so the insects can leave, die or get eaten. As pest attactors, they are also good pest predator attractors and nurseries.
Right now, my preying manti have taken up their territories around the garden, and that seems to help a lot. Also the heat keeps the aphids down.
I don't really have slugs here, but if spikes work, do slugs eat fuzzy squash leaves? Maybe make those into rolls along the sides of beds with crops the slugs like.
I've had idsues with weavel beatles destroying the leaves on my strawberry plants. I have to go out at night with a flashlight and physically remove them. Voles are a constant problem in my beds. They've eaten nearly 1/3 of my young corns plants' roots, killing the plants. Then there's slugs...Always a battle in the garden..
Loved the cafe video section really made me laugh xx
Apparently (so mossy bottom says) ducks hoover up slugs
Excellent video Huw.
some very useful information am going to be using the CD trick I do hope it works on wood pigeons .
For carrot fly, my step mum swears by planting calendula by the carrots to deter the pests.
By happy accident I discovered that beetroot is a good trap crop for leaf miner since building a new raised bed near to an orange tree. As beetroot leaves can be harvested like chard the beetroot copes very well with removal of the affected leaves for disposal.
@Cranky Banshee I do this as well and then when they attack the beetroot leaves I spray liquid soap water mixed thisreduces them as much as possible. Nastursums make another excellent trap crop as well.
@@lindahipple4817 What kind of liquid soap do you use?
@@christinamoxon I use the liquid Castille soap. Sometimes I can get it with mint oil mixed in and that works as well.
@@lindahipple4817 I'm pleased to hear someone else knows about beetroot and leaf miners as I've never come across it mentioned in literature as a trap crop. Nasturtiums happily grow wild a few hundred metres from my house, but they will not grow in my garden. :(
@@lindahipple4817 Ah. Glad to know that works. I've seen it but never tried it. I'll give it a go. Thanks very much!
Here in N.Sac.Valley, CA > I've given up on planting > drought, heat, construction, lack of funds and poor health > maybe by fall??!!
My nemesis are slugs.
Will try with Blackberry branches
I also hate slugs. BUT I leart that fireflys (which I LOVE!) cannot live witout them! Since they all seam to have disappeared (I have not seen a single one since 15 years now), I carry all slugs on the compost, where they also help to "digest" it! Besides, Indian runner ducks love eating them!
Grasshopper protection ideas? We have family farm: 8 acres including orchards. Hoppers ate through mess fabric. They laugh at daily application at diatomaceous earth. We have tried soap sprays and neem oil applications too. Our garden is a loss except the raised beds inside the chicken runs. I will expand the protected perimeter with chicken tunnels. What else works?
Tanks a lot for your inspiring Videos!
You clearly don't have a big problem with leaf miner, Huw. I no longer grow alliums, especially garlic and leeks because of allium leaf miner. And I always have a problem with leaf miner in my beetroot.
FYI. Do not use the brambles tip. Slugs are not deterred by the prickles, and if you use fresh brambles you run the risk of the cuttings rooting into the garden. This tip just creates a prickly, potentially weedy mess that doesn't stop slugs at all. If you don't believe me, before trying this method, find a slug and surround it by a ring of brambles. See how long it stays in the ring.
This is what I was going to say too
Great video Huw. I sometime feel like Mr Macgregor and his invading Peter Rabbits 🤦♂️ I've started planting lavander and mint in the beds as they don't seem to like that so much too 🤔
Maybe plant a patch of clover away from your garden for the bunnies? My lawn is mostly weeds at my rental house and they happily munch that. Only crop they munch is the few kale in the dead of winter. They nibble the leaves to the stem, but happily it sends out new leaves in spring.
Question I've sown several brassica but they got beaten up pretty badly a few leaves remain, is it worth trying to save them? Or better to cut my losses 😪
I have herd about Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) being effective as an insect repellent and even rabbits ... of course, I'm sceptical as always, but has there been any truth to this in your experience?
Great vid! Where do you buy your seeds?
I have an issue for the first time on my egg plants... May have gotten them from the nursery. I have flea Beatles. Does anyone know a way to get rid of them?
My crop is not destroyed but my leaves are pretty lacy looking
You missed the three urban vermin, foxes, squirrels and cats which will dig up your young plants for reasons only they know. The only (partial) defense I have found is just loads of Holly and bramble twigs. 😡
Diatomaceous earth.
Sunchokes attracted gophers to my area…
Parsley?? Nope.. eaten by the snails and slugs !
Flip that bird 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
CDs don't work against marauding parrots😥
Aphids killed my parsley
ça commence à faire beaucoup de pub....
oh no……please stick to gardening. Sorry but wasn’t looking for sales.
It helps to keep his channel going and provide free content.
It enables him to do this so that you can consume his videos for free. If you want ad free high quality content you should be prepared to pay him for his hard work
I thought there was an income if enough folk follow. Sorry I am not too good on all this. I did not intend to cause any problems. I have bought his books too. Of course he should get funds for his great tuition.
I know a woman who bought 2 old chest of drawers at an auction for €2 each. They were in bad condition but the drawers were ok. She knocked the bottoms out and was left with 8 wooden frames which she then used to make 8 raised beds. 🙂
That's ace 😁
@@ssmith2608 it is, isn't it 😁 Low cost and functional.
Well, dang!! Thats awesome!!
Where does she store her pants?
@user-ep4kc6kl8p The visual of that made me laugh. Thanks.
I found a Gray tree frog in amongst my rhubarb plants. It stayed there for about 3 weeks. Turns out, it found all the garden slugs and was enjoying the buffet!
That’s awesome!
Frogs are life 🐸
@@cbjones2212 that they are! And tree frogs are amazing.
Perfect permaculture poetry!
The reason hanging CDs deter birds is not so much the flash directly in their eyes. It's more that the disks create moving spots of light on the ground, darting in random directions. This mimics the movement of a ground predator seen out of the corner of the bird's eye and it makes them too nervous to stay. Brilliant!
Very true. My macaw freaks out over the light dashing about.
Huw, you don't have a slug problem you have a duck deficiency problem.
I dig a shallow dish into my garden so it’s close to soil level, I fill it with water and dissolve a teaspoon of dried yeast in it. The nest morning it’s half full of slugs. I tried this because I didn’t want to waste beer so thought I’d try the yeast and it works
Baha 😂
Your channel is giving me so much inspiration through freezing Australian winter - not long now until seed sowing time though! You have so much knowledge and I appreciate it so much. I was saying 'huw on UA-cam says.... ' so much my partner has dubbed the channel 'HuwTube'
Cute
We're the same here in Central Vic 😊 Added bonus is my partner has Welsh heritage so Huw has extra credence, haha!
@C&B Jones hope you're holding up OK in this icey winter! I'm in Canberra and really feeling it!
Huw Tube😂😂😂
😄huwtube's great aye! Learn so much.
Disappointing that there are no nsw veg garden youtubers (that i can find). All of them are in the northern hemisphere & I'm constantly having to 'convert' info to relate to the opposite season.
I really love your videos for all it's (amazingly) high quality gardening content🌱- but I have to say...that sketch about your sponsor (and especially the way you connected it to the rest of the video) was just so brilliantly done!! 🙌🏼 Thanks for the all around great video Huw!🌻
haha loved the computer hacker scene - it cracked me up! also loved all of your tips on pests as its always an issue in my garden
Haha thank you so much 🤣
@@HuwRichards Totally loved that scene too! ... we have BABOONS in South Africa - and nothing can keep them out!
This year I managed to deter all slugs from my lettuces and seedlings by growing them on multi tiered shelves in pots/trays and using double strips of copper tape around the legs of the shelving. It has been my best year for lettuces
Do you have any issues with roly-poly/pill bugs? I have many issues with them. They're like lumberjacks cutting down my bean stalks.
Love your videos. Here is a tip to prevent slugs and snails. They are repelled by caffeine. Save your used coffee grounds and sprinkle them on the garden soil. I haven't seen a slug or snail in the garden since I started this. About a quart of used coffee grounds does my 200 sq. ft. vegetable garden. One application in the early spring lasts all year.
Used coffee grounds have almost no measurable caffeine. They also are not acidic anymore. More likely they don’t like the texture of the coffee grounds when they dry up
That little, raised salad bed is a great idea!
If the slugs are getting too plentiful, you can open a slug saloon. A pie pan of beer will attract them and then they drown. You could cover it with another foil pan with little openings cut all around, if you're concerned about other critters drinking it.
Your garden is so beautiful and diverse, it looks like you've achieved a nice balance. I hope to get there eventually.
easiest way to deal with slugs is to have no rain for basically 4 months like we have had this year in my part of the UK haha. Good for blight though.
😂 cheeky man! Used to be used for films! 😂
Loved this video Huw, you manage to make a film about pests both beautiful and funny. You missed my nemesis pest though - moles! Actually for us it's moles and voles and it's sometimes hard to figure out which of the two has just rummaged through a newly planted bed and turned our heavy clay, well composted soil into fluff and upended all my carefully planted out seedlings. I think moles are the worse culprits of the two, and the more moist and compost-rich the soil is, the more they love it and I can almost guarantee that they'll find a newly planted bed within a couple of days. They don't eat the plants, they just tunnel in search of nice juicy worms but in the process they do so much damage that some crops fail completely - I lost almost my entire crop of onions this year. I have to re-plant the uprooted seedlings and firm down the soil with my fingers and sometimes my boot - it can look not too bad until I get my hands in there and feel the tunnels collapse as I firm the soil down again. If I don't find the damage quickly enough the young plants dry out and die, so it can be a huge problem. I can't sow any seeds direct into the soil at all or they just end up in a mole tunnel, so I have to grow carrots in pots. A few weeks ago I planted out some young beetroot plants, and I was counting my lucky stars that they'd been left alone - maybe because of the hot weather, though I was watering the seedlings. But that all changed this week when a mole moved in - I replanted those beautiful healthy young beet plants 8 times yesterday alone!! I've tried those solar powered sonic deterrents (the moles tunnelled right next to them!) and I've tried to avoid trapping but I think we might have to resort to live traps. We have an orchard they can be released into, but I have a sneaky feeling they'll just laugh at me and move straight back into my cushy veg beds!
Some people will put a fine metal mesh in the bottom of a raised bed to keep them out - something to think about doing. I am considering doing it myself
@Life, Love and Mental Illness a vlog channel they reputedly don't like caper spurge plants but I haven't managed to grow them successfully on our heavy clay. Using mesh would be much too labour intensive and expensive as we have quite a few raised beds. Good idea for smaller gardens though.
"Films used to be on them"
I'm so old 😩 🤣🤣
Great video. Love the spikey canes trick to protect against slugs. Off to the allotment now to try it.
Your garden is stunning. Wales is one of the most gorgeous places I have been.
So many good ideas, most of which I have used during my decades of gardening, but newbie gardeners need this kind of information, so great video!!
Putting a seed tray table legs on blocks set in pans of water is something others have used and is the gardeners version of what I had to do in my house during the 10 years I lived in Arizona (US) and something pioneers in the old west did in their log cabins. I put the 6 posts of my bed frame up on glass blocks set in glass pans of water so *bark scorpions* could not climb up into bed with me! The tarantulas I had to trap with a large butterfly net and toss outside...it was an interesting life.
I had a perennial kale plant just infested with aphids and eaten to practically nothing and I saw on another video to hard (jet) spray it with a bottle or hose. It said if you get them off they don't climb back up. I tried the hose and the plant is thriving again.
Rodents, like voles, rats can taste hot chili powder. I used some in the spring around the holes, near any vegs they were going after. Just a sprinkle on any vegs will make them turn away. I think I found a female hole, was more lavish with the hot powder so the young would have trouble nursing, and she'd need to move them.
Channel your inner slug!!😂 What would a slug do🤔 genius
Huw that was a great video! Nice way you filmed the add. 👍 A LOT of work went into this. Sooo much extra footage.
Ahh thank you so much it's nice to get appreciation from someone who knows what kind of work this stuff requires!🤣
@@HuwRichards Do you have any help with it ie editing, filming, looking after the garden, pr, social media ect? It is an incredible amount of work for one person.
@@TheWeedyGarden Just expanded to a team of 7 as we have a huge amount of things we are working on in the pipeline too
@@HuwRichards Fantastic Huw. I admire your setup 💚
Flee beetles destroyed my eggplant transplants before I even got them in the ground. I was in the stage of acclimating them to the outside. Within a few days, the tiny leaves were almost completely eaten. Most of my okra was destroyed too
He's just lovely isn't he? And he has great ideas...!
I have always succumbed to the carrot fly until this year. I grew my carrots in buckets and put them on the flat roof of our extension. It has worked a treat. For the first time I’ve got beautiful healthy carrots! The carrot fly couldn’t fly that high!
Slugs have decimated 90% of all my garlic’s leaves and I also found some of them beginning to munch on the garlic bulbs too 😱 So I had to dig them up before I would have liked, so my very first garlic harvest is very small this year… Onion fly got to that part of the raised beds and destroyed that. 😭
I am grateful for volounteer potatoes and self sewn gooseberries in a part of my hedge right now!
Try sowing carrots between your garlic next time. They each deter the other's pests.
Hi Huw, I’ve had something, grubs I think, burrowing onto my turnip roots. Any ideas for treating this problem?
For long-term care, encourage skunks. They dig out grubs and are fairly gentle with plants.
I thought the joke about the CDs was hilarious.
This spring, I had a pest completely devour my brassica roots. I suspected cabbage root fly but found absolutely nothing in the soil. It also demolished my garlic roots and onion roots. Again I found nothing in the soil.
Where I did discover root maggots, was in my daisy plant whose roots were also completely devoured. In 35 years of gardening, I’ve never seen such destruction in the garden with no apparent culprit.
okayyyy so i didn't realize i was 600 yrs old "these things called cds" so mad rn.
Hey, thank you for the video. Could you also highlight strategies for fighting with ants? Allmost no one ever mentions them when talking about pests, but they are often a real nightmare in raised beds. Thanks in advance! 😉
What problems are the ants causing?
The ants aren’t touching your plants. They are farming aphids
Lmao! Oh Hew, was a little sad at having to listen to a commercial, until you flipped the hacker the bird. Totally unexpected and prompted a solid LOL!
Thanks for the info AND the laughs!
My problem is ants. The garden, raised beds and compost bin are riddled with them and I'm really struggling to get rid. You can see them running up to patches of aphids. How do you get rid?
Have you tried borax and sugar trap?
@@ibtissamelmansoury3073 thanks will Google how to do that. Going to start nice and early
I‘m a first time gardener and two days ago all of my brassica varieties were completely destroyed by the cabbage bug (Eurydema oleraceum) in just ONE DAY. I never heard of them before.
The first day you see them pairing on a leaf you think „oh, how sweet & beautiful“, the next day there are hundreds an you see white lines in the leafs and you think „shit, these are from the bugs“ and the next day they were ten thousands everywhere… when they are ready the leafs are completely dry and crispy and the stems have brown lines… it was like in one of these horror films about clouds of insects come and eating a whole field within minutes… 😢
We‘re here out in the nowhere, in Slavonia/ Croatia close to the hungarian border, close to a Natural forrest reserve park, here‘s no intense farming and pure nature all around and it seems these bugs don‘t have any natural enemies…
I had chickens but earlier this year but decided to let them go. I had a friend with a farm and she was happy to take them. I still see them and have their eggs. I converted the main coop into a poly box but the small ark coop I turned upside down, lined and added a couple of feet and now have a very large trug and it’s snail free. The slugs and snails just don’t seem able to climb up that far. It was almost new and I would never have got my money back but the conversion is excellent. A pest free zone at waist height which is so much nicer for my back.
Any suggestions for earwigs? They are an introduced species here and running rampant.
The garden is looking fabulous Huw.
Local conditions vary too. For instance I’m in southern Australia and my Garlic got hammered by aphids/black fly last year, also red spider mite devastate Beans and Cucumbers in my garden.
I also avoid certain pest issues with TIMING. I can’t grow early Beans or Cucumbers because of spider mite but they are not affected if planted later in the season. Same with Brassicas and Cabbage Butterfly, I plant in the cool season when the butterflies are dormant and avoid the Spring/Summer.
Mexican bean beetles get my beans every year, I'm in the U.S and they're worst in July. I still get a decent amount of beans, but I think it could be better if they weren't being skeletonized by bugs.
I had the same results with cucumber beetles, when I wait to plant later, no problem. Midmichigan.
But the fleabeetles. We have here SO MUCH fleabeetles that no matter how big brassica seedlings i put in the garden, no matter what kind of netting, soap spray, agrohomeopathy or prayers i throw at the problem.. it all gets eaten down to NOTHING in a few days 😫😖😲 still looking for a solution for that.. next year i might try putting together a quail avuary and growing brassicas in there.. hoping the little birds eating those microscopic but catastrophic beetles!! 🕊🕊🕊
Try using petroleum jelly or any type of grease, smeared on a piece of paper or card to catch them when you pass it near the plant in question. I have trapped a lot like this and then I have covered the small plants in the vegetable netting bags you can get at the supermarkets these days to hold your fruit and veg in (they are very fine woven). This is how I stopped my pak choi plants from getting destroyed this summer.
My new jerusalem artichokes got devastated by slugs and snails..those that survived seem vigourous though.....
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😃 good Tips, Thank you!👏👍 just a slight correction on the "rabbit proof" fence. Well I do agree with the shabe and all that, that really works. but that type of mesh/fence material... can be chewed thru... my Rabbit did it just last week, and has now the whole balcony instead of just his enclosure...😅🙈well until I fix that hole anyway...
I've just started my 1st ever vege garden and I'm so grateful for your videos, I've learnt so much. Thank you. I just have 1 big problem 🤦♀️ Ants. I'm from NZ and i get alot of problems with ants, Could someone please give me some hints on how to control them?
Im so old I remember when they used to put films on FILM
BTW any way to get JAPANESE BEETLES to stop having their randy little netflix snd chill sessions on my raspberries??
My worst pest in the garden is spider mites. Usually end up pulling the plants☹️☹️
Try sulfur dust, dust lightly and regularly. Good luck
@@ibtissamelmansoury3073 thanks and I will try that
Hi Huw & everyone, Huw When you say natural liquid soap are you able to give a few brand suggestions in UK please? Would these include Eco, Method, Astonish?
Does anyone have success with spraying camomile tea onto plants which attract aphids? The biggest aphid problem I have is on my plum tree. I had so many last year on the tree that all the plants & garden structures underneath it were sticky. Any advice on fruit tree aphids?
I have slugs and snails living their best life on my potatoes 😭. Will be giving some of these tips a go - we just cut back some brambles last weekend.
3" copper mesh stapled to raised beds will prevent slugs from entering the beds. even without the 12v battery. 50% cornmeal 50% baking soda, will effect digestive tract of mice/voles, but not pose a threat to hawks and owls.
Woodchucks/groundhogs?? They are killing my tomatoes. All the raised beds are fenced in. They climb over it
I have rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and birds in my garden. They never bother anything. My pests are earwigs and groundhogs.
Great video! Can anyone give me an example of a natural soap? If not a brand, then what would the components be? I'm referring to the spraying of aphids. Cheers