My Six on Saturday this week is a roundup of garden challenges. I am now officially at war with the blackbird who thinks he reigns supreme over my vegetable garden. After several attempts to grow lettuce from seed, I finally managed to persuade some to germinate and the seedlings moved to my large lettuce pot. They were growing well and we almost had enough baby leaves for a salad. That was until I forgot to put the plastic cage over the pot. The next day I returned to find the blackbird pecking away at the soil and every baby lettuce dug up and tossed over the side of the pot.
1. Aloe Vera
I am trying to identify this mystery virus that attacks my aloe vera plants. Any ideas?
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At least i now know why they were such a pale colour – I was overwatering!
I removed all infected leaves and sprayed with roseclear anti viral solution. No, I am not going to ingest the leaves.
Why Is My Aloe Vera Plant Turning Yellow and Brown?
2. Lichen
Lichen, I am told, is meant to be good. I disagree. Any branch the lichen attaches itself to dies. It is almost a full-time job trying to remove it.
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3. White mold or mealybugs?
4. Killing My Plants with Love – Overwatering
5. White Spots on Courgette Leaves
White spots on the leaves is a constant challenge to control due to the high humidity. I usually spray the leaves with milk. I am not convinced it works.
6. Gazanias Morph into Birds’ Nests!
Every summer I swear I will dig up the Gazanias as they resemble birds nests in summer and are a lot of work to maintain. But come winter and I am rewarded with so many beautiful flowers I relent. This is another job to add to this week’s To Do list
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That’s the round-up for this week.
Please don’t forget to check out other Six on Saturday bloggers.
Piglet in Portugal 
That’s certainly a challenging read. 😩
I could put up with most things but not having enough lettuce would knock me for six!
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And lettuce used to be so easy to grow when I bought the seed plugs from the local market 😦
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Glad not just me that has unhelpful blackbirds and gardening disasters. My challenges this year are black fly on the beans, and tomato plants that have refused to grow.
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So far the blackfly have not found my veg…. yet 🙂 Just my Queen of Night cacti and Hisbiscus. I’ve given up on tomato plants now. They grew okay because I fed them but … my anxiety levels over blight are not worth the energy.
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Gardening is hard work sometimes isn’t it!
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Oh dear, the things we gardeners have to contend with. I have noticed a lot of plants this year have powdery mildew possibly due to the constant sunshine and showery weather we have been having. Also overcrowding!
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We have had a lot of sea mist recently which means the plants are constantly damp and hot. since taking that photo most of the leaves have a problm and then when I looked underneath the leaves there was more and the leaves were beginning to die. I removed most of the leaves in the hope the last remaining courgettes will grow.
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I get sea mist here too, not so much the hot temperatures though!
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the sea mist can cause havoc with some plants.
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Pumpkins probably do not like confinement in pots. They tolerate quite a bit of water, but do not like confinement. Agapanthus likely has mealybug. I do not know diseases of Aloes.
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You are probably right about the pumpkins, tony. Still, at least i tried. 🙂
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This may be a lame question, but are the pumpkins in pots that are shaded by bags, or are they only in bags? If the bags are exposed to sunlight, they get uncomfortably warm for the roots within. (That is no problem if the bags are used to shade pots.) Since the vines are so sparsely foliated, they do not shade the bags.
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Oh, were the stones piled up to shade them? That should work, except that pumpkins still dislike confinement.
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Yes, they were. My Gnome built a rockery around the bags. I’ve moved a lot since as I slit the bags to try and dry the soil.
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The blackbirds seem to like my sempervivums for some reason. Pull out again and again. Had to net the lettuce to stop pecking.
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I never thought it could be the blackbirds attacking my sempervivums … ponderous. I will take a closer look.
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Interesting post. I can’t call it pretty, but definitely informative! 😉 Here in a very different climate, lichen does not mean death.
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Hey, it reads like a tale of woe 🙂
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I had the same problem with pumpkins grown in the soil bags. Maybe the bags just keep the soil damp all the time, and it never dried out? Like it sweats in there? Lichen can be pretty, but I’ve seen, a few hours from home, tree after tree that’s mostly just lichen, it’s horrible to see.
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the pumpkins were an experiment … you are right about the bags sweating. I even covered the bags with rocks to protect from the sun, but the roots were not drying out. NEver mind, we tried.
the lichen is not good news. 😦
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I sympathise with your lettuce growing experience. I’m having similar black bird issues. I’ve never had such problems before.
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We’ve had problems but not as bad as this year. I am convinced it is a different blackbird. They are also digging out all the soil from the decorative pots. We are now putting rocks on top to deter the black birds.
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Overwatering is a common error… I’m doing it regularly though.
About aloe vera don’t you think of a sun burn? mine are in full shade. I divided them yesterday. 7 plants now.
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Hi Fred, I thought I’d cracked the overwatering issue with my humidade tester… but of course in pots and grow bags the soil dries out more quickly on the top while the bottom of the bags an pots are wet.
Re Aloes, i will move them into the shade. thanks for the advice 🙂
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