Black spot, Mildew and Neem

This must be the worst Spring weather I can recall in a long time, with more rain than sun. Such a contrast from this time last year when months went by with no rain at all, and all my new plants were withering away.  So I finally braved a lull in the rain to inspect what was going on out there.  My heart tends to sink when I see the state of my terrace on the first level up, so it is all a good exercise in not becoming too discouraged and reminding myself of the potential I once thought this place had.

The weeds were everywhere, encouraged by the rain, and were monsters.  I couldn't even see two of my rose bushes as they were buried underneath the lush undergrowth.  I've never seen the garden look this overrun with weeds before, and then I saw that two other rose bushes in another bed were not growing at all.  Looking closer I could see that they had black spot, so I took off all the affected leaves, which ended up being most of them, and did not add them to the compost bin but bagged them for refuse collection.  Then I weeded that particular bed so the air could circulate better.  So I'm not sure if they will bloom this year or not, as they are in partial shade because of the trees next door, and we really need some hot weather now to dry out the garden a bit.

I also made the mistake of watering them, which is the last thing they needed.

The water table under the ground is probably too high, which is what is allowing the fungus to thrive.  Those roses looked so good last year, so I'm hoping they will recover.  

The same rose last year, called 'Strawberry Hill'

I managed to do some weeding on a couple of other flower beds and filled a few rubbish sacks full, although there is plenty more weeding to do.  I also noticed that the underground bees nest appears to be uninhabited this year.  Some of the weeds seemed new to my garden as I wasn't pulling those kind up last year.

The gap in the boundary wall on the east side (which is wilder, due to my neighbour leaving it wild with brambles and weeds) is going to have some sort of country hedging.  In order to clear that piece of boundary land to plant hedging I needed more than a spade, so I bought a new tool called a grubbing mattock.  It is really heavy and has a long handle, a bit like a pick-axe.  I need this also for the end of the garden which is so hard that I can't get a spade to even make an impression on it.  The ash trees there have robbed the soil of all available moisture and nutrients, and any heavy equipment like a rotavator or tiller can't be carried up all those steps.  So I'm looking forward to using my new hand tool once the weather improves a bit.  I'm glad I bought the one with the long handle as I'll be able to reach further with it on my neighbours side to stop brambles from invading my garden and to give my new hedge a chance to survive.  

I bought my mattock at http://www.get-digging.co.uk/tools.htm

This evening I noticed my new potted Acer (Japanese maple) was suffering in the front garden.  The leaves are curling at the edges and there are white powdery patches on a lot of the leaves.  I'm assuming this is powdery mildew, and have decided to buy some Neem oil for this, which is the organic remedy.  It is also supposed to prevent mildew in the future and acts as an insecticide.  I will have to move the acer to another location otherwise it may infect the other plants nearby.  This is the recipe I found for using Neem oil as a foliar spray for plants:

Neem Oil Pesticide and Fungicide Recipe

1 oz. neem oil

1 gallon water

1-2 teaspoons washing up liquid 

Mix ingredients in a garden sprayer and shake to mix. Spray on trees and plants every few days as needed.

It is the active ingredient, azadirachtin, in Neem which works as an insecticide, fungicide and antibacterial agent. Keeps for 1.5-2.5 years, but is only effective to use within 4 hours once the soap is added, so you make a small amount up at a time.

I have just ordered a utility grade (rather than cosmetic grade) bottle of neem oil from www.theneemteam.co.uk, which at the time of writing is £8.69 for 250ml.  I will say more about it in a future blog post once I have some experience of using it.