A gardener’s emotions: part 2 – Despair
It’s been a tough year for the brassicas! It is almost impossible to believe that last year I managed to grow some half decent ‘Mammoth’ cabbages and had a glut of cabbages. This year all the brasiccas were clobbered by pigeons and then the dry weather has caused lots of the cabbages that have hearted to split. A few caterpillars have sidled into the hearts of them but I had high hopes for the collards. These non-hearting cabbages that are so popular in the deep south of the USA were grown from seed I got from the US and I was looking forward to trying them. But now mealy cabbage aphid has moved in. I hate to spray veg but do I wait for the ladybirds to clear the problem? I could cry.
Despair
The Biking Gardener 
Don’t blame you
I wondered what that was. It’s all over my brassicas too.
I know the emotion well. My cabbages were almost all clobbered by the monsoon weather of the last month and had to be pulled.
Sorry to hear that. We had a monsoon yesterday and the weeds have doubled in size overnight – let’s hope the plants follow suit!
It’s looking like a mixed bag here. Since the rains stopped, most plants are really happy. Just a few devastations, but that’s the gardening life.
Ladybirds never seem to consume enough of the aphids anyhow! Same with frogs & slugs, thrushes & snails & dare I say it, poachers & deer!