My husband, Terry, is in charge of our pond (apart from the plants around it of course). It’s his baby and is the fancy large pond with the koi carp, filtration systems, pumps, heron defenses and uv filters.

Whereas I’m in charge of the much smaller, ornamental one, no fish, just a few newts and now, it would appear lots of blanket weed!

Unfortunately there is no shade over this little pond and as this prolific aquatic algae grows very quickly in sunlight, it also likes newly filled ponds and a build up of sludge at the bottom of the pond.

If I don’t get it under wraps it will cause oxygen problems in the water so I’ve been removing the hair-like green strands by hand and by twirling a cane around to collect it on.

I also need to get some more aquatic plants in their which should deter it, ideally covering one third of the pond area.

The Hungry Caterpillar

Always one for encouraging nature into the garden but I think I may be making life a little too comfortable for my hairy little caterpillar friends judging by the amount I spotted on my poor struggling broccoli plants today.

I had put them outside ready to plant but the pigeons kept attacking them so I moved them back in until I have brought some netting and now they are covered in the caterpillar of the Cabbage White Butterfly.

I’ve picked them all off for now but I will have to keep checking them to remove any more and any of the egg clusters from the undersides of the leaves also.

More poppies please

As you flowers go over, collect up some seeds to store and use next year. I have been collecting some from my poppies, shaking the now brown heads (capsules) into a labelled paper bag, making sure I don’t have any of the chaff attached to them as this can cause rot.

I’m keeping the bags in an airtight container to avoid them getting damp. Usually only species ‘come true’ from seed – seedling from a hybrid will vary.