Trying Old Gardening Tricks to Battle Pests & Diseases! - August at My Bountiful Acre

August in the garden brings plenty of harvests, but also a few challenges! This week at My Bountiful Acre I’m trying a couple of old-fashioned gardening tricks to tackle some of our pest and disease problems — with mixed results! 😂 My leeks are suffering with rust, so I’m harvesting more in an attempt to stop it spreading, while the flea beetles are still causing trouble. Inspired by the late, great Geoff Hamilton, I even try his ingenious grease board method for catching flea beetles. Did it work? Well… let’s just say the experiment didn’t quite go to plan! 😉 I’m also tackling mildew on the courgettes with a milk and water experiment, removing the worst affected plants and re-sowing the space to keep the harvests coming. There’s plenty more happening around the acre too, including: 🌱 An update on the new 'mystery' bed and the Wong Bok cabbages 🌱 Turnips getting off to a flying start 🌸 A flower border update 🌺 The unfortunate demise of my giant Tithonia! 🌼 Saving seeds from the garden 🥕 Saying goodbye to some disappointing mangetout and swede ♻️ A little update on our composting 💧 And a change of plan for our future water harvesting system And of course, there are a few visitors along the way — including my resident wren, a robin and a rather impressive crow! The acre continues to evolve, one week (and one gardening disaster!) at a time. 😂 Thanks so much for watching and for coming along on our journey as we transform our acre of mostly grass into a productive and wildlife-friendly garden. Happy gardening everyone Sue x #MyBountifulAcre #KitchenGarden #Gardening #VegetableGarden #FleaBeetles #OrganicGardening #GeoffHamilton