"The Year of the Aphids: A Cottage Garden Challenge"
Oh, dear friends, it seems that 2025 is truly shaping up to be the year of the aphids in our beloved gardens!
I’ve been noticing these little critters making themselves at home on most of my cherished plants, and I can’t help but feel a wave of concern wash over me.
This year's warmer and drier spring has paved the way for an aphid takeover, and it’s left me in quite the tizzy, especially with my new, tender plants that are still getting their roots settled in.
As someone who cherishes the natural harmony of a garden, the thought of resorting to pesticides is rather disheartening.
Last Saturday, I did actually find myself buying a spray from Baytrees Garden Centre, which was wildlife, bee, and pet-friendly, but using sprays still feels very unnatural to me.
I think nature is best left alone to do her own thing. Everything has its purpose. Mother Earth knows what she's doing. I don't wish to start using sprays and disturbing her beautiful wonders.
However, I did use the spray, just once, for the first time, spraying my plants both on top of the leaves and then on the underside. I mainly focused on my newly planted roses and my beautiful black knight, Buddleja.
Buddleja in July, 2024
This Buddleja was bought last year in the garden centre's "sick sale" section. Obviously, it was from Baytrees, my local.
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Buddleja in May, 2025
When I bought him, he was a bit withered-looking, and his leaves dry, crispy and brown but he soon regained his beauty and strength, shaped up to be such a beautiful addition to my cottage garden, and grew fabulously tall! However, this year, I started to notice his top leaves were beginning to shrivel, and that's when I saw the dreaded black fly.
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These little creatures, to me, are an unwelcome guest, they are sap-sucking insects. You know me; I love all creatures, great and small, but I also love my newly planted roses and other plants, such as my Buddleja and Sweet Mock Orange, and I wish to have them thrive and bloom into wonderous beauties.
There are many different types of aphids, and you will see them in your gardens this year because of the arid and hot spring we've just had.
I mean, there I was, absolutely loving the hot weather this Spring, getting tan lines, getting the much-needed vitamin D on my skin, and having a lovely brown natural glow.
I tan very easily and quickly, but this spring was definitely a first for me. It looked like I had just spent a week in Tenerife, but instead I was celebrating Mother's Day with my mum, in England, surrounded by springtime flowers, eating hot cross buns whilst bronzed. It really was quite something!
It's only now that I feel naive from that glorious hot spring that I feel silly because that is why we now have our invasion of aphids.
In the UK, aphids come in various colours, from green and black to yellow and pink. They often gather on the undersides of leaves, sucking sap and potentially damaging plants.
You will also get certain aphids on specific plants and on your edibles, like vegetables. Different aphids for different plants—how lucky are we? Not!
I have come across many ways to deter this invasion of aphids, and have read around other subject areas, that I may need help and guidance with, moving forward within my own garden.
I gather my information through online reading, from websites such as the RHS and Gardeners World site. Or I read through my Gardener's World magazine or my Country Living Magazine. It's all to get ideas, inspiration and advice. It's also a nice pastime, to sit by the patio with the fresh air coming in, reading my magazine with a warm cup of coffee in ones hand.
I also religiously watch Gardener's World - Adam Frost is probably one of the nicest humans I've ever come across. I mean, I have not physically ever met him, or spoken to him, but on my television, the man could actually bring tears to my eyes, with how passionate and positive he is about gardening and the simple pleasures of life.
Plus he's usually in his garden with his cat too, named Ash, just like I am, with my Clara Bell. Although he does now have a new addition of the fur baby kind, a pup named Buster, who made his first debut on Gardens World a few weeks ago, back in April.
So yes, my Friday nights get very wild here at Blair Cottage, as I snuggle down for the night, with the cat, in my pyjamas watching Gardener's World!
I have also been seeing people's suggestions, tips, and tricks that have worked for them when I've seen them posting in the gardening groups that I've joined on Facebook with regarding our aphid invasion.
The groups offer so much advice, tips and inspiration. It's a new community I have joined, and it truly is a beautiful bunch of people, who all share the same love, admiration and possibly an addiction to gardening!
I went slightly of topic there, it's a bad trait I have, so I do apologise! However, going back to the aphid takeover, and the main gist of this blog post, I took to the hosepipe last night anyway, as my garden needed a good drink, to quench its thirst from the miraculously nice sunny weather we have had for the last couple of days!
I know my water bill shot straight up last year, and when I phoned Anglian Water about the massive charge, they asked how many people lived in the property.
It basically showed that the amount of water used, equated to about six people showering and using water here. When, in fact, it's just me, who showers once in the morning and once at night - oh but then waters the garden, religiously if I have to as well, due to the no rain and heat scorching my beautiful little babies!
I have to though. I am not having my garden suffer, plants becoming distressed or dying and I want my fresh water out in the little dishes and birdbath for my wildlife. I will not have nature and wildlife suffer. So the water bill will be high, I fear, this year also!
Hence, for my Christmas list last year, I really wanted and needed a water butt. But Santa forgot that off his list! So, instead, I now try to cut back on watering everything. Before, I'd give everything a well-earned soak, even plants that had passed over for the year, like the bluebells, for instance. Why, oh why!
So now, when it comes to watering, I try not to do it every evening, and I just water newly planted flowers that I've placed into the ground or plants that look a little withered or distressed.
As I embark on my journey into the world of gardening, I find myself continuously learning, often through trial and error.
I am a complete novice when it comes to gardening and throughout my year of being here at Blair Cottage, I feel that I have already learnt so much!
My little cottage garden has become a space of discovery, filled with both triumphs and challenges. I never thought that tending to plants would require so much knowledge, but each day brings new insights that make me appreciate the art of gardening even more.
One of the first lessons I learned was about watering actually. Initially, I believed that after a hot day filled with sunshine, I had to water my plants thoroughly every evening. While I knew to do this after the sun had set to prevent any scorching, the overall frequency of watering still puzzled me.
I felt like I was constantly hauling out the hose, fearing I wasn’t doing enough for my green friends. Hence my water bill from last year, being rather on the high side!
A photo from before this spot turned into the floral and flowing pollinator plant area that I have today.
June, 2024
Recently, I stumbled upon some enlightening information that has truly shifted my approach though.
It turns out that watering plants less frequently but more deeply is far more beneficial, because this method encourages the roots to burrow deeper into the soil in search of moisture, promoting stronger, more resilient plants over time.
Rather than watering my garden every night, I’ve learned to let the soil dry out a bit between watering sessions. This not only saves water but fosters healthier growth, making my plants more capable of weathering dry spells.
As a novice gardener, I often worry that I’m doing things incorrectly or that my mistakes are glaringly obvious to others more experienced than me. But this corner of the internet serves as my personal space to document these lessons and share this journey with others who might also be in the same boat as me.
This is exactly why I created this blog, so I can share my journey of ups and downs, and the new experiences I've learnt along the way, of becoming a first time home owner.
So this bit of information I recently found out, makes absolute complete sense and again puts my mind at ease, that I don't have to be out in my garden, every night, meticulously soaking my garden with the hosepipe.
Whether it's understanding the right planting times, learning which plants thrive together, or grasping the complexities of soil health, every bit of information I collect adds to my gardening toolkit. I’m excited to continue sharing my experiences, and I hope that my journey will resonate with fellow gardening enthusiasts—novice or seasoned alike.
If you’re just starting out or have been gardening for years, I encourage you to embrace the learning process. After all, every gardener has their own unique story, and it’s never too late to cultivate your green thumb!
I obviously, will still be filling my little plastic water dishes, which are different sizes and placed in different spots around my garden, and the bird bath with clean, fresh water daily.
Last night, the plants received a gentle shower, as they hadn't been watered for a few days. The rain that we had in the afternoon and late evening came to nothing!
And I hate saying that because when I'm not in pain, watering the garden is a little slow moment in time, a pause of life when I can really look at all my plants and how they are coming on. Just at the moment it's not a pleasurable experience for me.
While these tiny aphids are not usually fatal to well-established plants, they can wreak havoc on my less established plants, such as my delicate new roses. So I made sure to target the roses in particular, placing the hosepipe's higher-setting spray on and directly spraying the plants in my cottage garden that I know have been invaded—my roses, sweet mock orange, and buddleia, to name a few.
Roses are strong and sturdy, so even with my newly planted ones, I could jet spray with my hosepipe without any worries or qualms.
The above photo is an established rose, but it was too beautiful to leave out of this blog post, and I did give all the established roses a jet wash spray just the once last night also.
I've read that people use garlic, plant a sacrificial plant, use a spray, with washing up liquid and water or they use insecticidal soap sprays. However, there is a much more natural and beneficial way that caters to the whole ecosystem, which I much prefer!
The most natural way to deter and reduce the aphids is to plant your pollinators and introduce the beneficial and wonderful insects that will naturally help with your aphid takeover!
This is one of the best and most natural ways for me. It also saves me money by preventing me from having to use the garden hosepipe and sending my water bill up!
I don't have a water butt, so it's absolutely more sustainable and cheaper for me to have more pollinators rather than wasting water by trying to wash off the aphids.
Speaking of a water butt and rain, though, we haven't really had that much for our 'April Showers' during the spring, which is why we are now in this predicament of the aphid invasion.
Throughout my blog, I always mention my wonderful pollinators and how I welcome weeds and wildflowers into my garden and have plans to buy more. This is because some of your weeds, like my Nipplewort (which I previously did a post on), attract insects that, in turn, feast on the aphids!
My Nipplewort has ladybirds on it most days, and I've already begun to notice a lot more ladybird larvae in the garden, too, which is brilliant!
In my garden, I've already began to fill it nicely with pollinator plants that I've bought over the course of the year, since living at Blair Cottage, because of how important and beneficial they are to the whole ecosystem.
It does also help, that most of the beautiful cottage plants I adore and want in my garden are usually pollinators. So it's a win, win for me.
So, please get your pollinators and encourage those beautiful insects. They will reward you by protecting your plants and deterring pests!
When I go to a garden centre, I always look for the yellow bee sticker on the plant pot because these stickers are often used to highlight plants that provide nectar and pollen, supporting bee populations in particular.
As much as aphids are an unwelcome guest here at Blair Cottage (I don't want them ruining my newly planted roses, and they can make a plant look rather unsightly with what can only be described as a black cluster of tiny little dots on the underside of the leaf or a flower head) - they do actually play a crucial role in the intricate tapestry of our garden's ecosystem.
They may be small, but they are significant, serving as a vital source of sustenance for many of our garden's natural predators, such as ladybirds, wasps, hoverflies, and lacewing larvae.
This is why I made my own pond water feature, (again in a previous blog post) to attract my hoverflies. Everything I do in my garden, is really for the wildlife, not for myself, and that's totally fine in my opinion!
In this way, the aphids do contribute to the balance of life, supporting numerous food chains that thrive among our beloved blooms.
While we may notice the effects of the aphid's feeding habits, such as a slight lack of plant vigour or the occasional twisted leaf, it is important to remember their place in the grand design of our green spaces.
My mum always tells me that everything has its place in our world. When you look at examples such as the tiny aphid, it all comes together and makes sense. Everything does have its purpose.
Aphids do excrete honeydew, a sticky substance that can invite sooty moulds onto our beloved plants. Most of us would not want to see this sight on our plants, as the sooty mould actually reduces the amount of sunlight getting to our plants and hindering photosynthesis. This then can end up potentially weakening our plants.
Aphids are also known to transmit plant viruses, adding another layer to their intriguing but mainly unwanted role in our gardens.
But think natural; plant those pollinators. Keep those weeds. Attract those natural predators. Keep the food chain going, and in time this natural way, should keep the aphids at bay!
As I try to cultivate my little oasis, I am trying to approach these aphids with a sense of harmony rather than hostility.
Granted, it is hard for me, but it is better mentally for me, rather than obsessing over methods to deter or eradicate them.
Moving forward, I am going to put away the bee- and wildlife-friendly spray. I shan't worry too much about my mature and well-established plants, and for my less established plants, I'll just have to get even more pollinators to attract our natural predators.
After all, a thriving garden reflects nature's resilience and elegance. So, let's cherish the complexities of our garden, embracing all its inhabitants, large and small, in a love letter to the natural world.
I understand how some of you may feel, it is quite the conundrum! On the one hand, these aphids can certainly sap the life out of your tender blooms, but on the other hand, they are an excellent food source for many of our garden’s natural allies.
In the spirit of nurturing my garden’s ecosystem in the most natural way possible, I have found that the best way to combat the invasion of aphids is to focus on planting more of my pollinator friends.
Happy gardening, dear friends and good luck out there!
Warmly, Lindsay Blair
Sunday 15th June 2025
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