It seems such a long time ago this year since the first wave of gooseberry sawfly larvae munched through some gooseberry leaves. Every time I put the laundry out to dry, I would have a quick look for the sawflies and I spotted some eggs underneath one of the gooseberry leaves.
Today, I hung the washing out and noticed some holes in the currant leaves. The sawfly larvae are back, but this time just concentrating on the currants. I squashed as many as I could, though there are some I can’t reach (well, serves me right for planting too many currant bushes in a small space and not understanding pruning!). The tell-tale evidence of the presence of these caterpillar-like leaf-munchers is the little balls of “poo” that fall onto the lower leaves.
Still, the netting that protected them in previous years from birds was removed last year as birds still managed to get through. I have seen the birds, mainly song thrushes sitting in the bushes, so maybe they’ll eat a few larvae for me. The currants are ripening nicely.
I think the gooseberries have a touch of mildew, so I removed the affected fruits. Luckily, not many have been affected.
Elsewhere round the garden, there are lots of ladybirds and ladybird larvae (which my son calls “baby ladybirds”).
In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are doing well. On Friday, I spotted some fruit. This one is Salt Spring Sunrise,which is an early variety. Wonder when it will be ready….
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