By Juliet Sargeant, Garden and Landscape designs

Frequent use of chemicals in your garden can turn it from a haven to a hostile environment for its inhabitants. If you notice blotches on the leaves of your plants, or something has been nibbling at them, you will probably head for the garden centre in search of a cure. There you will find a dizzying array of coloured boxes and bottles, all promising you happy and healthy plants. Few of them will be specific to one particular problem, most are panaceas, because it is easier to blitz and hope for the best.

However, this approach can have a devastating effect on ALL the insects in your garden, the good as well as the bad. It can upset the delicate, natural balance of the garden’s ecosystems, so it loses its ability to defend itself and you get caught in a spiral of chemical use.

So, it is worth asking yourself a few questions, before reaching for the ‘Bug Gun’: is the plant ‘problem’ really a problem? Like all of us, plants have the odd blemish, which is cosmetic, but totally harmless. Do your plants have to look perfect? Might the problem pass?

Some pathogenic insects will infest and then move on and some plants have the ability to fight off disease themselves, much as we would fight off a cold. So, hold fire, wait and see…. Are there natural or organic ways of solving this problem? Before the gardening sector burgeoned, gardeners had home remedies for most problems. These remedies are generally still effective, and can be found by searching on the internet.

If you think chemical treatment is required, can you identify the specific problem? This will enable you to target your cure. In that way it will not only be more effective, but also less destructive to the ‘friendly’ bugs

in the garden. Much like people, the more you build up the natural resilience of your garden, the healthier and happier ALL its inhabitants will be.

Juliet Sargeant runs courses on gardening and design: www.sussexgardenschool.com