Reliable Gardening Services in Sydenham

Box moth caterpillar has quietly changed what can sensibly be planted as low hedging in a London garden. Within a couple of seasons it strips a clipped edging to bare twigs, and gardens in SE26 with formal box parterres or box balls flanking a path have been among the casualties. It arrives alongside box blight, which does much the same damage by a different mechanism, and between them the two have made the question of what to plant instead a routine part of any border discussion here.

Telling the caterpillar from the blight

Box moth leaves webbing among the foliage, green caterpillars with dark stripes, and a scattering of frass caught in the leaves; damage starts inside the plant and works outward. Blight produces dark streaks on the stems, brown leaf spots with dark edges and sudden leaf drop, usually in a patch that spreads. The caterpillar can be pulled back from with pheromone traps, manual removal and biological treatment; blight in an established hedge is very difficult to eradicate and usually ends in replacement.

What to plant instead of box

Several things clip to a similar density without either problem. Japanese holly gives the closest match in leaf and habit, euonymus is tougher and faster, lonicera nitida clips very tightly but grows quickly enough to need three cuts a year, and yew works wherever the scale allows a slightly larger form. Replacing a failed hedge means removing the old root systems and the surrounding soil where blight was involved, rather than simply planting into the same trench.

Honey fungus and the decisions it forces

A shrub that dies suddenly in midsummer, with white fungal sheets under the bark at the base and black bootlace strands in the soil around it, points to honey fungus. There is no chemical control. The response is to remove the affected plant with as much root as can be lifted, avoid replanting susceptible species in that ground, and choose from the group that shows resistance, which includes yew, box elder, hornbeam, beech and many of the bamboos. It is a diagnosis worth being sure of before acting on.

Mildew is usually a watering problem

White powdery coating on the leaves of roses, asters, honeysuckle and courgettes is most often a symptom of dry roots rather than of damp air, which is why it appears first on plants at the base of a wall or under a tree. Improving the soil, mulching properly and watering thoroughly during dry spells does more than any spray. Cutting out the worst growth and improving airflow through a congested plant handles the rest.

The case for tolerating aphids

An aphid colony on new shoots in May looks alarming and is usually gone by the end of June, eaten by ladybird and hoverfly larvae that arrive a fortnight behind it. Spraying at the first sight of them removes the predators as well and guarantees a worse outbreak later. Squashing a colony by hand, washing it off with water and accepting some damage on vigorous plants is the approach that holds up over a season. Sticky honeydew dripped onto paving below is cleaned off by pressure washing across Sydenham.

Visible chewers and how far to go

Lily beetle and viburnum beetle do conspicuous damage and are best handled by hand, checking regularly from April and removing adults and larvae as they appear. Slugs and snails are managed by removing daytime shelter and protecting vulnerable plants at the seedling stage rather than across the whole border. Rodents or squirrels digging up bulbs and containers are a separate matter and pass to Sydenham pest control specialists rather than being treated as a plant health issue.

What a plant health visit involves

Inspection and treatment work is charged by visit length, with replacement planting quoted separately as a job including stock and ground preparation. Photographs of the damage sent beforehand often allow the right materials to be brought on the first visit rather than the second. Infected material is bagged and removed rather than composted, and a full hedge replacement generates enough waste to need a vehicle, as with local specialists. Gardens on the same ridge are covered by gardening prices in West Norwood, and the monitoring calendar sits within our national garden maintenance service.