I think this is my new favourite garden trick…to use a sharp blast of water to keep aphids and other little pests off my veg! I have lots of kale, broccoli and cabbages growing under some insect proof netting, but it has rather a lot of holes in it. Needless to say, the butterflies found their way in and laid numerous eggs all over the plants, and there are several small colonies of aphids on many of the plants too.
I have been painstakingly inspecting leaves and plants regularly over the past few weeks, picking off any hatched caterpillars, squishing aphids off leaves and wiping eggs away with kitchen paper. And then a neighbour said to me “why don’t you just wash them off with a good jet of water from the hose?!” Hmm, I hadn’t actually thought of that. Well, I have since jetted my brassica patch 3 times over the course of 8 days, and it is SO much quicker and easier and more effective. I’m a convert.
All I have done is get the hose on, popped my thumb over the nozzle to strengthen the jet and given each plant a good blast for a few seconds. Job done, and I can recommend as an easy solution to a common problem!