Hello from Matsuyama, Japan

[Rod in Japan]

Hello. I'm a Bristolian living in Matsuyama, Japan. Last year we bought some land, built a house, and we're trying to live lightly. We could be doing worse.

I have a blog at http://matsuyama-eco-home.blogspot.com/ that you might find slightly interesting.

I found the Selfsufficientish blog over a year ago and thought, gosh! what a good name. That's what I'm aiming for. It's good that there's a forum to go with it now.

OK, so that's the formalities done with. Does anybody know of a good way of keeping leaf beetles off wolfberry bushes? I have a nasty variety whose infants keep their own excrement on their backs and who eat the leaves down to the stems. Unpleasant things they are. I spent ten minutes squashing them today, but I'd like to find a way of keeping them off entirely.

[Annpan]

Welcome to 'ish - we have been around for a while now... nice to see people finding us though.

Don't know anything about leaf beetles I am afraid - not a big problem in Lanark

[MKG]

Hi Rod

Gosh - I had to look that one up. Goji berries.

There's not too much advice from here about pests. DEFRA seem to think that if you treat the plants as tomatoes or potatoes, you won't go too far wrong, though.

[red]

welcome

[oldfella]

Hi Rod Welcome to the ish world

[ashamomodablam]

hi

[contadina]

Hi Rod,

Little bleeders are all over my caper bush, although it still produces more than we can eat or give away in a year so I've never been unduly bothered. On another forum I use, however, garlic wash is a suggested deterrent for leaf beetles and slugs and, more bizarrely, armadillos.

Recipe for garlic wash
Crush 2 garlic bulbs in 2 pints of water
Boil for approx 4 mins and let it cool
Strain and make liquid back up to 2 pints
Use 1 tablespoon of garlic liquid per gallon of water for spray/wash

[Rod in Japan]

Thanks for the tip. I'm planning to throw in the towel when the armadillos come.

But I too have seen the garlic treatment recommended elsewhere, and I think I'll probably give it a go. My goji are at a rather tender stage, so I can't just ignore them as I otherwise would tend to do.

[tim&fatima]

Hello and welcome

[Rosendula]

Hi

[Thurston Garden]

Ahoy Rod!