Don't turn your back.....

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece, Back in the Garden where I mentioned that for a couple of weeks, my focus had been on constructing a swimming pool for our guest accommodation rather than gardening and indeed, the construction of the pool has progressed quite well but at a significant cost to garden progress.....

I keep fitting a few hours work into the garden around the time taken by the construction work and also the other things I do.... chores, like cleaning and maintenance of the property and pleasantries like emailing and chatting with friends... and of course, in this part of the world, attending parties....

On Sunday it was KGDay, which you can read about below or at Kitchen Garden  Day 2008 France, then on Thursday, it was my birthday and some neighbours invited me for a surprise birthday party, where we ate a fabulous meal based around a Paella.  On Friday some friends from the UK arrived and we had arranged to go to a local restaurant for a meal, also to celebrate my birthday... so you can see, it's actually hard fitting in all these things and getting any work at all done....In fact, at the party on Thursday I was discussing this very problem with Michael, the guy who gives so many photos for me to use here on the blog, and he said hat he agreed and that life in Perigord was truly difficult these days................

So yesterday, I managed, for the first time for several days to get back out into the garden mainly to pull weeds and to lift my onions....

 

However....

 

Before a single weed had succumbed to my fingers, I discovered that I had a serious problem with my Chinese leaves.... actually, the situation is so bad that maybe the problem is that I no longer have Chinese leaves.....

Whilst I had been busy building my swimming pool, caterpillars had been busy eating their way through  my Chinese leaves....

Some quick research turned up a product "Insectobiol J" which is designed for just this problem so I am about to prepare the insecticide and spray them to see if any of the plants can survive.   This is a photo of the worst plant affected......  Very sad....

However, I did also manage to lift some small but very sweet onions.

My lesson for August seems to have been, just because I am busy, don't assume everything in the garden is good....