In a post on 25 September I had a picture of a ladybird on a bean leaf. Just below that is a photo of a luxuriant nasturtium plant with red flowers blazing. That nasturtium was still blooming two days ago. 
This afternoon I went out on my usual daily inspection and to my horror I found that the aliens had landed on the nasturtium plant. The photo below is what it looks like now. If you look very carefully you will see thousands of the dreaded aliens had killed it off, overnight. What a sad state it is in. I pulled the whole thing up and took it out to the garden refuse bin outside. I then threw some diatomaceous earth over the area. I later went out and threw some bicarbonate of soda over the area. The aphids are becoming my daily nightmare.
Yesterday I found tiny white creatures on my tomato plant. It’s a beefsteak tomato and it is setting some very healthy looking fruit. It would be a great disappointment to lose it at this stage. Some of the lower leaves have already turned brown. I made up a solution with liquid soap, bicarb and some oil. I then sprayed it on the plant, on top and underneath the leaves. I then still had to manually remove all the aphids from the leaves. I really hope it will survive. The nasty little beasts have also affected my bean plants but I think they will survive. We are getting so many beans at the moment.
I have some gooseberries growing in the full sun in the front of the garden. They are full of fruit and we expect a good harvest from them soon. I’m not sure about gooseberries for myself. I haven’t had one since I was five years old. My Dad and a friend of his took a bunch of children out for a treat at a roadhouse on the Mmgeni River in Durban, called The Doll’s House. I had a gooseberry tart. Within a very short time I was violently sick all over the car on the way home and I have never had a gooseberry since. Hopefully if I still have an aversion to them my family will enjoy them.
We are still having lots of wind which is affecting my corn. Most of the time it’s leaning over at a precarious angle. We need less wind, more heat now.
Gogo's Growing Garden 