Article by Stuart

I recently built a large window box to sit on the window sill in my kitchen as the small pots of herbs hd started to look untidy.

The larger box looked good so I transplanted the herbs and topped up the area with spare compost from a container in the garden and sowed some seeds in the gaps.

All was going well untill some of the plants started to die stem by stem. This was unusual so I put a small amount of fert and watered the box more regulary but this still didn't work and it wasn't long befor all of the plantd both old and new were dead, so I removed the compost to see what had happened and inside I found a grub called a Leather Jacket which is the larve of a Crain Fly (Daddy Long Legs). This bug had eaten off all of the herbs just under ground level thus killing them.

So the moral of the story is to never store compost in an open container or re use old compost in tubs as you never know what may be lurkingh under the top. You must always keep compost in a container with a lid to stop insects flying in and laying there eggs or use fresh compost out of a bag from a garden center.

There are sprays you can get that will kill off bugs in the ground but as a farmer I would stongly advise against using chemicals like this within the house and especialy in the kitchen.