Two things that didn't make me smile yesterday. Someone is eating my pansies and I don't mean the butterflies. ******* slugs!

And some more gormless gardening. This poor fuschia was covered in aphids. I have no pesticides but thought I would try an older remedy. I had heard Mum mention that Gran used to throw the washing up water over infested plants rather than letting it drain down the sink. I had no used water to hand and didn't want to leave the plant, as it was covered, so put a drop of washing up liquid (well, OK, several large squeezes) in a hand spray and gave the plant a good dousing. That poor, burnt stick-thing is the result . Doh. I wonder if Gran's dishwater had soap rather than detergent, which I don't think was widely available until the late 1940s. Now I think about it, the organic pesticides use saponins rather than detergents. Doh again. Anyway fuschias and Coop antibacterial washing-up-liquid do not mix. Looking on the bright side I can use the rest of the spray as a weedkiller.