Cabbage white butterfly eggs

A few days ago I noticed that some more eggs had been laid on one of our chilli plants. Following an internet search I think that they must be the eggs of a cabbage white butterfly. All of the blogs that I have read on these say that you should destroy the eggs, rubbing them off with soapy water but I like the idea of encouraging biodiversity through our windowsills and don't really want to go around killing eggs. Is this a really bad idea and will the caterpillars end up munching right through our windowbox?

It also seems that it must have been quite a confused butterfly that laid it's eggs there. From the information on the British Butterfly Conservaton Society's website the eggs are normally laid either on brassicas or on nasturtiums or wild mignonette. So a serrano chilli plant seems a little far removed from any of them!

Blackfly invading!

I noticed a week or so ago that one of our nasturtium plants had started to get some little black flies on it. They have slowly been getting more numerous and I have been wondering what to do about it and thinking it a little odd that they were only on one plant but I have just this morning noticed them also on one of the oregano plants and so think that it is time to act before they take over the windowboxes! A quick Google suggests that nasturtiums attract these black fly and when plants get infested people just pull them out but now that they have spread to the oregano as well will that work or not?

Slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails

I do have a little previous gardening experience... A couple of years ago I spent a year living up in a little town called Menai Bridge in Anglesey. We had a lovely house that looked right out over the Menai Strait and when the summer came we were excited at the prospect of getting out in the garden and growing our own fruit and vegetables. Keen and eager we got in the grow bags and planted them up with salad leaves, tomatoes, courgettes and strawberries.

All were doing fabulously and then the slugs hit! With a dog living next door we didn't want to put down and slug pellets. But no matter what we tried they kept on coming back - beer, cracked egg shells and straw just couldn't stop the power of the Anglesey slug population and we ended up losing nearly all our lovely produce! Due to my distress and disbelief at the sheer number of slugs that there could be in one small garden my boyfriend bought me the fabulous book "50 ways to kill a slug" to bring a smile to my face.

I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed for better luck this year and that we won't get too many slugs up in the windowsill garden!