2026-09-29

This is the monthly gardening update for the month of Sep'26.

The biggest event of the past month has been the hairy caterpillar infestation leading to the total defoliation of moringa tree in the plot opposite to our small front garden. We do have a moringa tree exactly 30 ft from this infested tree. More details on measures taken be seen in this Journal entry. I have been killing a lot of scout caterpillars moving around in the front area.

To continue with the bad news, the lemon sapling at the backside corner is entirely without leaves for more than 10 days now. I'm still unsure of the reason. But still hoping for it to bounce back. I trimmed the Sauropus androgynus bush nearby, whose growth is also stunted in the recent past. I also removed a sapling of it and planted in the garden between the Vadha Narayanan tree and underground sump.

Other lemon saplings do still get attacked by the butterfly larvae. I still regularly pick them from the leaves and kill them.

Most of the other plants are growing decently except for the Guava saplings. The leaves of almost all the guava saplings are being eaten by some insect which i'm unable to see. I only see holes on the leaf. Need to follow up on this.

There were regular rain until 10 days back. It has been very hot for the past ten days and i have begun watering the plants and trees in the garden again. Rains have been forecast for the coming week.

I have planted some Avarai and the progress is tracked on it's own page.