The RHS and Royal Holloway, University of London are asking gardeners to take part in a new study to identify the most important pests and diseases affecting UK gardens. The survey runs until May, and the RHS want all gardeners, regardless of their level of expertise, to take part.
The research has been designed to complement the RHS’s existing annual pests and diseases data, which provides a snapshot of the year’s most troublesome pests and diseases. The study aims to delve deeper into problems that are less subject to the transitory impact of the weather, or to one-off occurrences such as the discovery of a new pest or disease.
RHS Head of Plant Health Dr Gerard Clover says, “When considering the question of what are the most ‘important’ pests and diseases to commercial horticulture, the focus is on the economic impact, but for gardeners the picture is more complicated.
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“For domestic gardeners the scope is much broader, ranging from the impact on aesthetics, through the services plants provide (lawns for recreation and hedges for privacy), to the negative impact on the quality of fruit and vegetable crops. It is this very variety that we need to capture to get as full a picture as possible of the challenges facing gardeners.”
Find out more and take part in the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/thegardensurvey
