If you have beans in your vegetable garden then the chances are you will have a problem with aphids.

You can use pesticides and other chemical things to kill them if you like, but the pesticides will end up in the plants and end up in you. Most of us grow our own vegetables to prevent consumption of the pesticides found in supermarket veg, so this really isn’t an option for the eco-veg gardener.

I am not a 100% organic vegetable gardener (it’s difficult unless you’re really experienced), but I do insist on not using any pesticides or fertilizers on my veg. Somewhere sat inbetween the shop bought pesticides and doing nothing is washing up liquid. Spraying the leaves on your bean shoots wish a dilute mixture of washing up liquid and water will kill off all the aphids on your leaves and not fill the plants with pesticides.

Thanks to my Mum for this tip – she saved last years crop!