15 yr old Cedrus deodara Aurea has started to lose its needles from lower branches and branches are dying back. It is a lovely specimen tree. The whole tree looks much paler than usual. This condition started during the winter months. Other shrubs in nearby beds are fine and our soil is acidic which I think cedars like.
Every year my 4 cordon pear trees get these black tiny slug like insects all over their leaves. They suck the chlorophyll out of the leaves and ruin them. I squash as many of them as possible but wonder if I can get rid of this recurring problem. I don't like using chemical controls if at all possible.
The ice was at least 4" thick on my pond (approx size 2m across x 1.5m deep) during the freeze in January. Unfortunately when it thawed out there are lots of dead frogs in it. I never had this happen before and we would get quite a lot of ice most years. I thought frogs usually wintered out of the pond. Do you have any idea why this happened?