garden diary- pests and problems

The war saga continues for my garden and now more than ever the stakes are high for my veggies. My battle has been waging since the garden inception in January. The enemies have been snails, slugs, and children up until recent. Now we can add chickens, aphids and mold to the list. Yes, it was inevitable that the chickens would take over the garden as their own but as a first timer I was slow to react and now the girls are almost full grown with a serious appetite. I have since made a fence barrier around the beds and it seems to have solved the chicken problem and children digging problem for now. The slugs and snails have been reduced largely in numbers by a last attempt purchase of Sluggo and I have no regrets. The newest issues  have arrived in the form of leaf mold, the small black spots on picture 3 and the common aphids that are destroying my cabbage. The aphids are usually easy to take care of with a strong blast of water from the hose or a hand picking party, but these guys are on the inside of the cabbage and don't seem to want to leave. The leaf mold is in part one of a three cycle dose of 50:50 water and milk solution. After the first dose, half of the mold disappeared over night. I was weary of this method but so far so good. One or two more sunny days to clear the fog and damp would do a garden good, lets keep our fingers crossed!