Recent planting of broad beans have drawn the attention of mice. They seem to know where each and every bean has been planted and home in with astonishing accuracy. I caught an initial flurry of mice in individual traps, and this continues with the occasional one or two.
I will soon pe planting dwarf french beans, (Delinel) my question is, are they likely to sniff out these as accuratly as the broad variety. If so, is one answer to propogate the beans and plant out?
Yes it is. A short answer but this is certainly what I do each year with french beans, runner beans and also I chit the peas - this seems to help with the mice problem.
The other advantage is that the stems can toughen up a bit so that they are slightly more slug resistant.
I start them in pots to avoid this sort of problem.
I start them off in (paper) pots too - it seems like extra work & expense, but is 99% successful against mice & slugs
Thank you ladies/gents for the advice which I will heed
I should have added that the pots go on the top shelf in the mini greenhouse. If I put them at the bottom they're in danger!
I place a layer of Gorse on top of bean seeds, very spickey it seems to keep them away.
only one solution mouse trap with peanut butter works fine for me
Did any one see the gardeners world episode where the lady got a length of plastic guttering?
I think she put it on the work bench of the potting shed.
She filled it with peas and compost and when they started to grow, carefully slid them into a small trench, longways. It takes two pairs of hands to do the transfer.
It would cost less in time and expensive pots to copy this process.
I find this way beats the plastic gutter system; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Peas/Peas/peas.html (http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Peas/Peas/peas.html)
And this is how I do beans; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Runner%20bean/Runner%20Beans/runner%20beans.html (http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Runner%20bean/Runner%20Beans/runner%20beans.html)