I am miffed with all wildlife!!!!! Where's my shotgun - no, hand me the agent orange bomb!!!!! Poisons, traps, sharp objects, heavy clubs - I encourage everyone to get out there and beat some fluffy, cute, bright eyed innocent looking (but guilty as hell) creature ... KILL THEM ALL (oh, and vandals too while we're at it).
I haven't really had a good weekend. Every last broad bean snapped off - 5 double rows! Started last week when the beans were just poking through - discovered several bean shoots snapped off and little holes where the bean had been. Guessed that pigeons were to blame so covered the lot with a net. This week the carnage continues - all beans snapped off and holes where the beans should be - probably a mouse/rat/vole. MUST SET TRAPS!
Then the row of sunflowers that I sowed - all that's left are sun flower seed husks. Could be birds or mice etc - either way, if I catch one then I'll de-husk it with a blunt object!!!
Then the sodding mole - last year it dug my carrots up by making a trough right along the three rows that I had sown and were just coming through - I have planted the carrot somewhere else this year but the little sod has moved home and is digging up my carrots again! - I'll resort to the high-pressure hose down the hole (for 30 minutes) - that discouraged it last time.
Then there's the fox that is trying to make a throughway diagonally across be plot - suppose its discouraging the rabbits - but that is why I put the fence up.
And if that isn't enough - WHAT THE HELL HAS TAKEN ALL OF MY PEAS - they are covered with wire mesh tunnels so it can't be birds.
Sorry everyone - but I needed to do that!
Oh dear Bionic !! So sorry to hear of your loss ! And you say all of this happened at the week end ! I really feel for you but getting angry with wildlife will not help.
Hopefully you can still germinate the beans and peas and put them in your greenhouse !? I wish you well. :D
Oh Bionic. IT's THE WAY YOU TELL IT!!!! Really sorry but have just fallen of my chair laughing. I know it AIN'T no laughing matter and do hope you catch the culprits. HAPPY GARDENING Lorna.
Don't worry Lorna, I giggled also, not only because you told the tale so well Bionic, but because I suffer similar probs! Last year something had every last one of my broadies, and I only grow a few as it is only me who eats them! This year they are under double netting! Last year I didn't harvest 1 single redcurrant, the birds must have known the instant they were ripe and stripped the bushes clean, along with the goosegogs! This year, sturdy fruit cage in place. Peas eaten by mice, even though I had them under fine chicken wire, so sowed a second batch in the greenhouse and planted directly. I think out of 100 odd pea seeds, 6 germinated in situ!!!!! >:( Slugs have had all but one of my sunflowers so I am officially resigning from the sunflower comp! I sympathise Bionic, and with anyone else who suffers at the paws of wildlife. I don't mind sharing some of my harvest with fluffy cutesy critters, but come on, fairs fair!
there there!
quick!
someone put the kettle on!
sit down bionic!
right-deep breath......now-got some seeds left?
start again luv!
*kitty pats bionics arm sympathetically......)
i know its only very small beer compared to the armageddon taking place on your oplot but i am having trouble with two(yes,sorry-just the two)bunnys-which i have tried everything to deter...so tonight-i tried the final resort(short of a .22)
i barked at them-not a little ladylike woof-but a b****y big alsation of a bark!!!!!!
apat from startling me cats senseless and oh rushing in panicking thinking a dog had got it-it had the desired effect!them bunnies hi-tailed it outta town...for now anyway!
kitty ;D
Here kitty pass him this brandy. ::)
Right Wellies now you've had yer titty lip, pick yourself up, dust yerself off and start alllll over again. ;D
Are you gonna let little furry creatures get the better of you? Are you gonna think the birds are sitting in that big ol' tree laughin' at you? No, 'course yer not.
Get out there and show 'em what yer made of!!!!!
btw kitty, you ever think of nursing? You'd be great! ;D
Quotebtw kitty, you ever think of nursing? You'd be great!
naaaaaaaaaaah!
havent got the patience maz-i'd slap 'em upside ther 'ead and say-c'mon!pull yerself together! ;D ;D ;D
(unless they were gardeners of course-then they'd have my every sympathy!)
No, I'm not going to let furry little critters get the better of me - I'm going to retaliate. Already fitted the mole trap and if necessary I'm going to cam up and lie in wait for the mouse/rat/vole/pigeon/fox/fluffy thing and then I'm going to bark at it - no I'n not, I mean I'm going to pommel it !
Seriously tho', already planted up some broad beans (in pots) hoping that when they are big enough there won't be any bean left to be dug up. Also got some more sunflower seeds going - starting to show through. I really have set a mole trap - can't think of any other way - those things that you drive into the ground that go "BUMP" don't seem to work - I guess that the mole in my area like reggie and "dig that beat mahn". Mind you I have used the trap for a couple of years already and even thou' it is always triggered I have never caught a mole yet!
No idea what to do about the fox - on the bright side it may be keeping the rabbits at bay and it isn't actually doing any harm (apart from the seedlings stomped into the dirt).
It was just good to rant a little ... ;D
Where's the dynamite? ...
there ya go!
always better to have a rant-things always look brighter when you've got it off yer chest|!
best of luck with the new sowing!
kitty ;)
We get Muntjacs in the garden,do they do mouse traps big enough ::)
Sorry to hear your loss BW :o that's awful after all your hard work :(
After fearing we had a rat infestation living down the end of the garden, my darling Ava set a selection of rat traps....and all we have caught are mice, and plenty of them! Now figure we have a mouse infestation (phew).
The muntjacs on our lottie eat the young runner bean plants! >:(
I feel like Bionic Wellies...
TWO YEARS I've been waiting for my irises to bloom, moved them last year, must've been at the wrong time. This year, coming along nicely, budding gently...Then, what's that, what's that. a flaming lumberjack impersonating slug or slugs musta hacked through the stems. Aaaaghhhhh. One left, then, yesterday discovered IT too has been sabotaged. Buggerrrrrrrrrr! I am 100% less sympathetic about putting slug pellets down now. I'm gonna lock the door after the horse has bolted alright, and kill every thing incl probably half a dozen birds too!!!
GRRRRRRRRRR
Ciaran
(http://img264.echo.cx/img264/2662/elmergun5we.gif) (http://www.imageshack.us) "I HATE LITTLE WABBITS TO BITS"
;D ;D ;D ;D
This year there seems to be an even greater abundance of slugs and snails....even 'the Governor' has resorted to the odd swearword (mild of course cos she's a lady)
The little blighters have got in amongst my seedlings in the greenhouse....that's inside.... the pests are even bigger outside.
After the badger took my sweetcorn last year I officially declared war on all pests
I spent the winter planning various strategies to beat the perishers.. those plans are currently being executed (hopefully so will the pests be)
Trouble is they don't play fair, they come when its dark!
Derek
With all the above going on, can someone tell me why we still carry on and grow our own. Are we mad? I think we all know the answer to that one. :D :D :D
I've just got my first lottie and I was looking forward to lots of happy hours growing things. You are all starting to get me nervous !! Thakns Guys :) I get apopletic when the local cats as much as look at our borders so either mice or me may be in for a rough ride.
I think I read somewhere that soaking seeds ( peas and beans ) in paraffin puts rodents off chewing them - but that could be transferring tactics from my Commando comics of my childhood!!.
RK
Perhaps the answer is to set up camp on our lotties. So that we can keep an eye out 24/7. Beds in the sheds, loos in the hedges. That could be the next Reality show. Forget Big Brother. How about a new series called 'Heaven on Earth starring 'The Lotties'
Folks do camp out to protect their precious veggies - at show time. they are so protective of their charges and worry that they'll be stolen by the opposition that they have to camp out on the plot to keep guard. My dad once actually dug a man trap and filled it with gas tar ;D ;D My mother was scared to death he'd be arrested and spend the rest of his life in jail if someone actually fell in it
He did get his veggies pinched once by his rival who had promised him a lift to a veg show. Cometh the hour the veggies were loaded up and the bloke drove off without dad, went to the show and swept the board. They actually had a fist fight over it as my dad was furious. Compared with that what's a few slug holes ;D ;D
:o :oWardy!!
I would like a fist fight, no make that a secateur fight with the slugs that have eaten my runners that I put in 2 days ago, and I made the effort to surround them with our Christmas tree needles that I have saved for just that purpose for 5 months!! Now this trick normally works for me, so I suppose the new generation on my plot are geting wiser >:( Or they have gotten the pole vaults out again!! :D DP
Hi Doris -Pinks. Crikey after reading all these posts I am frightened to death to put my beans in ;D About to put them in this afternoon so I had better sleep out there tonight ??? Will keep my fingers crossed. Lorna
wardy! ;D ;D ;D
so-they were 'slugging' it out then were they?-my godfathers i think i'd have done more than punched the berhooger!!!!!!
some people can stoop very low when envy strikes! :)
Lorna, don't be scared, be brave, put them out with whatever type of slug reppelant you use!! I put more out today and surrounded them with collars of cut up lemonade bottles..........................time will tell! It is all part of the fun! ;D
Yep Doris-Pinks have donned my optimistic hat and here goes. Didn't manage today daughter Lorna next door had a day off and we (as usual) had lots of chat and lots of tea/coffee. I did have a good tidy up (after I made her go home ;D) and have started preparing the greenhouse for the growbags for toms and cues. Beans will go in tomorrow.. forecast is good. Talking about hats.. grandson Joshua won first prize in his class for fancy dress .. Mad Hatter. £10 book token, came home very pleased yesterday. Kind regards Lorna.
Yep Kitty - proper fisticuffs :o
Put my french beans out on the lotty tonight and I hope they'll still be there tomorrow. Fingers crossed :)