Allotments 4 All

I usually stick n a row of broad beans and early peas in the Autumn but this year I think they may have been decimated by mice - there are lots of little holes in the drills. I may be jumping the gun a bit and have planted some in the frame this weekend to fill any gaps but I think I read somewhere that soaking them in paraffin stops the mice eating them. Anyone else heard this and where can you even get paraffin these days?

You can get paraffin from small independent garages still - but they're getting rarer.  Or you can get it from a hardware shop in plastic containers - Homebase had some in stock last time I went in the greenhouse section to go with their heaters.

I've no doubt that paraffin works to deter the mice ... but I'm loath to put it in my soil - let alone on the seed of the plant I will eventually eat.  Last year I mixed up a load of old garlic that was past it along with some of last year's dried chillies and some water then soaked my peas in that instead.  Once I'd planted them I diluted the mixture and watered all over the patch they were planted in ... and last year no peas got nicked by mice even though there are tons of them on my patch.

It doesn't stop the pigeons eating the new shoots though 

Quote from: boydzfish on February 23, 2014, 13:20:50
I usually stick n a row of broad beans and early peas in the Autumn but this year I think they may have been decimated by mice

Know how you feel 

Quote from: squeezyjohn on February 23, 2014, 13:28:37
Last year I mixed up a load of old garlic that was past it along with some of last year's dried chillies and some water then soaked my peas in that instead.  Once I'd planted them I diluted the mixture and watered all over the patch they were planted in ... and last year no peas got nicked by mice even though there are tons of them on my patch.

Interesting, we have a load of mice and voles here, will give it a whirl 

...alternative method; crush garlic in a poly bag, add peas/beans to bag, squidge them around to get them coated in garlic juice, then plant. It works for me.

Whatever the reason - either small rodents hate the garlic or it masks the smell of the sprouting pea from them.

I only put the chill in there for sadistic reasons ... imagining them trying it and running away squeaking for a glass of water!

Pigeons and waterlogging are other possibilities; make sore you're targeting the right bane.