Weeding the Web

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone. See you in 2013.

 

How to keep foxes off your veg patch

Foxes are vermin. Contentious? Well, I'm guessing a few of you will disagree. Vermin are, however, "small animals, insects or birds that are troublesome or destructive to crops, game or domestic stock". Yes, we can argue the "small", but that pretty much sums up foxes.

Foxes are rife in my area, their numbers aided, no doubt, by a neighbour who feeds them.  One of these well fed foxes, running through another neighbour's garden, killed and left a chicken en route. The second neighbour was none too pleased. Neither am I, as they seem to unload all their digested food all over my veg beds.

The local population is clear now that I don't fall for that vulpine charm. Until I started chasing them off, though, they were quite happy just to stand and stare at a distance of as little as ten feet. 

Neighbour with said chickens told me that one fox would actually stand its ground and growl unless he was carrying a stick. That's a wild animal with barely any fear of humans. I won't catalogue the numerous stories of fox attacks, but it seems very clear why encouraging foxes to co-habit with us at close quarters is not a good idea.

Of course, their running away when they see me does not prevent them from pretty much making themselves at home when they can't. Hence, defecation among the salad leaves.

Reluctant to take a brush with Toxocariasis, I tried a forest of sticks stuck around the edges. When this availed me naught, I put out a call on Twitter. Claire at Claire's allotment came to my rescue, and advised a liberal sprinkling pepper or curry powder around the crops. Apparently, it makes them sneeze. A touch stingy, too, I wager.

Luckily we have an ethnic grocery near us, which means I can buy a 1 kg bag of chilli powder for considerably less than the equivalent in Mr Sharwood's tiny little pots. By the time I'd finished, the green salads were marooned in a sea of orange. It was actually quite pretty, but has it worked?

Well, yesterday I noticed that a fox had left its deposit, not on the raised bed, but on the grass beside it, so I'm optimistic.

I've certainly plenty of chilli powder left, should I need to try it again.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day : does this count?

Perhaps joining in the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in autumn wasn't my brightest decision. I've been round the garden and there is nothing - not a thing - that has the merest hint of a bloom. Heavy frost followed by heavy rain has rendered just about everything black and sodden.  So, is this cheating? Here's something from a little earlier this month, when the frost iced everything with a sparkle and shapes came into their own.

Visit May Dream Gardens, which hosts GBBD, to see how other bloggers are finding their December gardens.

Presents for gardeners: Sudoku Word Search for Garden Lovers

Puzzles are one of those things that you love or hate. Sometimes both. I can go for months without wanting to Sudoku, then get an urge that sees me solving them daily for a month.

It's funny what appeals. Word Searches have never lit my fire, but some people buy whole books of them. You might know someone who enjoys both and, if so, Sudoku for Garden Lovers by M£R Puzzles would be an extraordinarily well aimed present and, although not big, probably one of the most appreciated come Boxing Day by the fire.

You have to raise your hat to them. Not only have they devised a whole lot of sudokus but, when complete, each one can be translated into a Word Search grid (each number equates to a letter) and, as a bonus, there's a cryptic clue to a nine-letter garden-related word or phrase also hidden in the grid. Goodness knows how you manage to create something like that, but they have.

If you nip over their website, you can download a free sample to try out. My only gripe was that, as a Sudoku solver who likes to jot numbers around the outside of the grid, in the book they sent me to try out some of the photos which form backgrounds to the grids were a bit dark to allow me to do this. However, it's a small gripe, and Kim Roscoe, of M&R Puzzles, tells me they've spotted this themselves and will be doing something about it in further editions.