So my worst garden pest has visited this week and wrecked havoc amongst my seedlings. The mice have paid us a visit again, if you are a mouse lover then I advise you not to continue reading! I had noticed that they had been visiting a while ago as the potatoes that I had chitting in the polytunnel were looking nibbled. I set some traps and although I did not catch any they stopped visiting. This week I went for my usual morning visit to the polytunnel and found that they had dug a a whole load of bean and pea seed and eaten them and all the courgette and cucumber seeds, they had also had a ratch through the leek seed tray but I am not sure how many of those they have eaten, if nothing comes up I will know it was all of them. We have set more traps and put out bait that if they eat it, it will kill them, we have caught one so far. It is really soul destroying when this happens especially as I had been organised this year and sown my seeds earlier.
Apart from dealing with mice we have emptied a compost bin this week and put the contents on the garden it was beautiful stuff. As we were emptying it the bin itself started to collapse, we built it about eight years ago out of wood we had lying around so today my husband has been building three new ones. I have also sown some carrots and beetroot with help from the children, turnips and one set of seed potatoes the rest have yet to chit sufficiently to be planted yet. The weeding that took me forever last week has paid off as hardly any are growing in the garden now, and there are virtually none now as I weeded again today. I have also built a wigwam for the peas or beans to grow up provided they are not eat by the mice before they get to that stage. Ho hum such is the life of a gardener.
The rest of the garden is definitely, finally, budding. The trees and bushes all have leaf buds and today we were out in the garden in t shirts, whispering quietly, maybe spring has finally arrived?
What have you been doing in your garden?
Oh my goodness, sounds like you have a big mouse problem. Such a shame after all your hard work. I hope you manage to 'get rid' of them before they do any more damage. Have you thought of getting a cat?
ReplyDeleteI spent the day 'sifting' my compost, now it's all light and airy. We had lovely weather also but now it's raining! Planted some corn in a Jiffy planter and some directly in the ground - the race is on!
Oh dear! Our cats tend to decimate the mouse population (sadly they then move onto the rabbits at this time of year - although that's still reducing unwanted munchers of our veg).
ReplyDeleteWe're steadily getting the new garden cleared and planted carrots, beetroot, sorrel and perp spinach yesterday (plus some more salad seedlings we started off a while ago).
We have cucumbers and tomatoes growing inside and need to get some squash started. Also need to get far more coriander, parsley and basil started (as I can use them by the fistful!)