Celebrity Chef Patch
Why is it that some things have to be learned over and over again? This weekend one of my friends reminded me that the best way to keep pigeons off my peas and broad beans was to hang some CD ROMs up over the veg patch.
I knew that! Why hadn’t I done anything about it? We’d done the same thing at the old house. Why did it take the consumption of practically two thirds of my painstakingly planted pea crop before the penny dropped? So, a big “Thank you” to my friend Penny, who put me back on the right path.
Until then, I had been muttering about purchasing an air rifle and indulging in some target practice. I quite fancied this option because you see it’s not just pigeons that have been pilfering in the veg patch, its pheasants too and if I’m to believe Roald Dahl (see “Danny, the Champion of the World”) if a pheasant comes onto your land, it’s your property. . . and so could rightfully end up in your pot. Now that’s a different slant on Growing Your Own.
I was out in all that weather yesterday, soon after Penny had left, rigging up my Pigeon Protection System (PPS). It started working immediately. Among the CDs now scaring them off is one of Heston Blumenthal’s. So, now I’ve got Marco’s garlic bulbs and Heston’s CDs. I’m wondering what other illustrious chef I can add to the mix. Surely Raymond Blanc (whose Manoir is just down the road), can provide something to add to the mix – perhaps a (biodegradable) carrier bag to wave in the wind and make rustling noises? On reflection, something tells me Raymond is probably above carrier bags . . . perhaps Anthony Worrall-Thompson might have some . . .
All we need to do now is to make the greenhouse water and rodent proof. Once that has been achieved I will be able to plant the seeds I have bought. The mice have feasted on the parsley I brought with me from the old house and on the allium bulbs I rescued from the compost heap when we moved in. Once again, it took me far too long to work out what was happening and react. By the time I reached for the mouse traps, there was no parsley and hardly any alliums left to be saved. I’ve put the remaining alliums back on the compost heap; they seem to be doing just fine.
I fear that making the greenhouse waterproof will be a somewhat tougher assignment. When it rains – which it has done rather a lot recently – water literally pours in through the gaps between the panes. I’ve now put buckets and trays down to catch most of it. There was almost two inches of water in one of the buckets by the end of yesterday. Its going to take a long time to dry out and once it does, there will be a lot putty to replace and a lot of rotten wood to cut out. It’s a good thing that a) Mr D is so practical b) the days are getting longer.
Postscript
In spite of the all the rain, it was an exciting weekend in the garden. As well as a harvest of vegetables to look forward to, it seems that we are now looking forward to a harvest of a different sort: frogspawn. On Saturday morning, an event occurred that was so noteworthy it actually enticed the children away from the television. There was a party going on in the pond!
I was so excited! There must have been six or eight frogs gallivanting around all over the place. It’s probably a little fanciful of me to say this but it was exactly as though they had all turned up from wherever else they’d been all year and were saying “Hello!” to each other. We watched events from the upstairs windows through binoculars for a while and then went downstairs for breakfast. Things had settled down a bit by the time we went outside and crept up to the pond but you could still see the frogs if you looked carefully. I have emphasised to the children that they must on no account bother the frogs. I am counting on them to decimate the slug population. The curious thing is that since then, they’ve kept a low profile. You could even say that they’ve been as quiet as mice.
Why is it that some things have to be learned over and over again? This weekend one of my friends reminded me that the best way to keep pigeons off my peas and broad beans was to hang some CD ROMs up over the veg patch.
I knew that! Why hadn’t I done anything about it? We’d done the same thing at the old house. Why did it take the consumption of practically two thirds of my painstakingly planted pea crop before the penny dropped? So, a big “Thank you” to my friend Penny, who put me back on the right path.
Until then, I had been muttering about purchasing an air rifle and indulging in some target practice. I quite fancied this option because you see it’s not just pigeons that have been pilfering in the veg patch, its pheasants too and if I’m to believe Roald Dahl (see “Danny, the Champion of the World”) if a pheasant comes onto your land, it’s your property. . . and so could rightfully end up in your pot. Now that’s a different slant on Growing Your Own.
I was out in all that weather yesterday, soon after Penny had left, rigging up my Pigeon Protection System (PPS). It started working immediately. Among the CDs now scaring them off is one of Heston Blumenthal’s. So, now I’ve got Marco’s garlic bulbs and Heston’s CDs. I’m wondering what other illustrious chef I can add to the mix. Surely Raymond Blanc (whose Manoir is just down the road), can provide something to add to the mix – perhaps a (biodegradable) carrier bag to wave in the wind and make rustling noises? On reflection, something tells me Raymond is probably above carrier bags . . . perhaps Anthony Worrall-Thompson might have some . . .
All we need to do now is to make the greenhouse water and rodent proof. Once that has been achieved I will be able to plant the seeds I have bought. The mice have feasted on the parsley I brought with me from the old house and on the allium bulbs I rescued from the compost heap when we moved in. Once again, it took me far too long to work out what was happening and react. By the time I reached for the mouse traps, there was no parsley and hardly any alliums left to be saved. I’ve put the remaining alliums back on the compost heap; they seem to be doing just fine.
I fear that making the greenhouse waterproof will be a somewhat tougher assignment. When it rains – which it has done rather a lot recently – water literally pours in through the gaps between the panes. I’ve now put buckets and trays down to catch most of it. There was almost two inches of water in one of the buckets by the end of yesterday. Its going to take a long time to dry out and once it does, there will be a lot putty to replace and a lot of rotten wood to cut out. It’s a good thing that a) Mr D is so practical b) the days are getting longer.
Postscript
In spite of the all the rain, it was an exciting weekend in the garden. As well as a harvest of vegetables to look forward to, it seems that we are now looking forward to a harvest of a different sort: frogspawn. On Saturday morning, an event occurred that was so noteworthy it actually enticed the children away from the television. There was a party going on in the pond!
I was so excited! There must have been six or eight frogs gallivanting around all over the place. It’s probably a little fanciful of me to say this but it was exactly as though they had all turned up from wherever else they’d been all year and were saying “Hello!” to each other. We watched events from the upstairs windows through binoculars for a while and then went downstairs for breakfast. Things had settled down a bit by the time we went outside and crept up to the pond but you could still see the frogs if you looked carefully. I have emphasised to the children that they must on no account bother the frogs. I am counting on them to decimate the slug population. The curious thing is that since then, they’ve kept a low profile. You could even say that they’ve been as quiet as mice.
posted by Susan Darnbrough at
2:05 pm
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