Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Friend or Foe?

This little fella has started getting quite tame and is now posing for photos. I'm not sure what kind of mouse he is - perhaps you can enlighten me? I know not everybody likes to have mice or rats or other wildlife in the vegetable garden but my allotment is also an animal sanctuary.
I don't think you need to wage war on nature to grow good veg. Mice usually only cause trouble when they start digging up peas, beans or sweetcorn as they emerge. I personally have only had trouble with the peas and then I use decoy feeding to protect the plants. A generous helping of wheat scattered nearby is enough to distract them. Within a week or two the peas are too big to interest the mice and then I stop feeding them. The early peas get extra protection by starting them off in the greenhouse in a piece of guttering, but I'll show you that in a month or so.

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