Grow Your Own Needs Your Help!

[Pies]

We have a padlock on the main gate,it keeps most of the larger pests out although the more determined ones still get in

[reetnproper]

We have 'prikka strip' firmly nailed across the tops of our 6ft featheredge, fencing to deter the cats and it works a treat. Only takes one or two 'landings' on the tops of the fence for them to realise that it isn't a pleasant experience. You do have to nail small 'inturder beware' notices at regular intervals but these came with the strips.

We have also placed old house bricks at the base of the fence to prevent any visitors coming that way. On the whole it works well and we have surprisingly few feline visitors despite large numbers of them in the village.

As for pigeons and the like, we net our beds to protect them.

Reet
x

[SueA]

I'm another fan of the chicken wire mesh especially over anything growing in pots as the squirrels will have a dig around in anything they can get their little paws in & it stops cats leaving 'messages' in there too. I also stick twigs, prickly prunings & canes around to keep cats off the pots & veg. bed & cover the veg. bed with fine green netting which keeps birds/cats etc. off.

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

I'm another fan of chicken wire and for anyone getting ready to build new raised beds place of layer of chicken wire where the raised bed is going to be sited. Place the raised bed structure on top of cheicken wire, then fill your bed up. Pesky wabbits can still dig under the bed structure but can't get into the bed from underneath (does that make sense?) I also use chicken wire around raised beds - like a fence. And lastly rhubarb leaves are placed around my more tasty plants. Let's be honest it's a constant fight against the furry horrors.

[BUFFS]

Barbed wire entanglements, razor wire, a mine field, 4 machine gun posts.......and a Bull Terrier!

i take it that you are from the laid back,easy going side of the family then?

[mogs]

I've got squirrels, moles, pigeons, partridge, mice, rats, an escapee white domestic rabbit and an urban, yes urban deer to contend with, not to mention a dippy dog that just can't GET path, soil, soil path no matter how slowly I repeat it!!

I've tried, netting, CD discs, mothballs, dock leave piles, plastic windmills and doggy obedience classes -reached the point where I generally stomp off say -whatever - just get on with it! Anything that I actually get to before anyone else is a bonus - life's too short to fight wildlife and badly trained hounds

[Llamas]

I like my veg garden unfenced and unfettered so I've taken to covering stock wire in chicken wire and cutting them to the lenthgs of my rows. I then bend the panels over to make a pest proof tunnel. Some prickly rose sticks at the enterances and along the bottom have kept everything away thus far!

[cathd66]

Haven't got a tip to suggest- rather would love any suggestions on how to stop a strawberry loving dog. I had the strawberry barrell netted, with the net held well away from the berries and couldn't figure out where my strawberries were going (all just at the perfect point of ripeness)
Then I caught her in the act- she'd push her nose, and the net, right up to the strawberry, then suck it through the net like a fruit smoothie.
Didn't even have the grace to look guilty!

[Breezie]

I went to the local Garden Centre recently to buy some pea netting. As usual I was shocked when i saw the price, so i carried on looking through all the netting they had for some cheaper alternative. I settled on a pond netting that was 8 metres by 6 metres for just under £8 and big enough to cover all my fruit bushes in one go.

The netting is designed to keep heron off pond fish but it'll do for protecting my bushes just fine.

I always keep any prickly hedge trimmings too and place them over my seeds to deter the cats from doing their bussiness on or around my seeds. They work a treat around peas.