Grrrr!!!

[pickledtink]

Foxes probably, Cats maybe. Dunno but something has destroyed my squash mound.
I am gutted! The rain has really saved them and the first wee squashes were finally forming.
This morning devastation!
There has obviously been a riot, fight or orgy right in the middle of them. Vines trampled, torn off. Smashed right up. great gouges thriough the patch and decimated leaves and vines everywhere.
Can't fence off as my 'garden' is not on the flat but all perched on little outcrops and ledges up a cliff face.
I want a gun.
Not allowed obviously but what can I do?

[Alice]

What a shame Pickledtink. I know what it's like when you find that kind of devastation. We used to have the roe deer marauding and the damage they did was unbelieavabe. We have the foxes going through the place but I've never found any damage they did. I think maybe you just have to salvage what you can and hope they don't come back.

[pickledtink]

What a shame Pickledtink. I know what it's like when you find that kind of devastation. We used to have the roe deer marauding and the damage they did was unbelieavabe. We have the foxes going through the place but I've never found any damage they did. I think maybe you just have to salvage what you can and hope they don't come back.

actually Alice you've made me think. I've got loads of foxes and although I have to clean up their poo daily and put up with their racket in the mating season they've never really done any damage before. I wonder what this is? Anyone got a clue? Somethings definitely bashed through the shrubs at my boundary. smashed through the climbing squash on a trellis, then set about the ones on the downside of the slope. Not just crushed and trampled but actually severed and ripped off a lot of vines that were doing that triffid raised neck thing.
*sigh*
I'd suspect 'orrible human vandals but anyone who didn't know the layout would break their neck in my garden.
Maybe that's what happened!*lightbulb moment* Thinking about it if someone took a pearler and slid and grabbed it would explain it. One of those plants from the little shop of horrors would do nicely there next year. Anyone got any seeds?....

[Nicos]

Badgers???

[pickledtink]

Badgers???

Dunno much about Badgers but we DO have a set on the cliff top above I know. Is that the sort of thing they do? I thought they were diggers?

If it is I can't be cross with them. Their presence has saved the clif top from being built on by nasty evil developers. Maybe I could bung a row of prickly hawthorn twigs along the point where they've come through as a sort of detour.

Or maybe just put a sign up. 'Badgers this way please' ---->

[Nicos]

Well I don't know much about badgers, but found this site

www.badgerecology.org/BErep.htm

Which indicates that they can breed at this time of year, so if it was them play fighting etc etc they would probably do a bit of damage!
How lucky having badgers- any photos??

[pickledtink]

Great. It was like a snail brothel out there a couple of weeks back and now we've apparantly got the great Badger bang. I caught two foxes in the middle of a very personal moment earlier in the year too and they don't half make a racket too.
My garden is obviously becoming the Ibiza of the animal kingdom!

[pickledtink]

No pics unfortunately. I never get wildlife pics because it all happens on the cliff above my head and they tend to inhabit the clifftop then come down to my garden through the thicket which grows out the side. One vixen did rear her entire family right where my top little bed is so I grew nothing there that year and left the scrub and grass uncleared. I've never seen the badgers but I guess they must come down too.

[nick the grief]

........... I caught two foxes in the middle of a very personal moment earlier in the year too and they don't half make a racket too.
My garden is obviously becoming the Ibiza of the animal kingdom!

Well you'd shout if someone was watching you

[pickledtink]

Well you'd shout if someone was watching you

Nah. I reckon they're just show offs.

[SueA]

One place where we go walking along a canal bank a family have to give up half their garden where a pair of swans nest every year! It could be anything as you say from humans (drunk- that would be the case around here!) to randy badgers! Perhaps you should put some wire netting type fencing around as well as the shrubs to keep invaders out.

[dexterdoglancashire]

It sounds like everyone else lives in a wildlife lover's (me!) paradise. The only trouble I get is Dexter the dog lying in my newly dug beds, as in my photo! Bless! dexterdog

[pickledtink]

One place where we go walking along a canal bank a family have to give up half their garden where a pair of swans nest every year! It could be anything as you say from humans (drunk- that would be the case around here!) to randy badgers! Perhaps you should put some wire netting type fencing around as well as the shrubs to keep invaders out.

No netting/fencing possible here. I live under a cliff face and my 'garden' has been hacked out of it in little outcrops over the years. My biggest growing space is 4 x 3 ft and everything is on a slope and wedged in between rocks with nowhere for me to stand to weed or tend.
I've been trying to post some pics but the whole resizing thing has defeated me.

Saw a dead badger on the road today. Very sad. I thought it was a wild pig at first.
Sticking some prickly twigs around is all I can do.
Anyone know what Badgers don't like? Smells etc?

[pickledtink]

It sounds like everyone else lives in a wildlife lover's (me!) paradise. The only trouble I get is Dexter the dog lying in my newly dug beds, as in my photo! Bless! dexterdog

As he will no doubt point out he is not 'lying' but 'guarding'.

I love where I live and the birds, crickets, dragonflies etc are glorious. Frankly it's like something out of Walt Disney out there most days BUT they eat, steal, shred, destroy your flowers, veg, fruit and **** on everything. This burns the leaves.
Fox **** in the morning is just as unattractive as anything elses.
I love butterflies but cabbage whites are trying my patience it must be said.

I bet one season in my patch and you'll be howling for weaponry!

[Nicos]

Apparently they don't like male urine so..samples in a bottle to the address supplied......