Posted: Monday 23 January 2012
by Adam Pasco
[...] my garden has become a bit of a wildlife haven, but unfortunately not all wildlife is welcome.
Like many gardeners I'm proud to have created a wildlife-friendly garden. Shrubs and hedges provide shelter for birds, the nesting box on my silver birch has seen four or five broods of blue tits over the years, and log piles at the back of borders provide a home for all sorts of creepy crawlies.
I make masses of compost, recycling everything I can, and rarely resort to pesticides. Flowers are selected to provide pollen and nectar for bees, butterflies, hoverflies and other insects. Throughout autumn I leave apple windfalls around the garden for blackbirds to peck at. I feed the birds all-year-round, and regularly top up my birdbath.
So, as you can see, my garden has become a bit of a wildlife haven, but unfortunately not all wildlife is welcome. Of course I have to net raspberries to keep some fruit for me, and I’ve just covered my winter brassicas - they’d been discovered by pigeons.
I could do without squirrels, but can't really stop them happily digging holes in my lawn to bury or retrieve nuts.
But when it comes to mice I really have had to take action. My cozy shed proves irresistible to them, as does my garage, and I have had to resort to putting down traps. Retrieving a lovely new roll of bubble insulation recently, I discovered one side had been nibbled through, making the whole roll useless.
Last week I caught two mice in my shed, and the next night two in my greenhouse. Could there be more out there? You bet there are. Only a series of carefully placed traps can keep mice at bay, preventing these vermin becoming an even greater problem.
Yes, it does go against the grain of my wildlife-friendly ethos, but there is a clear distinction between creating a 'space' for wildlife and creating a 'garden'. In a wild space anything goes, but I'm sharing my garden with wildlife, and have to make a distinction between the wildlife I want, and creatures I don't.
Sorry, but my garden has to be a vermin-free zone. Now I've just got the slugs and snails to deal with. Oh yes, and the squirrels.
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