First the squirrels...now the fox!

 Oh my word...my last blog was back in July.....so without actually meaning to, I've taken the summer off.
The ongoing covid pandemic still affects the lives of most of us, of course, so like everyone else we've seen less of our extended family and missed regular 'outings'.....but Hey! We've got a super garden and that's where we've been.

You might remember my moan earlier in the year about the local squirrels 'out to get me', digging up my bulbs and burying nuts - hazel, horse chestnut, almond and walnut - which they forget, so consequently sprout like mad all over the garden.  A couple of weeks ago I was happily pruning (hacking back) one of the willows when I turned to find a beautiful young fox gazing at me, as bemused as I was!
We chased each other around the garden for a bit and he vanished.  He obviously liked the place and came back that night to dig a humungous hole and tunnel right on the edge of my lovely wild patch.

Beautiful as he was and a delight to see, I don't want him living in my garden so I hopped to Google and found that preventative measures include lion poo, male predator urine and jeyes fluid. Not having a handy lion I resorted to used cat litter (well, while not an obvious fox predator, our cat Sammy is male...) and we had jeyes fluid in the shed.  Great! That worked. So he dug another hole.  Tried it all again and that worked too.  So he dug another!! Then I bought some expensive anti-fox treatment and grabbed some bits of smashed up concrete from a neighbour who was conveniently digging up a path.  Lobbed the concrete into the holes, sprayed it all with the posh stuff, raked back all the spoil and stood back.
 
So, far so good!!!! Such mad fun in gardening!

We've spent a lot of time cutting stuff down and have enough sturdy hazel poles to build several natty pergolas, and shredded lots.  It gave us room to create a new wild patch and enjoy the tiny cyclamen coming out now.  Our old rusty owl has moved into it, having been buried under a bush for at least a year.

 

The garden isn't big enough - no garden ever is if you're a keen planter - so I dug up a bit more lawn.  Very satisfying. Plants have moved, bulbs are in, the (outside for the summer) indoor plants are back in and I just need to rescue geraniums before the frost comes.

Meanwhile I see suspicious holes just where I planted bulbs...those pesky squirrels again....


Stay safe, and thank you for looking.
Robin