bulbs mugged

You are so ingenious Fran! Its best not to move bulbs when they are growing but I can see why you want to reorganise everything! I guess with all those trees there are bound to be squirrels, and foxes sometimes dig up tulips, I saw one at it one night.

Brilliant idea, Fran, putting the plant in a cage - hope your marauders aren't clever enough to 'spring them' :)

Haha Fran that's brilliant. Let's hope the little blighters (whatever they are) cant find a way in.

Its dried chilli flakes to deter squirrels and rabbits, doesn't affect birds though, so if its a blackbird its back to the cage :0)

thanks Stera - I had to replant those that had been dug up, but tried to get them in same position - though I moved the pot a couple of yards (did try one crate against the shed, but the pot was too wide, it left a gap which I'm sure would have been exploited.

The crates are only plastic, no real deterrent to a gnawing rodent, but maybe the shape put them off, not their usual target to munch on.

I've seen only two squirrels, or one squirrel twice, ambling across the lawn and up the fence into next door's garden. There's plenty of natural habitat in the trees and the open ground beyond, and the brook and more trees beyond that. My bird feeders haven't been squirrelled at all, and that was what I thought would happen if the tree-rats here were as obnoxious as the ones I left behind.

not seen any foxes yet, and not heard any weird noises that might be them, espacially at this time of year

Thanks, Gee. I had a look this morning, and the crates seem to be intact and certainly in place - didn't have a close look, didn't occur to me to check for holes in them, I'll have to go and do that now it has occured to me!

Thanks Sam. I'm hoping that the unfamilair shape will fox 'em - once they realise it's only plastic, and not very hard plastic, they could get through with no probs.

Thanks Pam. I used chili aplenty at the old place, think I've still got a pack, but hoped I woldn't need it here. I'll see if the crate stays undisturbed; if not, then I'll get out the chili/ hmm, maybe I could do a general dusting of chili flakes all over! but would the effect be permanent? some of the troughs in the old place still got dug up - maybe I hadn't used enough, or maybe they can get used to it in time

Moving more rural Fran and you may find different problems.rabbits can be a pest for me but resident stoats seem to have sorted the problem!

euw, Pam, would'nt wish it on them, even if they annoy me and the stoats have to eat.

I got my Percy Thrower purcahses delivered today - including 3x100 litre sacks of bark chips, so I'll see if a good layer of that will make a difference

I've seen folks put chicken wire below the surface of the soil or compost Fran. Might be worth a try if this doesn't work. As usual you are never stuck for a solution to your problems.

I did that in a trough that the rabbits insisted was their tunnel to Australia!
I find its the bare spaces that attract them

I had been desperate at the old place, got squirfelled to distraction and was thinking about chicken wire or smiliar metal mesh. Hoped I wouldn't need it here! or need it as much, at least.

Saw a squirrel yesterday, heading stragiht for where the put had been before I moved it; it scampered off when it saw me, so don't know if it had evil intent.

Snag is, I have to let damage occurb efore I know that I need to take extra precautions - maybe the bark will do something abou t that

We have been watching our resident blackbirds and the female has been taking all the compost out of a pot with primroses in and then proceeded to nip off the flowers and fly off with them too, to make her nest ! It was in such a mess that I had to remove it and put it out of her way and if we hadn't seen it for ourselves, we wouldn't have believed it !

wow, never heard of that before! her chicks are going to grow up in a scented bower indeed. I'd heard of peole leaving out strands of wool, etc, and I saved the hair from my last haircut to put out, but never heard of birds using flowers, and digging for them.

The bulbs here haven't been touched, just dug up and pushed aside, which is what happened before - if i didn't notice in time to replant the roots, they'd die. heard if might be something to do with squirrel bluff - they pretend to bury nuts to distract potential thieves

Its lovely to think of the linings birds put in their nests. We put out cat fur from the brushing and enjoy the irony of thinking about it lining nests - it always disappears! Once my gran was making a wood rug - the sort where you had to cut your own wool to length, if any of my fellow oldies remember those! She used to shake out the bits from the back door after every session and once we found a nest in a gooseberry bush very neatly lined with bits of different coloured wool. And now there will be one lined with Fran's hair!

I never had hte nere to ask the hairdresser to save me the day's or week's sweepings to put out - they might have thoiught I was weird!!

When the barber comes to cut Jacks hair I put it out for the birds in spring time and it vanishes. I dug up a clump of parrot tulips when clearing the circle recently Fran. Popped em in a big pot without disturbing the roots. They are just coming into bloom now. The heucheras could not care less what I did with them. Several are about to start flowering. Wire netting is good for preventing plants being dug up too. Our neighbour used it in his window boxes effectively against the local moggies. Frosty last night too.

I had to move a big clump of mainly parrot tulips out of the circle Fran. I put them in a big pot as undisturbed as possible. They are in bud and even showing a bit of colour. Could have been a cat did that I suppose. Mine are in quite a heavy soil. Perhaps yours in a light compost, so easy to scratch up. Connie's grandaughter over the road had a whole lot of lovely primulas turfed out of one of her tall tubs.

my "previous plants" are still huddled on a table in the corner of the back garden, partly for wind protection, partly cos I've not found permanant places for them yet - when I first moved in, I did have the table in the centre of the lawy, but then I saw how windy it was and relocated them.

I bought 300 ltires of bark chips to use as ground coer and pot m ulch; wanted to do it when the ground was warm (read somewhere that that keeps the warmth in, while doing it on cold ground keeps the cold in!) Can't do the main bedsuntil I've weeded them, but I can (or could!) do the smaller beds that I've alerady dug and planted - and the pots, of course. They'll probably need repotting soon, so I might do it all in one.

just need somewhere to work! got one shed, but only got small table, not sure that'll be enough, given how much room I had on my old "work bench" - could use one of the tables, but want a dry working space.

mind you, I bought a small walk-in greenhouse during my Percy Thrower GC visit, that should supply both a dry environement and enough working space - been trying to work out where to place it. if I use it mostly as a greenhouse, it'll need sun for most of the day (or will it? I just assume it will, cos they're always shown as standing alone, nothing shadowing them) and the only place I can find that won't be right in the middle of the lawn is either adjascent to, or backing on to, the shed; that's the only slab of concrete large enough to take it.

Of course I can try it and move it later if need be - but given how many shrubs I've got and how little free planting space there is at the moment, I might not need to "grow my own" for a while!