Sunday 10 June 2012

Eaten away

Jean planted out the remaining leeks and sweetcorn a couple of days ago. Today we went up to check how the rain had helped the plot only to find the leeks and sweetcorn had been badly eaten. It is odd. I don't know for sure what is causing the damage, but some things are untouched, such as large spinach plants in the open. We have tried to cover the leeks and sweetcorn with netting and frames. At this rate we will just need one giant net over the whole plot.

Across the road from the site there were a couple of men shooting wood pigeons, and they seemed to get quite a few. Many people have commented how there are lots of pigeons around at the moment. Pigeons are high on my list of suspects as veg gobblers.

I'm not sure the sweetcorn will survive. Its leaves are mostly eaten away with just the stalks remaining. The leeks probably will as they grow for much longer and there is more of the plant still to grow from. This year has been odd, warm in March, very wet and cold most of the time since, maybe that has forced the wildlife to look for different food supplies, but this has, for sure, been the worst year of losses since we started.

I'm going to look for some extra netting and canes to support it. I hope the men with the shotgun keep bagging pigeons too.

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