Gosh, that is disheartening! I'm glad the bad badgers have left you alone for a few nights--let's hope that continues. We have skunks and opossums, but they never do extensive damage like your badgers. My sympathies to your wife--a pulled muscle is no fun at all. Can she use a topical heat cream (I swear by Icy Hot, but don't know if it is available where you are) and a heat pad? I've found when I have a pulled muscle the most therapeutic activity is watching my husband do laundry, load and empty the dish washer, feed the chickens and collect eggs, and generally just take care of all my little tasks. Makes me feel so much better! I bet you are offering your dear wife the same therapy!
They are back! Just had another look and the damage is even more extensive than we had first thought. They are now digging up the Brodiaea, Scilla sibirica, Schyzostylis blubs. In doing so they are destroying herbaceous stuff and shrubs too. We are going to have to seriously look at spending a humongous amount of money and putting up secure fencing all the way round the garden. Not sure I am capable of doing it myself these days either so there could be the price of paying someone on top of the materials.
Just when we were all thinking they'd gone elsewhere too. I presume a fence would have to buried pretty deep to stop them digging under it. I wish I could offer a cheaper and easier solution for you.
Palustris, I was curious about what you could do to stop the badgers from doing so much damage. I don't know if I'm allowed to post another forums postings so just type in your search engine 'how to stop badger damage to plants'. There were some pretty good suggestions.
Even more damage than ever last night. Now we cannot see at all where they are getting in. We thought that we had covered all the places, but there must be holes somewhere else where we cannot see.
This is dreadful news Palu. REALLY dreadful. It makes my skin crawl when I read your words, because I know what a special and magnificent park-garden you have there. The idea that it is being slowly (or perhaps not so slowly) destroyed by those darn badgers is painful to read. I hope that you can take steps to preserve your garden and its contents.
There are now no tulips left in that part of the garden. So now we shall see if they look elsewhere and start ruining other areas as well. Have put up more fencing round another section, and watered all the boundary with Jeyes Fluid. Cannot do much more.
No, but they cannot dig their way in. All along that boundary is a buried line of 4 feet high corrugated iron sheeting deep into the ground. In all the other places on the boundary, the soil is so full of bricks, scrap metal, broken glass and such like, that nothing can dig its way through,not even me with a pickaxe. They are either pushing through the wire netting, which is probably not small enough mesh, or climbing over the gate. Tomorrow we will add more netting to the gate and put barbed wire along the top as well as putting another set of wire mesh along the fence. I may see if I can get a bundle of the stakes which are used for layering hedges and drive them in a couple of inches apart along the front of the netting, to stop them chewing their way through it. Prince Charles' head gardener claims that badgers will not pass clear plastic bottles. So we are collecting them and will try hanging them from the fence.
I see the construction. It does sound impenetrable. The idea of climbing over the gate does sound plausible though. I saw once on the telly (perhaps autumnwatch) where they showed a badger climbing a tree a small ways. They are inventive, that's for sure. I remember once on Springwatch that there was a badger that would enter an area and swim out to "the Scrape" to consume Avocet eggs and chicks. I was amazed at the persistence and ability. I like gardening challenges, but a badger is a step too far--I do not envy you your task there. I will remain interested to see what you discover and how successful you will be. On our lottie complex the problem was/is rabbits and with the coming of the rabbits all of our individual gardens had to be fenced-in. I found that tragic because the complex was so welcoming before that--no fences or gates. It looked just looked so idyllic and welcoming; now it looks like we are a group of paranoid hermits. Well,the in-fencing had to happen as folks were loosing expensive plants and veg nightly. I walked from my lottie to the front gate and counted 73 rabbits!. That is just what I encountered on my trajectory. It seemed that people were just throwing their Easter gifts to their children over our fences when their kids lost interest. How anti-social is that. Yeah--gardening also has its negative aspects. As if we do not have enough of a contest with the naturally occurring pests in the garden...now tame rabbits. Right then mate--good luck further...and keep us posted please.
Fortunately we have had no bother with rabbits. Only seen them once in the garden, being chased down the middle path by a pair of cats. I found half a rabbit the next day. Squirrels are just as evil. Sad in that people do not seem to care what trouble they cause others when they discard pets like that. We cannot grow crocus as the mice eat them. We cannot grow Daffodils as the place is riddled with Narcissus root fly. We used to have thousands of Daffs, but they have slowly dwindled away. Now we are not going to be able to grow tulips. It is going to be a very dull Spring.
That sounds so disappointing. Do the beasts there like Winter Aconites? If they would leave them alone, they could give you folks some yellowness in your spring garden. I used to grow grape hyacinths, but they multiplied too ferociously. Pity about those daffs. You have your troubles there...I can see that. Badgers though...I had not seen that coming.
Still not managed to stop them getting in. They are still digging up the one section of the garden. It must still smell of tulips. I think they have lifted the old wire fencing in a part of the perimeter behind a lot of very prickly shrubs, Holly, Mahonia and Berberis, so getting in there and replacing the old fencing is going to be a bit tricky. Also found some holes they have dug in another section. Not sure why they are digging there, no plants or bulbs that I can see, other than Arum italicum and Eranthis hyemalis, both poisonous. Possibly old digging for bees nests,
I was thinking about this badger thing the other day and wondered if the council, or a badger protection organization would be willing to come and trap these visitors alive and re-locate them. Could that be an option?
