The badger damage to Colin Attrill’s sweetcorn.
GARDENINGSO FAR, fingers and everything else firmly crossed, my sweetcorn survive to be eaten another day by me and mine.
I got the seed into the ground early in the season and they will be ready with smoked garlic butter, post Garlic Fest, to be enjoyed fresh from the allotment, not by rodents, hopefully, but by the family.
For the past two seasons my corn has been readily eaten by a team of mice, overnight scaling the stalks and munching merrily until there was little left, preparing their little selves by fattening up for winter.
This year, being that bit earlier, I hope my corn will be ignored in the summer glut of other food.
But my problems pale into insignificance in comparison to those of Colin Attrill, who I have not seen since he left the IW Council’s planning office six years ago.
Colin has a large garden and now has plenty of time to grow his own.
What he does not appreciate are the much bigger pests that invade his space and carry away his sweetcorn in their bloated bellies.
Badgers are his curse, one of the minuses that counterbalance the many plusses of country living.
I’ve had a brief experience with Mr Badger, but only a fleeting one and he didn’t eat my crops.
I can well remember hearing a fearsome noise one night. It was a banging, crashing, scrabbling sound, as though as burglar was trying to tunnel his way into our home.
In dressing gown and with a torch, I went to track him down and found the interloper was a badger who had dug his way under my fence and was unable to find his way back.
They are large, creatures that walk pigeon-toed on their large, ripping, digging claws and the look he gave me and the sounds he made when cornered quickly convinced me that he could get on with the business he had started and find his own way out. He was not to be deterred or persuaded.
Colin has discovered, to his cost, that badgers take some stopping and are highly destructive animals too.
He e-mailed some pictures to illustrate his problem.
He says: "I attach something which I penned this morning in a fit of pique. From personal knowledge, and by visiting the internet, I realise it is virtually impossible to keep badgers out but would be interested to know if anyone has advice which would allow me to continue my most enjoyable sweetcorn or is my only option on offer at Tesco?"
I would be interested to know if anyone has any handy hints to keep Mr Badger at bay. Suggestions to me at the County Press or to richryde@tiscali.co.uk