The Idler

A Country Diary: 26

25 July 2005

THE BADGER came to visit again last night. I opened the front door at dusk to throw some porridge out on to the lawn and lo and behold, there was a badger eating the cat’s food. He started slightly and then continued snuffling, seemingly unoblivious. This is definitely the same badger who was seen at the scene of both chicken massacres. My neighbour has seen him skulking about and thinks he’s a young one. We watched him for a while and then I went to get the video camera. I turned on the porch light and he lurched backwards before loping across the lawn anc climbing up the wall out of sight. He must have come back because when we opened the door an hour later, the cat food had all gone. What is going on? Have we created a sort of domesticated badger? Was it this same badger that killed our chickens? Or was his presence on the scene merely coincidental? Should we encourage him and feed him, after all, he probably does useful work by eating the slugs and snails in the front garden. I would welcome any advice on this matter from readers who may be badger experts or have relevant badger experience.

THE VEGETABLE patch is exploding with produce right now. We’ve been eating peas every day. The cabbages are huge; the carror thinnings are delicious, little mini carrots; we’ve also had beetroots and turnips. One of my buttercrunch lettuces survived the slug attacks. I have realised that I haven’t been doing wnough successional sowing; and really I should have been sowing lettuces every three weeks to ensure a steady supply. And I don’t want to sound smug, but I think I’ve sorted the brassicas this year. The broccoli, brussels sprouts and kale plants all look extremely healthy; the only problem being lack of space for planting them out. I’m willing the early peas to finsih so I can pull them up and plant out some kale plants. The kale have suffered, though, from a massive caterillar attack. Two of the plants were completly destroyed. Luckily there are many others so I have reinforcements. I picked off all the caterpilars, put them in a jar and emptied it on the far side of a field. I hope they don’t all crawl back. Then I sprinkled derris dust all over them.

OUR TWO courgette plants have finally started producing. The courgettes are a bit small right now but maybe in future we’ll get bigger ones. I planted out a load of leeks in little holes and they seem to be surviving.

I MUST admit that my beloved strawberry patch has been a disappointment. It was really a lot of work to prepare the bed and dig in the ash and everything. Then there was the cost of the 24 strawberry plants. The bed then had to be protected from birds with netting, and a mulch of straw put down. Yes, we did eat quite a lot of yummy strawberries, but I would say that at least half were eaten by slugs. Also, I had fondly imagined that we would have vast quantities and that we would have made tons of jam. But suddenly, the strawberry season was over, and now I just have 24 plants in a bed overgrown with weeds.

THE BIRD TABLE is a joy to watch. We’ve had woodpeckers visiting, and goldfinches, as well as umpteen sparrows, blue tits, great tits and chaffinches. And yesterday I saw a nuthatch on it, which was a first. The only problem is that the evil cats have become quite nimble at catching birds on it. They lie in wait at the foot of the pole and suddenly leap up. They are often successful so we’ve rigged up a bit of wire in an effort to put them off.

WE HAD a visit from two friends who were members of a certain anarchist punk band in the eighties. They stayed for a while and loved the area, and when the rest of us went on a trip, they bought some shears and did the most amazing makeover on our front garden, cutting the grass, pruning roses and transforming the wild hedge into a thing of beauty. It’s galvanised us to put some work in on it and we bought a load of plants from our neighbour who runs a flower shop. I can’t remember what they all are but they look nice.