A P(l)otted History Part 4, April 2016 Onward

[Primrose]

Well done for spotting the culprits in the act and being able to get some protection on.
But what a pain in the backside having to go to all that work.

I'm beginning to think that the first requirement for maintaining any allotment after digging it all over is to erect a netting cage over the entire plot, (apart perhaps from really high climbers like beans which might have to be grown in the same place) so that however you rotate your crops, you have permanent protection if birds are a real problem.

[Pa Snip]

Others on site have mentioned problems with pigeons but up until now I have not experienced it

Could be because on my side of the site my peas are ahead of almost everyone else's.

It wasn't that much of a pain getting it covered, the hassle is more likely to be when it comes to spotting when peas are formed and uncovering. By then the peas should be tall enough to be of less interest to pigeons, I hope !!!!

[Monika]

A few years ago, our allotment suffered terribly from jackdaws ripping open all the pea and broad pods and eating the actual peas and beans. Just throwing a net over them didn't help because the birds sat on it en masse thus pushing it down and eating through the net. Luckily, although the jackdaws are still about, they seem to have 'forgotten' this nasty habit! The house sparrows still nibble the pea shoots and leaves, but they don't seem to touch the pea pods themselves.

[robo]

We have a pheasant that lives outside our perimeter fence it went missing for nearly a year but it's back, in winter there is nothing you can grow that is safe ,luckily this time of year he seems happy with the wild weeds he lives in but I have had very few Pease and beans germinate no matter whether I start them off in the pollytunnel or straight into the ground I have found a few stumps that I thought the slugs had left but I am now wondering if it's him, today I have planted more and covered with netting I Waite in anticipation