Grow Your Own Magazine

OK folks, this is getting serious .........

I've now lost a tray of broad bean seeds every night for a week.

I've seen a couple of mice running round and have put humane mouse traps along their runs, properly baited - one with beans and one with chocolate.

This morning the bean one was on its side and closed, nobody at home but far less damage to the seed tray - I'm now thinking the cuprit may be a red squiggle or even a weasel cos there's no mice or rat crap around.

Now the other trap still had the choc in at 4 this afternoon - when I went outside at 6 and checked it, the bloody chocolate was gone but the trap was closed and empty. Smarty mouse or WHAT!

So, my mate is wanting to get rid of his moggy - his wife died last year and it was her cat but he doesn't like animals. So, over the next week or so, Sam the Cat moves in with me - when I looked after him a few weeks ago he left dead things outside the front door for me so hopefully this less than humane way of disposing of the pesky varmints will work.

Little buggers should have surrendered in the first place, at least I'd have let them out of the traps a way away!

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TonyF, Dordogne 24220

Good luck with the cat and mouse game! Just remember, the cat will probably do more damage than the mouse!

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Sam the Cat to the rescue! Mr Titmarsh always had a moggy or two around when filming GW....there's something to aim for?

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

I thought this was the man who threw fossilised oranges at cats?????

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Let's hope Sam doesn't mistake your seed trays for his litter tray!!!!!
( I speak from experience!! )

Or your strawb beds (ditto).

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sat 15/11/2008......there's gold in them thar...compost bins!......

My garden is covered with ornamental bark- my cats hate it & use the neighbours. They just wont dig in it. And they never have touched a seed tray inside or out. They just sulk alot coz they cant get near the windowsills for pots etc.

The fossilised oranges were for other people's cats or the feral cats that live round here, Sam is a sweetie. Should have added I'm a real cat person, love cats and love having them round the house.

As for using the garden as a tray, the seed trays and strawbs are in such a place he'd have difficulty in reaching them because he ain't as agile as he once was being 17 years old - but he's still a mean mouse moggie!

And I'll be off to the cat rescue place when he's settled in to find him a chum to live with, younger cat but not a kitten, probably a rehomer.

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TonyF, Dordogne 24220

Ah! You old softy Tony! Being a 'catty' person myself (I have 3), I'm glad to hear them talked of in a positive light on the forum.
Apart from the odd poo on 'the patch', I've not experienced problems with my cats. But, for 'the poo' reason, I would advise if you direct sow seeds, you may want to consider putting a net over them incase they get dug up - more so for small seeds and the likes of your runner beans etc.

Good luck with the transition!

My moggies mistook a seed tray for litter once - I dumped the lot in an unused corner and amazingly got a few excellent tomato plants! It was a reasonable mistake as they do cr@p in the litter tray rather than the lottie. Usually.

To follow on from the cat theme and the smelly old book theme, I am at present reading an excellent old book by John Caldwell called Desperate Voyage. In the book he sets off on a 7000 mile sea trek without any prior knowledge of sailing and his only crew are two kittens! It's an excellently written true story and the kittens feature heavily in it. Tying corks to their hind legs in case they fall overboard and making a kitten life raft with enough to sustain them for a good time are just some of the things he gets up to in between the times he's trrying to save his boat!
Haven't finished it yet, but it's been a damm good read up until now!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Our cat, T-Rex (I wanted to call him Butch, Rover, or Fido - but Shirlthegirl wouldn't have that) often uses our dug areas as an outdoor litter tray. Not sure if it is because MK2 son never clears Rex' tray out or what, but you might have to cover the area with a net. Anti personnel mines can be a bit excessive MK1 son tells me...

Rex dug up an entire patch last week end.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Big silver bird, come land low and slow
Cut your engines, cool your wings,
You've taken me home...

www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Well, bit of a result today - this morning went out and checked the humane mouse traps as Sam doesn't come back for a couple of weeks, nothing there.

10 minutes later, one of the little buggers was in the trap, trapped, gotcha!

So I put him in the boot of the car and when I went to my chums, pulled up and let him/her/it go again a good 6 kilometers from my place!

And it looks as tho one or more of the little varmints has been at the mouse poison bait in the cold frames in the past day or so.

That'll larn them to eat my pea and beanlets!

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TonyF, Dordogne 24220

Here is my cat, Sam. Of course, it took years of training to get him to patrol like this...

Attached Thumbnails

 

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All at once I hear your voice
And time just slips away
Bonnie Rait

Is he shy, MD?

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sat 15/11/2008......there's gold in them thar...compost bins!......

Snadger....I love sailing books....and cats
Let me know how the book reading goes, is it still in print or a new book even?
Only want to read it if it the kittys survive ok.

No like Tony's Sam, mine is a lovely moggy, very friendly and enjoys a game of football with the kids too. He is a serious mouser though, and has even been known to train up the neighbour's kittens by giving them mice he has caught so they get the idea. Never known that happen before but my friend whose farm he came from says that whole family do the same thing.

I am dying to see a pic of the 'real' Sam, Tony. I hope he solves your rodent problems

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All at once I hear your voice
And time just slips away
Bonnie Rait

What lovely photos everyone! Tony - can we see a photo of Sam the cat?
Bernie aka Dexterdog

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

This is a photo of Ramsey, one of my cats.
He was very ill a couple of years ago, turned out he's diabetic! Good news is, its controlled by his diet.



Ramsey is a house cat, so cant help me with my mouse problem!

Bernie aka Dexterdog

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

Did you ever manage to finger a squirrel or a weasel Tony, or was that conjecture?

Do you know how to tell a weasel from a stoat?
A weasel is weaselly recognised and a stoat is stoatally different.

OK, I'm off!

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig