No dig, mulching and manure

[Kaiya]

They're in a plastic mini green house that has the middle shelf out as the chilli plants are still in residence. They'd have to climb quite high up, up sheer soft plastic, and there's plenty of easier food around.

The beans are sprouting now - manured ones first. I'll give them a couple more weeks to check leaf shape but hopefully this means the manure is not contaminated.

I heard cat hair (preferably urine, but hair to some extent) also discourages mice as they don't like predator smells, and a friend of mine is trying peppermint oil against a household mouse issue - not sure how much that would worry a mouse, especially with such lovely food around.

[snohare]

there's plenty of easier food around.

Yes, you should be safe enough - mice are like officialdom, given a choice they will take the easier option, except for the odd random glitch !
Hadn't heard of peppermint oil being used before, do please let me know how it works. (Must confess, I sometimes think that the reason we try things like that is that if they smell pungent, surely there must be something very strong and useful in it. Not very rational really, chemistry doesn't work that way !)

[roitelet]

Snippets of gorse laid over the peas before covering works. The wee mices dig down to the peas and get their noses pricked and run off to Mummy!

[snohare]

<smites forehead> Of course, I've tried that before, it really works ! How on Earth did I ever forget that ?
Daresay the high levels of nitrogen in the gorse helps the peas as it breaks down, too.

[Kaiya]

I don't think we have any gorse (I keep my eye out for them as I want to try the gorse flower wine idea) but I suppose I could have used strips of sweet chestnut shells! I had a bag full of shells left over and they are pretty spikey things. They're in the dalek now, but if I remember I'll try that next Autumn. I did think about using them to repel slugs also.