Filthy, diiiiirrty creatures.....

So a couple of months ago, our bicycling-mad neighbour comes up with an offer.... He and the Missus are planning on spending August 'in the saddle'.... there's a spare raised bed in the garden.... would Fereday be interested..... had I not come into the kitchen at that point, Fereday would have gotten away with it.... but I did, so I now have my very own 'starter allotment'.... I do feel a bit like a kid being granted a goldfish by a thoroughly unconvinced parent... after our neighbour left, I was treated to a 'little talk' of the kind I've not experienced since I was 5 and we got our first kittens..... "It'll be YOUR responsibility.... I'll be working, so you'll need to look after it"....... and, I am.... I've raised courgettes, beans and sweet peas from seed.... granted Fereday gave me a lift round to the neighbours in the family wagon last weekend when I wanted to plant in,.... but by the time he walked back round, most of the planting was done and I only needed his help to plant in the sweetpeas.... he's more delicate of touch than I am.... I've already decapitated a couple of carefully nurtured seedlings....So.... all going swimmingly, then... well, it was,.... I expected having my own mini-ment would give me a small (but perfectly formed) crop of veggies and some cut flowers.... I did not expect it would give me, what can only be described as 'A CAUSE'.... and, no, I don't mean I'm running around trying to convert everyone I know to veggie growing.... nope, nothing so benign.... I'm on a crusade against the neighbourhood moggies... filthy things.... nothing, and here I quote my dear Mother.... "NOTHING IS MEANER THAN CAT SHIT".... Shortly after planting, the b*ggers have already been in and buried a few toxic 'landmines'.... I don't know what the owners are feeding them... but this stuff is the colour of a MilkyBar????!!!!.... YUK.........Anyway.... stage one of the fight back... I've got some mothballs... made some little cloth bags and stapled them round the edge of the raised beds.... I refrained from using Cath Kidston fabric to make the little baggies, much as I was tempted - it would really have wound Fereday up....Now we wait.... if this doesn't work, maybe it's time for more moth balls, a few days off work, some camoflauge clothing and some kind of 'launching mechanism' akin to a pellet gun with a very accurate sight on it.... true, eventually some gas will build up and the wretched beast will 'blow' it out, but until then, my courgettes will be safe and undisturbed.....

After 26 years at Radley College, Adam King has seen grounds management evolve dramatically. Weather patterns have become less predictable, playing surfaces are under greater pressure than ever, and flexibility has become one of the most valuable…

GroundsFest has welcomed Christina Walker to its sales team as preparations continue for the 2027 exhibition.Christina joins the award-winning team with an extensive background in publishing and exhibitions spanning more than two decades. She began…

When freezing temperatures threaten the pitches at Forest Green Rovers FC, speed is everything. Protecting the stadium and training ground with frost covers can be a race against the weather, but thanks to Kress battery-powered blowers, the club's…