[tallulah]

Anyone got any ideas?  My flush of enthusiasm has been well and truly stamped on - all my peas, cutting flowers and strawbs have been decimated by pests.  My plot is at the end of the field, next to the wild bramble forest and farmers fields and hence most vulnerable I think, to the rabbit and pidgeon appetites.  The instant my pea seedlings appeared they were nibbled down.  How can I net them AND have sticks for support without a huge cage I wonder - currently they have a low wire net cover but I need to add supports; as soon as the wire is off they'll all disappear.  Also - my long-planned cutting patch - decimated!  Packets of sunflowers, rudbeckias, cosmos, marigolds etc - all necked by critturs.  Strawbs all munched despite nets.  This is one very fed up Tallulah!  I'm keeping all my salads in tubs at home now.

[Hawthorne]

Oh - I can really sympathise    The blasted rabbits seem to eat almost anything green on my plot - I've asked for a fence for my birthday!

In the meantime, I've found that they don't seem to like lettuce, courgettes, squashes, cucumbers, tomatoes and potatoes, and that they aren't keen on chard either.

[DD.]

Regarding peas, I have a pigeon problem & have to net in two stages.

Firstly when the peas are germinating, I cover with a net about 6" off the ground on short supports, pegged well down, as this seems to keep most of the mice out as well.

Once they are about 6" high, they don't appear so appetising, so the net comes off. This means you can get in to hoe between and stake the plants.

Once a decent sized pod has formed I net loosely on top of the peas. This is sufficient to stop the pigeons squashing the foilage down to make a platform and easy enough just to fold back to pick the peas.

Seems to work, in the last two days I've picked over 40 lb of pea pods!

[tallulah]

Thanks DD.  I've been sitting up late recently, coming up with weird and wonderful designs on paper, but knowing they probably wouldn't be that practical.  I shall try your method - hopefully I'm not to late to get some more peas in!  Thanks also Hawthorne.  Yes, there are some things that are mercifully untouched, such as the spuds, carrots, onions (apart from nibbled ends), garlic and courgette.   I happen to be a dyed-in-the-wool animal lover, so protection of the crops would be my only recourse.

[DD.]

"Werks fer me!"