Of mice and men

“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley” (often go awry), mused the farmer-poet Robert Burns after accidentally destroying a mouse’s nest while working in his fields.  One of my schemes this summer has been to save some of my own seed for sowing next (or later this) year; I’ve done a little of this in past years, but this summer I have deliberately left some of my plants to develop their seed-pods with this in mind.  I allowed my ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ broad beans to dry on the stems and left them in the greenhouse to dry off, along with a few other seeds.

Then, a week or ten days ago, I noticed that they had gone.  The well-laid scheme had definitely gone awry.  The broad beans had disappeared, some of my sweet pea pods were also missing, and the coriander seeds had been broken open.  A couple of garlic heads which had detached from their stems (the rest of the garlic is hanging from the greenhouse roof by the dry stems) and which had been left on a shelf to dry off had also been disturbed, one having gone completely and the other lying on the floor.  And two or three tomatoes on a stem which was propped up on the staging had been nibbled.  I also realised that some of the spring bulbs that had been stored in the greenhouse had been eaten; fortunately they weren’t in great shape anyway.

Plundered bulbs

There wasn’t much doubt about the identity of the culprit; I found mouse droppings on the staging as well.  We haven’t seen any mice for a few months; a vole has been visiting the patio occasionally, but voles are not adventurous and certainly don’t go clambering around greenhouse staging.  No, this was definitely a mouse.

Nothing to be done about the beans; I’ll need to buy seed for this autumn.  Most of the sweet pea pods are still on the plants, and I found more coriander that had set nice ripe seed.  These and other seeds are now drying off indoors, and other edibles in the greenhouse have been put out of the mouse’s reach (it doesn’t seem to have a taste for shallots, fortunately).  Burns took a philosophical attitude to his mouse stealing his corn, acknowledging that even a mouse had to eat and being prepared to share a little; I’m also generally lenient about allowing wildlife to do their thing, but I do draw the line at them colonising my greenhouse.  Once the tomatoes have finished fruiting (excellent crop this year, now slowing down significantly) I’ll give the greenhouse a much-needed clear-out and a good wash down with Jeyes Fluid, of which I’ve found a large stash during a garage purge; the smell should put any rodent off.  At the moment the tomatoes still have a few fruits on them, though two of the plants have finished and been cut down; the tangle of stems is now looking less dense.  The aubergines are harvested and either eaten or frozen – ‘Bonica’ ok, ‘Slim Jim’ interesting to look at but a bit tough, though maybe I left them too long on the plant – and the stems cut down, just awaiting a suitable moment for me to clear them out of the pots.  The two sweet pepper plants, having produced several small red peppers, have got second wind and flowered again, with another crop of fruits coming along, though I doubt if they will ripen beyond the green stage.  Other plants such as the hedychiums can be taken out for a day or two to allow cleaning to take place, and then put back in.

The greenhouse badly needs a clear-out in any case.  It does tend to accumulate stuff: pots and seed trays, obviously, but also lengths of fleece and polythene for mulching, bubble-wrap for insulation in winter, old compost sacks (very useful around the garden), cardboard for laying on ground to clear weeds, and newspapers, which are also useful to supplement the cardboard but also to cover the staging when I’m working so that any debris can be easily gathered up and thrown away.  Much of the cardboard and newspaper has just been used on the path alongside the long leylandii hedge; this then gets covered with the clippings that fall from trimming the hedge (a September job), thus controlling the weeds and encroaching plant growth on the path.  Needing more newspaper to complete this job, I lifted the last of the papers stored on the greenhouse shelving, and, in a shallow cardboard tray underneath, there was a little pile of shredded newspaper, and – the mouse.

Not quite as traditional as Burns’s mouse’s nest, but very snug all the same; dry and hidden, with a supply of food to hand.  Unlike Burns’s ‘tim’rous beastie’ it didn’t run away immediately, but considered its options for a moment and then scurried behind the seed-trays (but leaving its tail sticking out!); it may still be in there for all I know, but I’m afraid I threw its shredded paper away.  Not very hygienic in a greenhouse used for edibles.  It’s barely autumn yet, so the mouse has plenty of time to find and furnish a new home before the cold sets in, and the garden offers plenty of good places for it to shelter in – though I will need to take steps to stop it from returning to the greenhouse!

More welcome wildlife visitors in the past couple of weeks have been a pair of little warblers.  In the past I’ve identified these as willow warblers, but I’m coming to think that they may be chiffchaffs, which are visually almost identical (and commoner).  I heard a song one day which I think was a chiffchaff’s.  There are at least two of them, coming quite regularly to the patio to bathe, catch insects and generally hang out on the fringes of the groups of sparrows.  They’re lovely little birds; in the past we’ve had sporadic sightings but never regular visits like this.  I hope they hang around for winter.