Badger Boundaries

As we have been harvesting the onions from the front garden we have been digging it over and planting broccoli and other such over wintering crops.  The one problem with this is that any newly dug over and planted area will attract the attention of our badger clan, searching for juicy worms.  It is a wonderful problem to have but regardless still a problem we needed to surpass if we are going to go to the effort of planting anything new in the front garden.

 

We had recently re-strung the main fence between us and the neighbours as our previous efforts of a new fence, using natural hemp rope, had failed in the face of pigeon shit and badger ingress.  The design of the original fence had been a very pretty fan affair but had proved defenceless against the local fluffies and the Cornish elements; lasting less than a year.  Our new design, using a slightly more robust hemp rope, had a more defensive and conventional design and so far it has done the job.

 

Next was the issue of keeping the black and white visitors away from our veg growing area yet letting them into where we usually leave them a nightly peace offering.  Fishing net collected from the beach offered us the solution here, strung between bamboo poles.  So far it has proved sufficient, although the local cat population needs a little more encouragement to stay away.  In fact they haven't even noticed it's there yet it seems (see the video at the end).

 

 

In an additional effort to tidy up our very British need for boundaries, I foolishly decided that it would be a good idea to paint the wall white between us and our other neighbour (a holiday cottage).  Brilliant white was my choice; as I felt it added a real Mediterranean flare right next to our towering fig tree. 

 

It looked amazing for a few hours after painting.   I didn't count on the Cornish input to my creativity that I would receive from our badger friends come the next morning.  So much for that.  Maybe the paint should have been re-marketed as Badger White instead of Brilliant White.  Luckily we have a sense of humour when it comes to lessons from nature.

 

When it comes to it, to a certain degree you are a complete fool if you start to try and define boundaries between yourself and nature.  Let's just say you can try but you will never completely fully succeed....and quite rightly so.

 

Here's to breaking down the  boundaries forever for everything and everything!