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Porcupines and the plough
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The continuing saga with the potato eating porcupines continues. During the night they once more descended into the field and did their worst. The only positive aspect is that now they are so used to arriving and feeding undisturbed that they have left a clear path in the long grass in the fields surrounding the barganews vegetable garden, showing where they enter and where with full stomachs they leave. This now means that we can try some of the local remedies to counteract these animals.
Apparently they are susceptible and adverse to some particular smells – human urine, vinegar and crushed mothballs. These will now all be tried along with a “maybe idea” of putting one or two of those cheap solar powered lights in the middle of the field in an attempt to falling them into thinking that there were humans still around. Watch this space.
Not withstanding some of these setbacks, this morning at first light found us standing in the bottom field waiting for the arrival of a large tractor and plough. Forty minutes later, peace and quiet had once again returned to the area and instead of a green field was now spread out in front of our eyes, a large expanse of brown fertile looking soil that had not seen the light of day for many years. The project moves on.
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(c) RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA
12:11 pm
One more idea, popular in California: There are inexpensive pellets sold in U.S. farm supply stores that emulate the odor of foxes, porcupines’ most feared enemies. You shake the pellets along the periphery of the field and (supposedly) the porcupines won’t go near it. It would be surprising if such products weren’t available at Italian agrarie.
10:40 pm
Dear Rookie Howker,
Marking your territory will not work and the solar lights will only tell the little tattie hounds they have arrived. You need to steep the seed potatoes in your urine overnight post chitting but pre planting. The effect is twofold in that not only do the porcupines not like the taste, the potassium and potash in the pee promotes a very strong and vigorous root structure thus making the spuds that much harder to uproot. To strengthen the effect get absolutely minging on scotch whiskey and have a doner kebab on the way home from Aristo’s. Use this urine mixed 3 to 1 with Irn Bru and watch them “grow not go!”
The farming community in the North of Scotland has not lost so much as a chip to the little blighters in the past one hundred years using the above mentioned tried and tested technique.
Happy planting,
Maris Piper
Home Farm
Ellon by Aberdeen