Brock is Back
Hmn …the badger appears to have returned to the allotment but I guess he needs to eat and he did at least leave us two sound cobs. And after a lovely holiday in Ireland it was good on return to find a substantial harvest of crops that he’s not attracted to…
We were in Co. Tipperary visiting friends who have a very inspiring garden designed and planted by Lucy the owner/gardener. Apparently it’s a very windy site but with judicious planting of beech and yew hedges they’ve managed to make a sheltered oasis with deep flower borders and a stunning paved terrace for dining. I loved this screen made from 18 cm square deer fencing on the sides and roof of the arbour supporting a red Virginia creeper and Rosa lutea clambering over the top…
The deer fence material provides support for climbing plants but allows a view through to the garden. Here it is from the other side with the dining area in between…
The herbaceous border was in full flower with Achillea ‘Moonshine’ mingling with Aster frikartii ‘Munch’…
Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Firetail’ behind Agastache rugosa ‘Liquorice Blue’…
And Stipa gigantea provided a delicate screen…
An old garden bench fitted in perfectly…
As did this gate to the orchard…
Gosh maybe I need something like this to discourage the badger…
Lucy’s veg patch was looking great and the grapes growing in the polytunnel were delicious …
I picked dahlias, sedum and cosmos with nepeta and verbena for this week’s vase …
Backlane Notebook 
I’ve given up regularly growing corn in our veg patch because something always beats us to eating it. I assumed it was rats, but now you’ve mentioned badgers that has given me pause for thought. I am fairly certain they are visitors to the garden. How do you tell? Do they knock whole plants down?
Badgers are weighty creatures and the soil around the corn looks heavily crushed so my guess is that they’re the culprits.
I was also going to say are you sure it isn’t rats eating the corn, it looks like it is still standing and I think badgers would have knocked the whole plant if not the whole row down. Your other crops look delicious.
Last year the site rep installed an infrared camera and a badger was seen prowling around at night. It could be rats but other allotment growers have recently had beds of carrots and parsnips ravaged so my guess is it’s brock.
I love the asters and achillea together, what a gorgeous combination! So lovely to come home to big bowl of veg to eat, autumn harvests are awesome although I think the beans here are coming to the end – there are a few flowers but I’m seeing a lot of honeybees caught in spider webs which is a shame. My sweetcorn cobs were very small and the ones I left to fatten up went a bit mouldy with all the rain. Never mind, there’s always next year!
Yes there’s always next year! I am about to do a major re-plant of a bed here to get more late colour. I was so inspired by the Tipperary garden and so aware that mine had yards of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and not much else. I lifted ,most of it and put it in six bags on the pavement with planting instructions and it all went. Very satisfying since I love giving plants away.