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The worst pests in the vegetable garden are the carrot and cabbage root-flies. To
avoid using pesticides, we use a fine nylon netting called Environmesh which prevents the root-flies from laying their eggs in the crop. It is essential to make sure there are no gaps
between the edges and the soil or small birds get underneath and the local population of feral cats and pine martens then use the net to trap the bird. Once the prey is trapped, a hole is
made in the netting to remove the prey. Pine martens make a neat circular hole and frequently leave a mound of droppings beside the hole, nice creatures that they are.
Needless to say, the holes then let in the root-flies making the Environmesh, which costs almost £500 a roll, useless. Grrrr
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Slugs are another major pest and we reluctantly use pellets on non-crop areas to reduce their numbers. There
are a fair number of hedgehogs in the garden but I have yet to see one eating a slug - I`ve seen them eating beetles, worms, frogs, bird`s eggs but never slugs. I am convinced the frogs
would also rather have a worm or a beetle instead of a slug.
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The aforementioned pine martens, which are a bit like large stoats, have a liking for soft fruit and are adept at making
holes in nets or polythene to get what they want. They also like birds, squirrels, poultry, in fact there is not much they don`t seem to eat. Pine martens are partial to jam
pieces (sandwiches) which some people put out to attract them round their houses because they sure are pretty and are fascinating to watch. Their ability to climb, burrow and chew through
wood has virtually stopped people keeping hens round about here.
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Also a pest of the fruit garden is the bullfinch which occurs in large numbers despite becoming scarce elsewhere.
Bullies eat the young fruit buds and are so numerous that it is 10 years since we had a plum and there are precious few apple buds left untouched. Bullfinches were controlled
at Ardtornish up till the 1970`s. We moved to Ardtornish in 1980 and not long afterwards, a lady, who had never before been off the Island of Tiree, came to the gardens when the apple
orchard was in full blossom and she was speechless as no trees grow on Tiree because it is so windy. Now she would have to search for the blossom.
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The deadliest diseases are brassica clubroot and potato blight (the scourge of West Scotland and Ireland in the past).
Potato blight is the only disease in the vegetable garden that we use chemical sprays to control - the only alternative to spraying with fungicides is to stick to early potato varieties
which are lifted before blight takes over. Unfortunately, locals refuse to eat those nice disease-resistant, high-yielding but unfortunately bland-tasting modern varieties so we grow old
varieties such as Duke of York, Sharpe`s Express, Kerr`s Pink. |