We have fenced the veggie garden. It became a priority because the broad beans I had sown in a rough bed came through earlier than expected, and the sprouts were being eaten by chickens and possibly night -time visitors. Fortunately my parents arrived on Thursday, and they have more experience than I with fencing, so they helped get a chicken wire fence round the developing veggie patch.
It’s not your classic patch, as there is no level ground of any size, so the far corner of the rectangle goes way down hill, but I’ll see what I can manage with terracing small beds. It’s actually a relief to finally have any space enclosed that I can work inside, and having it fenced gives a definition of size to it that wasn’t obvious when I just had it staked out with poles.
Fortunately we have plenty of bamboo to use for poles. I had cut a stock of canes provisionally a couple of weeks ago, so they have been great for cutting down into fence posts, with one end sharpened for driving into the post hole. We got 50 m of chicken wire and set off, one afternoon for setting the posts and the next for putting up the wire.
The broad beans were looking great this morning. We had two days of light rain, and now three days of sun are forecast, and it’s still warm (not bad for Winter), so things might get a bit of a kick on from the rain. More new sprouts today were coriander, chervil and caraway (11 days after sowing) and the lettuce which I sowed between the rows of broad beans, also 11 days ago.