SQUIRRELS IN THE GARDEN

Ian
I am living next to some woodland and I have a few squirrels in my garden. Is it true that the grey squirrel has driven out the red squirrel by being more aggressive! Thanks F.O. by e-mail

Reply
You are very lucky. Squirrels are not that common here in Inishowen, or the whole of Ireland for that matter. In the midlands of England where I spent a lot of time you were forever chasing grey squirrels away from the picnic basket in the local parks. Squirrels are rodents, related to mice, rats, voles and hamsters.

They are also known as tree rats, usually by people who are being overrun with them in the garden. They can seriously damage trees by ripping away the bark to eat the soft fleshy parts below. They also take out the growing tips of trees which makes them fork at the top. This is all right in the wild but not so good for the prize specimens you pay lots of money for in the garden centres. There are two types of squirrel in Ireland, the native red squirrel and the North American grey squirrel. The grey squirrel has extended its range in Ireland, but not as quickly as England and Wales it would seem. In England the grey squirrels were introduced in the late 19th Century from several sites such as Woburn Abbey, in Bedfordshire. Throughout the last century, rates of red decline in both Scotland and Ireland have been markedly lower than in England and Wales. It is believed that this could be due to a lack of the virus in the greys in these areas, which were introduced from different sources to those carrying the virus in England. Initially people thought this was because the grey squirrels were more aggressive but recent research has proved it is more complicated than this.

Evidence suggests that grey squirrels carry the parapoxvirus virus, which is fatal to the red squirrel. Grey squirrels don't appear to succumb to infection, unlike reds, which appear to suffer 100 percent mortality in the wild. Ecologists have also pinned the grey's success on its superior ability to compete for similar nuts, insects and berries. The competitive advantage may even hinge on its habit of eating acorns, which the red is unable to utilize. Squirrels do not tend to hibernate but the red squirrel does sleep for periods. The grey squirrel remains more active and this too might be the reason for the downfall of the red. The grey squirrels not only get the bulk of the winter food but they can also eat nuts before they are even ripe, hazel in particular. Again this is something that the red squirrel cannot do. The grey also includes roots, bulbs, insects, bird’s eggs and young birds in its diet.

The advantages of all squirrels hoarding nuts are that they sometimes forget where they left them. These seeds are then left to germinate and grow to be new tree. All in all then it seems that the red squirrel is becoming a bit of an endangered species in comparison than the grey variety. If you want to entice your friendly rodents nearer the house you could put some nuts out on the patio. A word of warning though you could attract far more that just the squirrels!

Environmental.

GARDEN DESIGN-SYMMETRY AND BALANCE

Symmetry and balance are important factors to take into consideration when planning your garden. Symmetry can be effective when you are thinking about including formal features in the design. Having a container either side of the door with a couple a choice shrubs can look very eye catching. If you have a formal garden, a line of lavender running either side of the path would be pleasing to the eye and smell lovely in summer. As in nature though we don’t really see that much symmetry. It’s more of a balance.

Balance in nature is something to add to a design. Look at how plants and flowers grow in the wild and how they complement one another. The balance is all about a pleasing visual diversity of plants and hard landscape features. Imagine a brick pathway winding through a large, lush green lawn or a clump of trees being balanced by a bed of hostas underneath and you are getting the idea.

Horticultural.

PEST FREE GARDENING

Ian . I recently found a large infestation of insects in my greenhouse. They are dark and crusty and roll up into a circle when disturbed. What are they and do they harm plants? Thanks R.G. Buncrana

Reply: The creatures you mention are members of the millipede family. Millipedes have between 30 – 400 legs and have a hard-shelled, round, segmented body and short antennae. They have 2 pairs of legs per body segment. Many have an offensive odour. These pests move slowly but they are very determined. To give you an idea what to look out for in the soil the eggs are small and white. These eggs are laid in clusters of 20 to 100 in the soil and hatch in about 3 weeks. Females lay as many as 300 eggs in the summer. As they get older the millipedes moult their skin and grow larger. You have found the pests in the greenhouse because the adults over winter in the ground. As you have mentioned they curl up when disturbed, this is to protect themselves from predators.

Plants attacked
Millipedes like tomatoes and strawberries. They also like cucumbers, squash, melons, beans, corn, peas, and root crops such as beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips and potatoes. They like overripe fruit too. They live in moist soil and congregate around the plants in soil that is rich in organic content. Since they don't have a waxy coating they dry out easily and die. So compost piles, leaves and other plant debris are favourite wet places to hide under during the day. Millipedes feed on the foliage, stems and roots of healthy plants. They can also damage seedlings.

Prevention
There are some precautions you can take to keep the pest down. Cleaning up plant debris (especially decaying material) and eliminating wet areas may help control these creatures. This could still be unsuccessful though. I had a lot of millipedes in my tunnel one year and even though I thought I kept a clean house they still thrived. If you are growing fruit in the greenhouse, try to keep it off the ground and pick when it ripens. I have tried the same traps that I use for slugs. Beer traps and upturned pots with grass in, but these methods only catch a few. The other method would be to wet the soil thoroughly and cover with black plastic. Get up early the following morning and you will find the pests on the surface of the soil. Scoop them up and dispose of them as you will! Someone suggested putting dilute Jeyes fluid into the soil. I’ll let you know how the experiment works out.

PEST FREE GARDENS
Millipedes are not the only pests to be found in gardens. A healthy plant is a pest free plant so here are a few tips for keeping a pest free garden.

1 Choose plants that look after themselves
Don't create a plant protection problem by trying to grow unsuitable plants. If they are growing in the right conditions most established plants - and especially natives - will shrug off all but the most severe pest attacks.
If you have persistent problems with particular plants, try moving them somewhere else. If you can't find anywhere suitable, give up the unequal struggle and grow something different - they are trying to tell you that they don't belong in your garden at all!

2 Give new plants a fighting chance
Beware sowing or planting seedlings too early, especially on a cold, heavy soil. When plants have to cope with soil or weather that is too cold for them, they struggle to get going and are a sitting target for pests. You can use cloches or fleece to warm the soil first and to protect plants in the critical first week or so. You can also sow indoors in pots or a container and plant out when the seedlings are big enough to survive a few nibbles. Remember to keep back a few spares to replace the plants you do lose - it usually involves no more cost and little extra effort.

3 Nip problems in the bud
Get used to looking at your plants closely and often. If you have not done it before, it will open up a new world of tiny creatures engaged in a continual battle for survival. It will also enable you to detect the most destructive pests in the early stages, when a few quick squeezes between finger and thumb may snuff out the problem (millipedes sound very crispy!). You will also be able to see whether or not natures own defenders (for example ladybirds) are winning before you bring in the reinforcements!

Horticultural.

COLLAPSING CORDYLINES

I don’t tend to look at the weather forecast that often on the television, as I find it more reliable to stick my head outdoors to see what the weather is going to be like for the day. The Inishowen peninsula tends to have it’s own weather. Different to the forecasts. So imagine my surprise when I woke up one morning last week to the sounds of a gale blowing outside, now the odd gust of wind is no problem, but I certainly wasn’t ready for this particular storm.

I have some display stands outside the front of the house that are full of young plants and over wintering perennials. These were blown over, throwing the plants one-way and their containers the other. One of the stands fell onto the polythene tunnel, putting a large gash in the polythene. I managed to catch that straight away; if the wind were to get inside the tunnel it could rip the cover straight off. I was also dodging branches falling off a dead tree that is on the edge of the garden. Flying all around me were empty plant pots that hadn’t been put away properly and empty compost bags were circling overhead as the wind caught hold of them. It has taken me the best part of a week to get things sorted out and it still remains a mystery to me where exactly some of the plants disappeared to, if anyone living near me finds an odd plant on their driveway you know where it came from. And if your garden has some old empty compost bag stuck up a tree I can only apologize!

Collapsing Cordylines

There have been some Cordyline casualties this week as well, especially with the more mature specimens. These plants tend to have quite soft trunks and can break when the plant gets top heavy. I do know from experience that new growth will grow from the base of the plant, should you choose to remove all of the old plant. But if your plant has just snapped halfway through the trunk and you wanted to save the original trunk by bandaging it together, now there’s a different matter. Shrubs and trees can survive being patched up this way, (think of grafting), but with a mature plant such as a cordyline, it would have to be very well staked and bandaged to keep the two parts really tightly together. All I can say is it’s worth a try and if it fails then you will still have the new growth from the base. If anyone has successfully bandaged his or her cordyline please let me know

Horticultural.

SEAWEED

One good thing to come out of the storms is the fresh seaweed blown onto the beaches. Although seaweed (kelp) isn’t the most attractive thing you can put on the garden, it certainly is very useful, especially as winter mulch around the beds and borders. The look of seaweed can be improved if it is finely chopped, but I tend not to bother as it soon starts to rot down, releasing potash, sodium, boron, iodine and other valuable trace elements.

We are in a perfect location for making good use of this free natural resource, as we have so many places we can go and collect the odd bag. You can buy seaweed meal in a concentrated liquid form, but it is quite expensive. If it is collected off the beach then you may have to wash it a couple of times to get the excess salt out of it. Don’t worry about getting all the salt out, as what’s left will probably benefit the soil rather than harm it.

Horticultural.

SLUG RESISTANT PLANTS

Photo: Plants with thick skin like this Agave 'americana variegata' have a bit of protection from pesky slugs.

( Click on the title to get to the BBC link of 92 slug resistant plants)

With all this talk of mulching, some people have expressed their concern over the increasing slug population; this need not be a problem as the salt in the seaweed could help keep them down. Wood ash would help, or any of the standard methods, like drowning them in beer or throwing them over the fence.

One remedy to this annual problem would be to put in plants that slugs wont touch. Now I’m not too sure whether there are really any plants that a hungry slug wouldn’t eat but they obviously favour some plants to others.

There is an AtoZ list of slug resistant plants at the www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 website. There are 92 different plants in the list, and most of them are pretty common. Here are a few to get you started.

Ajuga-groundcover for alpine beds

Astilbe-popular herbaceous plant with attractive plumes.

Choisya-fragerent, evergreen shrub.

Poached egg plant- good groundcover, attracts hoverflies.Pinks (dianthus) flower all summer

Horticultural.