When porcupines invade

We assumed it was a porcupine eating the leaves from a courgette plant but we didn’t worry too much about it.  Then the other morning I got up to decimation, there must have been an army of porcupines in the garden.  They had taken green tomatoes and aubergines from the veg plot, leaving half eaten ones all over.  Mr FF has now put wire netting all round our crops, let’s hope that does the trick.

There’s worse.  I have for many years tried to cultivate Belle di Notte, an herbaceous perennial that flowers late afternoon and through the evening with a wonderful perfume.  I’ve tried seeds and cuttings with little success until last year I managed to keep a couple that were due to flower this year.  I don’t know why I have so much trouble with them, they grow like weeds, they get mowed down and come up again, they seem to like being treated badly but I’ve really had to molly coddle mine.  Unfortunately shortly after we returned Mr FF accidentally strimmed one of them which was my fault apparently for planting it in the wrong place (below the terrace so we could enjoy the perfume when sitting out in the evening).  I nurtured it back to life and marked its position clearly for future reference.

Then the porcupine had a go taking the top off again, I am not sure if it still has the will to live, it should be flowering now like the other one.  

One cheeky creature had climbed up onto the wall of a raised border in the middle garden and had a good munch on the juicy tubers of my iris, which is in fact very cheeky as these also grow wild and there are hundreds to eat on the hillside behind us,  which is where we think the porcupines live

A spider plant I’d been establishing in the front border had been completely destroyed, it was carnage but it could have been much worse. I’m hoping my dahlia tubers will be left alone and grateful that the hole dug next to my Passion flower had done it no harm. 

It’s bad enough having to water every evening whilst being attacked by mosquitoes without having these spiny pests undoing all our hard work.