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There's a hare in my garden and he's
systematically eating my plants, not
whole plants of course, bits of them, a munch here, a munch there - munch,
munch, munch - as if attending a finger buffet.
I spotted him through the kitchen window one morning.
He sat in the flower
bed grinning inanely at me through a mouthful of Oriental Poppy, so I
banged
on the window in a most vigorous way. We can't be having this sort of
behaviour in the garden, now can we?
He looked across at me, spat out the Oriental Poppy,
then moved on to my
prized Lupin (Russell Mixed), unfazed by the violent hammering on the
kitchen
window. He bit off the stem too - chewed the flowers to a pulp.
Now I was fond of that Lupin, a fine upstanding
perennial it was, and one
that had given me many weeks of bright colours on dreary summer days.
What a
way to go? Having survived slug attacks, strong winds and occasional
battering from the family dog, only to be scoffed by a 'ruddy' hare. I
was
enraged, hopping mad in fact, and so - in a 'hopping mad' sort of way - I
continued with my frenzied banging on the glass.
He cocked his head to one side, however, unconcerned,
more amused than
anything else, quite clearly a hare without a care in the world.
Then I let the dog out. This should have done the
trick, only it didn't,
for the dog was clearly in no mood to tangle with a visiting hare of a
comparable size and ran off to find his squeaky ball instead. Useless,
completely useless. So I rushed outside myself, charged straight at him
in
fact, 'no messing', at which point he took off sedately in the direction
of
the goat house.
This wasn't the end of it either, oh no, because he
returns on a regular
basis to haunt me and to taunt me.
Now - as you know - there's very little that a hare
won't eat from your
garden, for despite the fact that many leaflets and books have been
written
about the culinary preferences of hares (and rabbits for that matter) -
what
they will and will not eat - and some by eminent specialists in the field,
they'll actually taste everything. It's simple really. Until you've tasted
something, you don't know whether you like it or whether you don't, and
each
individual hare will have its own particular favourites (much like you or
I)
which is a factor often over-looked by the pest control experts. I don't
like curry, my wife does. I enjoy 'dollops' of tomato sauce, my wife
doesn't. This holds true for a hare when it comes to plants. They don't
like
Buddleias, I discovered, and they don't like potato leaves either, but if
enough hares take a single bite before making that decision then your
plants
and your vegetables are in deep trouble.
My hare (and thank goodness there's only one at the
moment) has eaten
Brocolli, Cauliflower, Carrot Tops, Parsley (that was a surprise), Fennel
(even more of a surprise), Mints, Lupins, Geums, Cerastiums, Pinks….. in
fact
the list is endless. But he hasn't touched the Fuchsias or the Hostas
yet.
Why not? Saving them for June or July, I expect, by which time I shall be
fenced off. An expensive business - this fencing off business - a
nuisance
too, but worth it in the long run, particularly if a laid-back hare
without a
care multiplies over time into more of the same.
Now I must check through the window and see what he's
up to.
(copy write 2002 Patrick Vickery
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