I've seen foxes jump/scramble over 8 foot fences but only if there was something very interesting on the other side (chickens) but maybe the rural ones we get here are more discriminating than the town ones.
I'd change your compost brand in the future - I don't know if Miracle Gro has BF&B in it but it may do. Or it could be the plant food that you used is smelling strongly. I bought an organic feed for potatoes once and my dogs would not leave it alone - kept digging up the seed spuds.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
On an individual level, I do sympathise with Gilla and anyone else who suffers this kind of damage. But collectively, I feel the trashing of "our" environment by wild animals is just retribution for humankind's relentless theft of theirs.
I have a fox that visits the garden but it hasn't really done any damage apart from burying chicken eggs. Lord knows where he gets them from. The squirrels do a bit of damage digging up the lawn. There were about 4 holes out there this morning and the shells of peanuts scattered about. It must be awful to see all your hard work destroyed.
Oh how you have my sympathy. I have cried over plants before now. You say you actually saw the foxes, I thought on initial reading that badgers might be the culprits. A lawn checked over by them for worms etc. looks as though an elephant has been digging it up.
There is a warning on packets of blood, fish and bone about dogs being attracted to it.
Foxes are very agile, my neighbour put an 8ft fence around their chicken run but the male fox still managed to climb over and kill his birds. A hungry fox is a very determined hunter, your problem might be young foxes looking for easy pickings.
Raisingirl your comment about compost just reminded me that I actually used a different compost than usual when I planted the plants in the beds - I used Lakeland peat free gold, which is to help break down clay and very rich. I can't find an ingredients list but I wonder if that could be the cause... I definitely had miracle gro in the patio pots but maybe they got the taste for it with the other! This is definitely the first time they've dug up anything planted in the flower beds, so it was quite a dramatic first time attack! The fox repellent arrived today - absolutely stinks, but fingers crossed it does the job and the same thing doesn't happen tonight. I am on Fox Watch as we speak 👀
We don't really get badgers here in Essex (I wish!) but I do have holes in my lawn recently... they have been digging at everything! I suspect it was the youngish cub I saw today at 6am merrily playing in the garden with a stolen shoe.
Josusa - I completely agree. Can't really complain too much about a few plants when we destroy their habitat continuously.
Chilli powder will cause terrible pain to any creature that has contact with it, I wouldn't use it. I wonder if electric fencing, such as is used in pony fields, would help. It doesn't injure but it does frighten many unwanted intruders away. Foxes don't jump over, they jump on to, so an electric strip along the fence top might do the trick.
Whatever your feelings about animal rights, I believe it is a tremendous mistake in recent times, for humans AND foxes, to try to domesticate them by encouraging them into gardens. They are wild animals, not cute pets, and their place is in the wild.
Whatever your feelings about animal rights, I believe it is a tremendous mistake in recent times, for humans AND foxes, to try to domesticate them by encouraging them into gardens. They are wild animals, not cute pets, and their place is in the wild.
The same could be said of the hedgehogs, birds, reptiles, amphibians, bees etc that we encourage into our gardens but there is no 'wild' left in the UK, animals either have to adapt to the man-made landscape or they will have nowhere to live. I think it's great when people can have close encounters with animals in their gardens but there should always be boundaries.
It must be devastating to have this kind of destruction in your garden. I know I find it frustrating when birds dig through my plants, tip pots over looking for food or rip things apart for bedding. The pigeons trample and break plants, sparrows nip flower heads off and take dust baths among my seedling, mole hills spring up under new plants where my watering has attracted worms. Personally though I don't think gardens would be the same without the wildlife, pests and vandals included.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Gilla I too would have been distraught, we had a deer in our wood last night. We spent three hours working it back to a corner where it could safely get out of. The nature programmes don’t show the damage wildlife can do, keep going, don’t let the four leggeds win!
Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.” A A Milne
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I'd change your compost brand in the future - I don't know if Miracle Gro has BF&B in it but it may do. Or it could be the plant food that you used is smelling strongly. I bought an organic feed for potatoes once and my dogs would not leave it alone - kept digging up the seed spuds.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Oh how you have my sympathy. I have cried over plants before now. You say you actually saw the foxes, I thought on initial reading that badgers might be the culprits. A lawn checked over by them for worms etc. looks as though an elephant has been digging it up.
There is a warning on packets of blood, fish and bone about dogs being attracted to it.
Foxes are very agile, my neighbour put an 8ft fence around their chicken run but the male fox still managed to climb over and kill his birds. A hungry fox is a very determined hunter, your problem might be young foxes looking for easy pickings.
Soul destroying.
We don't really get badgers here in Essex (I wish!) but I do have holes in my lawn recently... they have been digging at everything! I suspect it was the youngish cub I saw today at 6am merrily playing in the garden with a stolen shoe.
Josusa - I completely agree. Can't really complain too much about a few plants when we destroy their habitat continuously.
Foxy will soon realize there's nothing of interest for her and move on
Chilli powder will cause terrible pain to any creature that has contact with it, I wouldn't use it. I wonder if electric fencing, such as is used in pony fields, would help. It doesn't injure but it does frighten many unwanted intruders away. Foxes don't jump over, they jump on to, so an electric strip along the fence top might do the trick.
Whatever your feelings about animal rights, I believe it is a tremendous mistake in recent times, for humans AND foxes, to try to domesticate them by encouraging them into gardens. They are wild animals, not cute pets, and their place is in the wild.
keep going, don’t let the four leggeds win!
A A Milne