When I planned to grow my own food in the middle of a game reserve I knew I was going up against the odds. Careful planning of the beds was necessary to avoid my food being eaten by other creatures. Firstly, I had to think of every animal on the reserve and plan how to stop them eating the vegetables. My final plan is to have a caged in area with shade cloth to protect the plants. While it will take me some time to get this ready I decided to plant out one raised bed to at least get some growing done. I planned to use netting around the bed to keep porcupines and small buck out and hoped that the baboons would be preoccupied with the citrus orchards a few kilometers away.
This last weekend I planted all my seeds directly into the bed. I did not erect the netting as there were no visible plants to eat yet. I was confident that all would be well with my seeds.
But I missed something very, very obvious and when I went to check if the bed was still damp this morning I saw to my horror – two scratched heaps of sand exactly where I planted my seeds. My first thought was – darn it – I didn’t know that porcupines dig in the sand for seeds. I took a closer look and saw some very familiar spoor. I am getting quite good at identifying spoor – especially these ones because I see them all over my dining room table! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!
Darn it Fred! This is not your giant litter box!
Photo of Fred by the Bean
In the picture above you can see the family and the house they renovate in the background. The Bean enjoyed the shows too because they often include his children and their perspective.
