Badger gets the blackbirds - but beans keep on running

URBAN FARMER: Growing a great kitchen garden is all about experimentation – that and keeping the badgers out, writes FIONNUALA FALLON

OH DEAR.

Give one mightily determined and very hungry badger unfettered access to a well-stocked walled garden and the result, as OPW gardeners Meeda Downey and Brian Quinn have bitterly discovered for themselves, is never going to be pretty. But when that selfsame badger then delightedly discovers a nest of baby blackbirds conveniently located at ground – and therefore nose – level (badgers have an amazingly strong sense of smell), the ensuing devastation, at least from the blackbird’s point of view, is even worse again. Put as delicately as possible, the walled garden’s very hungry badger has now proved beyond doubt that it is entirely deserving of the term “omnivore”.

“One of the garden’s gates was accidentally left unlocked over the weekend,” says Brian exasperatedly. “When I came in on Monday morning, there was so much damage everywhere that I knew straight away that he’d got in – I could see that the soil in some of the beds had been dug up, and some of the young parsnip seedlings had been disturbed. And then I thought to myself that

“I’d better check the blackbird’s nest under the rhubarb leaves, just to make sure that everything was still okay. Just a few days earlier, I’d seen the mother bringing food back to the nestlings, so I knew they’d hatched out successfully.”

But after the badger’s untimely visit, all Brian could find were the scattered remains of an empty and obviously upturned nest. “He ate them,” says Brian glumly, and he’s almost certainly right. For it seems that while roughly 50 per cent of a badger’s diet is typically made up of earthworms (an adult badger will eat up to 200 of these a day), the prolonged dry spell has meant that such a large quantity of worms has been very difficult to find.

Instead, the badger has had to look elsewhere for a source of food. “Elsewhere” means beetles, slugs, grubs, fruit, fungi, small rodents and – sadly for the walled garden’s briefly resident fledglings – both young birds and birds’ eggs. “It’s a shame,” says Meeda regretfully. “But then it did seem like a pretty stupid place to build a nest.”

But whatever about the untimely demise of its four baby blackbirds, at least most of the walled garden’s baby seedlings are still thriving. “The beetroot, broad beans, carrots (now under a protective covering of Bionet), parsnips, swedes, and coriander seedlings are all up and growing away, and we’ve just finished sowing seed of runner beans, climbing French beans, nasturtiums (Jewel of Africa) and peas,” says Meeda with satisfaction.

These have all been direct-sown outdoors in the walled garden along the base of four tall and sturdy climbing frames (A-shaped), which were constructed from timber and then covered in chicken wire before being fixed securely in position. “The nasturtiums are a bit of an experiment,” says Meeda.

“We’re not sure whether they’ll climb up the frame like we want them to. But the runner beans, climbing French beans and peas are all crops that definitely need proper support if they’re going to do well.

And it’s always better to have the supports in place before the seeds germinate. That way, you don’t run the risk of damaging the plants’ root systems when you’re driving stakes or poles into the ground.”

The runner bean being grown by the OPW gardeners is a variety known as enorma – a particularly apt name given the fact that each individual pod can potentially reach a length of up to 50cm (20 inches). Especially popular among exhibition growers, it’s a vigorous, high yielding and also extremely tasty variety, which is why it has rightfully earned itself an RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM).

Ultra-competitive gardeners might also be interested in a similar variety of runner bean called stenner, which is the result of one man’s careful “re-selection” of enorma runner beans over many years.

Welshman Brython Stenner was a famed exhibition-grower of runner beans until his death in 2002, and his Stenner runner bean was chosen not just for size but also for taste, shape, vigour and uniformity. According to Medwyn Williams, 10-times Chelsea Gold Medal winner and chairman of the British-based National Vegetable Society (nvsuk.org.uk), “the Stenner strain is the only bean that consistently wins on the show benches today”.

If you’re tempted, seed is available from Williams himself at medwynsofanglesey.co.uk.

Although they’re not planning to enter their vegetables in any competitions or exhibitions, the OPW gardeners have also chosen an RHS AGM-winning variety of climbing French bean known as cobra.

“We grew it last year in the walled garden and it was great – a really reliable cropper, with tasty, stringless beans,” says Meeda. “The violet flowers were pretty too. All we had to do was to pick it regularly, as otherwise it slowly stops producing pods.”

The same is true of peas, which is why the OPW gardeners have decided to stagger their sowing of the maincrop pea variety, sancho.

“We sowed one side of a climbing frame with pea seed, and we’ll sow the other side in about six to eight weeks’ time, just to stagger the harvest a little bit,” explains Meeda. “The plan, hopefully, is to avoid a glut.”

Whether sowing runner beans, climbing French beans or peas, Brian and Meeda have been careful to give the plants a fertile, moist but well-drained soil and a position in full sun.

“Both before and after you’ve sowed the seed, it’s important that you give the ground a good watering,” says Brian. “Particularly given the recent dry weather, as the soil is really parched.”

“And watch out for slugs,” adds Meeda. “Sprinkle a copper-based slug pellet around the young seedlings as they emerge, just to protect them in the early days.”

But even if all of the above advice is followed to the absolute letter, the walled kitchen garden’s ravenous badger is proof that the even the best laid plans (and eggs) can sometimes come to nought. That, of course, is Mother Nature for you.

So let’s hope it rains for a while. That way, both gardeners and badgers will be happy.

** The OPW’s Victorian walled kitchen garden is in the grounds of the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, beside the Phoenix Park Café and Ashtown Castle. The gardens are open daily from 10am to 4pm

** Fionnuala Fallon is a garden designer and writer

WHAT TO: sow, plant and do now

Sow in a heated propagator in pots or modules for tunnel cropping, or for planting outside under cloches at the end of May: French beans, runner beans, sweet corn, courgettes, gherkins, pumpkins, summer squashes, marrows and melons. You can also still sow cucumbers and tomatoes for late crops. Also herbs such as basil, coriander, dill, Greek oregano, parsley and fennel. Shade propagators and young seedlings from strong sun.

Outdoors, sow in modules, in a seedbed for transplanting, or in situ where they are to crop: asparagus, globe artichokes, beetroot, broad beans, carrots, all varieties of peas, savoy and other autumn/winter cabbages, all varieties of sprouting broccoli including calabrese and purple sprouting, cauliflowers, salad onions, Hamburg parsley, landcress, lettuces, perilla, orache, chicory, kohl rabi, kales, parsnips, radishes, rocket, salsify, Swiss chards, spinach, white turnips and swedes, summer purslane, lamb’s lettuce, salad mixes and perennial hardy herbs including sorrel. Asparagus peas, cardoons and New Zealand spinach can be sown outside under cloches now.

Plant out: Kale, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, celeriac, Brussels sprouts, celeriac, leeks.

Do: earth up potatoes, keep seedlings and young plants well watered, begin to harden off well-established, module-raised plants, keep the glasshouse/polytunnel well-ventilated, put up protective netting (Bionet) against carrot fly, provide support for tall plants (beans, peas, tomatoes), hoe/hand pick weeds.