Bloody pigeons!
I have dug another vegetable bed, and planted broccoli and cabbage. I thought about covering the young plants up, but never got round to it before the inundations of rain we experienced last week. A week of unseasonable rain put me off going down to the allotment, and when the sun finally returned, I wandered down to find nothing but the skeletal remains of my plants. Even my sprouts, that I planted last month, have been pecked to the very brink of extinction.
I quite like pigeons. We live in a semi-rural area, and have pretty looking Wood Pigeons around here, not the rough urban 'feral' pigeons. At my garden at home I always leave out a few handfuls of grain each day, and welcome the bloaty grey birds when other, less sympathetic gardeners invest in 'pigeon proof' bird feeders and so on. Which makes it all the more galling when the ungrateful feathered thieves treat our allotment like an eat all you want buffet!
In order to discourage the bird-burglars I have erected a tent of mesh and canes, and have made a bird scarer, cunningly fashioned from bits of string and ribbons of plastic cut from old bin bags. I checked the plants last night, and it looks like I might have done the right thing. The skeletal plants have began to put out new leaves, and so hopefully they should recover. I have learned a valuable lesson- from now own those blasted feathered footpads will have to go else where for breakfast!