Finally I started planting in the vegetable garden today! After weeks of weeding, spreading compost, weeding, planning, weeding, raking, weeding, making rows, the time has come for me to plant. Have I mentioned I had to weed a lot? Local folklore around here has it that one shouldn't plant before the June full moon. Folklore like this has its roots, so to speak, in the untold generations of gardening experience, something not only I respect but deeply appreciate. The only problem with this is that I'd rather plant while the moon is waxing, not waning. So I do start planting with June's new moon but slowly, starting with the most hardy crops. Today I planted two types of onions, yellow and red. I haven't tried red before so I'm curious to see how they do. With the onions I put in different leaf lettuces and beets. Once my dill is big enough, I'll put some in there, too. This is only my second year of companion planting, I'm still learning as I go. It seems to be a bit of a hit-or-miss proposition, sometimes it seems to make a difference, other times the bugs just trample right over the plants that are supposed to repel them to get to the plants they want to eat. I'm companion planting more for pest control than anything else but I'm not going to whine if I get a bigger yield from it, either. If nothing else, the garden certainly looks more interesting since I started mixing and matching plants. It was just nice to be back in the garden planting today.
I was outside just finishing off another round of garden work, sweaty, bug-bit and satisfied. As I put away my gardening tools, a bunch of crows started a ruckus. Glancing to the field, I saw what was bothering them. A red fox was loping through the long grass. This is the third time in as many weeks that I’ve seen a fox and it’s not always the same one. I’ve seen two different colored foxes, one red and one cream colored. The cream colored one was spotted by my son when we were driving home.
“Hey Mom, there’s a fox in our yard,” says he.
“What’s it carrying in its mouth? It’s not the cat, is it?” asks just a slightly panicky me.
“Nope, too small. I think it’s a rat. Yeah, it’s a rat, it’s got that long ropey tail thing going.” says he.
“Good, it can have all the rats it wants,” says a much relieved me.
So we have foxes in the neighbourhood. We’ve lived here for four years and while I have seen foxes on occasion, I haven’t seen them in our area much less on our property. Figures, I decide to get chickens and then foxes from all around start trotting unconcerned across my front yard. They can’t possibly know I have chickens, they’re still in the brooder in our basement. May-be the rats attracted them. Come to think of it, now that the rats are gone, I’ve only seen one fox since. Well, if the rats attracted them, the noisy chickens are going to draw them, I’m sure.
While I want to protect my chickens, I certainly don’t want to be banishing foxes. They’re extraordinary creatures. They’re part of the canine family yet there's something of the cat in the way they move; spry and light with their bendable backs and incredible balance. When I see one make her way across a field, supple and flowing, I am reminded of wheat in the wind. They are beautiful to watch. I’d much rather learn to live with them than without them. We are planning to make the coop and runs predator proof as much as possible, we’re burying 1 /1/2 inch fence two feet into the ground, that should stop them from digging in. I have no intention of loosing all my chickens to foxes but if I loose one or two, I’ll find out how the foxes got to them and fix the problem chalk it up to experience and get on with my life. And hopefully, the foxes will get on with theirs.
