I heard a rustling behind me and turned to see a huge tortoise disappearing under a shrub! That was 25 years ago in South Africa. I was thrilled to see the creature but my fellow gardeners quickly loaded it onto a wheelbarrow bound for the veld (the open grassland) beyond the garden. "Surely a tortoise is not a problem?" I asked.
"Those guys love , (a beautiful red flowered bulb) they’ll eat it to the ground overnight!" Now, we are unlikely to suffer such issues in the UK, unless of course gangland tortoises stage a mass break out of London Zoo. But we do have a huge range of native and non-native creatures which inhabit our gardens. The idea of welcoming them all feels lovely.
I mean, most of them were here before us, right? But perhaps a wild boar or Chinese water deer rampaging through your peonies puts pay to that notion. So, who are the good guys and the baddies when it comes to animals on our plots? Clearly there are some creatures most of us just don’t want: rats, pigeons and foxes usually top this bill due to the disease and destruction they spread. Aside from our resident vermin there are other creatures which are not quite so clear cut.
The green parakeets that have colonised London and swathes of the Southeast are a case in point. They look amazing in the garden, instantly adding a touch of the tropics but at the same time damage fruit trees and scare off the native birds. Badgers probably fit the same category.
They’re beautiful creatures but those powerful .