Six on Saturday – Mouse in the Greenhouse!

I’ve spent the day on my knees, clearing out the greenhouse. Mostly stuff (densely packed pots, fleeces, watering gadgets, feeds, labels and inventive covers accumulated over a number of years) that resides under the long bench. I’ve been finally forced to confront this cluttered, dumping-ground by the mouse of the post’s title. At least I hope it’s only one! It must go. I am tired of the heartbreak of seeing destroyed bulbs, cuttings, seedbeds and seedlings. I thought that the problem had gone away over the summer with the sliding doors being left open all the time and no obvious damage occurring. Maybe the mouse did indeed take a summer break, but with the colder nights it is definitely resident/back now.

The method of eviction is still to be decided. I had hoped it would just run out the door with all the disruption I was causing. No such luck. I know this, because I saw it jump out of the last cardboard box I was sorting, watched it shimmy passed a bunch of nearly unreadable min/max thermometers and disappear back under the bench somewhere. Yes, I know that I brought this on myself. I agree that I should be a tidier, better organised gardener. There’s theory and then there’s practice though!

Anyhow, I thought that I might as well do a mouse-orientated Six this week …

1) We start with the clues …

Pots of cuttings (salvia) and new seedlings (kale, fennel and pansies) have been turning up strangely empty or apparently clipped to soil level. While it’s been horrendously wet recently and there are definitely slugs and snails in the greenhouse, yesterday I found a pot of moss curled parsley half eaten and I began to suspect mice again:

2) A Sighting

I was working outside, near to the greenhouse when I registered the sound of tapping or scratching on glass. I thought it was coming from behind a stacked pile of module trays next to the water butt, but as I continued to investigate it became clear it was happening inside the greenhouse, at the corner. I spotted movement and when I went to the doorway I could just make out a tiny head and protruding ears behind the tomato collar. Amused, I went to get my camera and after a few attempts at spotting it again, it returned to the corner and I took the shot (camera remember):

3) Clearance and a nest

So, I started to try to determine where its retreat was and in the process ended up sorting hundreds of pots and covers. It was when I moved some bundled frost protection fleece that I discovered a pile of nibbled damson stones and shredded bedding (capillary matting I believe) inside a stack of biodegradable paper pulp pots (insulated – very clever!):

4) Snug within layers and leaves

I started to tip the nest into the bin, but then was fascinated by the tightly packed lining of birch leaves in the middle of the nest. All the soft stuff (fleece and matting) was used for the outer layers.

5) A gruesome remind of mortality and multiple generations

As I continued to tidy and sort through the accumulated gardening paraphernalia (home-made seed tray tampers, paper-pot making tools and a collection of bagged walnuts from a number of different species/cultivars – half of which had been eaten), I uncovered several other places where nests of soft padding and assorted debris had been constructed. Oh dear, that’s a worry! And at the bottom of a watering tray I found a tiny skull. Definitely not the first generation then …

I finished clearing under the bench and was just working down the pile of gloves and boxes to the side, when the mouse jumped out and escaped beneath the bottom shelf.

So, now I have to go a buy a humane trap or two. Wish me luck!

6) A happier note to finish

There’s a nice startling pink display of nerines in the greenhouse currently, but this is a photo of some outside in the border, against a much nicer background:

A mousey six today. Back to normal next time.

To see more pretty flowers and interesting gardening stuff head to Jonathon’s blog where he hosts the ever-growing Six on Saturday meme.

Have a good weekend!