Gardening can be a challenge....

.... in Orkney, what with the wind, the short growing season and my garden being so close to the shore with the resultant salt in the air etc.  Then add to that free range hens.... and it's a miracle that *anything* gets to grow in my garden! Though at least we don't have rats or rabbits on the island!

So.... in an effort to have *some* crops from the veggie patch it is necessary to erect barricades against my feathered friends...... however first I have to get the seed into the ground...... not easy with Henny Penny IV on guard!

Eventually they got fed up with being sworn at and wandered off for a bit of judicious grooming!

 

But then sneaking back when they thought I'd calmed down.....! Of course nets help keep the hens off but with a severe gale warning in progress it is necessary to protect the nets from being blown across the water with stones......

I'd made a cat's cradle of string for the peas to grow up, hoping that would keep the hens at bay... nope they did a kind of "chicken hopscotch" across the patch so I had to resort to *more* netting for now..... And Borage seeds now under a plastic container.....

Hopefully next year I'll get gates onto the garden to keep the hens at bay..... limbo dancing hens maybe? Irene of Breckan could teach them a thing or two about limbo dancing ;-) Now *that* is a story I cannot tell on my blog..... one must protect the (not so) innocent....tee hee!