Low maintenance garden? Your having a laugh!!

[Corinne]

I remember seeing a post a while ago about someone wanting a low maintenance garden. The query and suggestions were around plastic/membrane covering and then topped with bark/mulch.

I have already done this so did not add my two pennys worth ... until now.

Now I can say...low maintenance...NOT.

Don't get me wrong, if it is to make all that time spent weeding a thing of the past it's a winner BUT if it is to keep your garden looking fairly tidy for long periods then I am afraid it is not proving to be that way for me.

Everyday, 3 or 4 times a day I have to go around the garden picking bark (and we are talking a few handfuls each time, nicely spread out of course) off the grass and put it back on the flower bed. All I need to do now is to identify the little bleedin critter and find a way to stop them.

This critter will firstly remove the bark from all along the the edge of the flower beads. Then from around every bushe, tree and plant. Once this is done, it/they will start digging small holes all over, down to the plastic and in some cases start pulling the plastic up as well. All the while making sure that the displaced bark goes over the garden edging (a good 2 inches higher than the flowerbed) and spreads out over the grass.

So what is this critter? At first I blamed the dog, but after consideration and a test on what happens when I am out on a walk with her she has been ruled out and as she is a big German Shepherd, any hole she digs is easly identifiable. Next it was the neighbours cats but if and when they have dared step foot in my garden the dog will start running around like a nutter trying to track them down so thats them ruled out.

So...and I promise this tale of whow will come to and end real soon...my guess is that the critters are birds but as yet have no solid proof. Have I sat on the balcony and watched for ages to try to catch them at it...yes. Does the dog spend a lot of time in the garden as a possible gard dog and deterant...yes Is there any let up in this distruction...no

I will admit to feeling a tad bad about deniying birds access to any possible tasty worm that may be lurking below the plastic but there are plenty of other gardens they can go dine in.

So, to conclude, this plastic/bark option is proving far from maintenance free!!

Has anyone else got this problem or more importanty, solved it?

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

No but I've read about it; the suggested solution was chicken wire which doesn't sound very attractive.

[Liz]

I agree with alcazar, it is almost certainly a black bird. Personally I'd rather see a blackbird forage than worry about a few bits of bark, which in our case end up on the lawn. I have also found that out cat thinks I put the bark down for his personal benefit, now that I can do without

Liz (29)

[Penny29]

Hi,

We did the membrane thing when we lived in London - never again!!! It was a complete pain in the butt each time I wanted to add new plants and the bark drove me mad too! Although having said that, we did inherit a garden with 20 years worth of weeds and it certainly solved the problem as, after 2 years, I took the membrane up and became relatively weed free plus worm-rich.

Penny