A MOST unpleasant shock! (warning - not for the squeamish ...)

I’ve been frantically busy over the past three or four weeks dealing with various family and neighbourhood crises, so my greenhouse has just been ticking over quietly with minimal input from me. There’s nothing really critical needing attention in there, the weather has been mild and not too windy so I hadn’t been down to the bottom of the garden for several days. On Sunday, I decided I would spend some time down there in the afternoon which was pleasantly sunny. I slid open the door, stepped inside … and frowned.

There were several potted plants lying on the floor, obviously having been knocked off the staging. “Damned birds!”, I muttered as I picked them up and replaced them. Then I noticed more plants further down the greenhouse that had also been knocked off the staging, including several flowering Christmas cactus that had clearly fallen from the high shelf, bounced on plants on the staging beneath and ended up on the floor in a welter of broken buds and segments.

To make further investigations, I bent down and suddenly saw that several potfuls of geranium cuttings had been destroyed, their inhabitants pulled from the soil and scattered far and wide, along with most of the soil. A pot planted with crocus ‘Ruby Giant’ corms, which had been a free gift from Gardening Which, had been dug out almost completely and there was no sign of the corms.

I was starting to get a very bad feeling about this ….

Checking more pots, I discovered that almost every bulbous plant on the lower staging had been semi excavated, soil scattered around the pot, and something had been chewing lumps out of the sides of the bulbs. (Fortunately all my hippeastrums and the Velthiemia Viridifolias are up in Frank’s greenhouse) Two avocado pits planted in pots had been unearthed and thrown on the floor. Flowers had been chewed off the potted pinks on the staging.

Then my nose wrinkled … a foul odour was permeating the far end of the greenhouse and it got stronger as I bent down. I retreated, coughing and spluttering towards the door and some welcome fresh air.

It appears that some VERY unwelcome residents have moved into my greenhouse – RATS!

I was so gutted that I left the greenhouse and headed back to the house, too upset to even start doing much apart from briefly rescuing those plants that were salvageable. I couldn’t bear to go back down but I made sure that I’d left the door open so any prowling neighbourhood cats can go inside.

We lost our formidable ratter, Mog the Tabby, a year ago last January and the rats have become bolder and more brazen over time. His companion, our black half-oriental Soopy, is now eighteen and a half and barely able to go a few yards from the catflap in the porch to squat on the grass, because her legs are so stiff and arthriticky. So she’s not going to be making inroads into the rat population any time soon.

So tomorrow, hubby has promised to spend the whole day helping me in the garden. I plan to move as many tender plants as possible up to Uncle Frank’s greenhouse and stuff it as full as I can. Any hardier plants will be moved out of the greenhouse and put in sheltered spots in the garden. It doesn’t help that we have northerly winds forecast for the end of the week bringing a blast of arctic air down over the UK. Hopefully it won’t get TOO cold down here in the far south west.

Then we are going to have ‘A Really Good Go’ at the greenhouse and take steps to discourage the invading rats, blocking up holes and putting down poison.

THIS IS WAR, FOLKS!!!