Today we finished the job that took up our day last Sunday without resolution – a fence round the veggie patch to stop the hens from being able to dig up my seeds and plants so we get to eat them rather than them.

Last week’s efforts were thwarted by a huge slab of concrete under the soil right where a Metpost should have gone. We’d thought we would have to hire a Kanga to break it up before finishing the job but instead we bought another fence panel and cut one in half so we could put posts either side of the concrete. How about that for ingenuity?

The job today went well. The Metposts went into the ground fine, the posts went on OK – the fence almost (well if you use your imagination quite a bit) looks like it was built by competent people. We went indoors happy.

My parents came over. They spent a couple of hours here chatting and having a cup of tea. We waved ‘cheerio’ to them and went back into the garden to admire our handiwork and what did we find?

Four hens in the veggie garden, ambling around scratching up the soil and gravel looking for stuff that caught their eye to eat..

How did that happen? We’re not sure…..we’re hoping they pushed the gate open because we’ve not yet put a catch on it. We can’t be certain though. I opened the gate and chased them out through it and three of the four went out that way. Sherri, the fourth, got herself in a flap though and couldn’t work out where to go. I chased her for 5-10 mins round and round and eventually she got in such a flap she flew….straight over the top of the new fence.

Pah pah and more pah. Even if they didn’t get in that way at least one of them now knows it’s possible. Have we wasted our efforts? Will my veggies get eaten up by the hens again? I’m really fed up!!!

So much for the job going well. BTW - This image shows the fence sloping not because it does, but because the camera was on its tripod on a slight hill when I took the photo of the miscreants and I didn't notice until I uploaded it AFTER we'd chased the hens out of the veggie garden. You can see the green edges of the raised beds in the background behind the hens.

A year ago today