Greetings!
In my last post, I lamented about how the chickens in the compound have been destroying the plants (pepper and tomatoes) in my little garden. I had seen these plants produce flowers that got me really excited because that's a sign that fruits are coming. But before I knew it, the flowers had either been shaken off or eaten by them.
I had the idea of either fencing the garden to prevent the chickens from entering or covering the plants with nets, but the resources posed some difficulties.
After today's work, I had the urge to do something about it. Without hesitation, I grabbed a cutlass, found some dry sticks (though they were very fragile), and collected some sacks. My initial plan was to perforate the sacks with big holes since I didn’t have a net, which would have been the ideal material for such covering.
I dug holes around the plants, deep enough to hold the sticks securely in case the chickens tried to push them over. After placing the sticks, I used the sacks to cover the plants. However, looking at it, I could tell that the sacks would likely end up smothering the plants, no matter how much I perforated them. The only solution would have been to pull the sacks further away and create a bigger cover, but I didn’t have enough sacks to do so. Also, if the covering was too spacious, the chickens would find their way into the space.
Fortunately, while searching around the other blocks that serve as mini-dustbins, I came across a used mosquito net that had been discarded long ago. I cut it into the sizes I needed, and it worked perfectly. The net was easy to work with—no need to perforate it for holes since the tiny holes were already there. I used ropes to fasten the net to the sticks, and that solved the problem.
The way I set it up, the chickens will find it extremely difficult to get through—unless they manage to pull out the sticks. And if that happens, well, they’re no ordinary chickens. Yes, I’m letting myself be superstitious here. Lol
Some pepper plants already have flowers on them, and I’m hopeful this batch will survive and produce fruits this time around. I’m very confident about this unless, of course, the plants decide to reject the good care I’m giving them.
Because I had lost hope in the plants before now, I became very lazy about watering them. There didn’t seem to be much point in watering when the flowers were being destroyed by the chickens anyway. But now that I’ve taken measures to protect the plants, I’ve resumed watering them. I made sure to soak the soil thoroughly today, and I plan to do the same tomorrow morning and continuously until rain starts.
Thank you for reading.
All photos used are mine