Advice for a hopeless gardener

[jennyjj01]

Whoo Hoooo. I have grown some FRUIT!

While weeding around my legacy gooseberry bush, I saw this tiny berry on the ground. Looking up .... Whoop Whoop. The little bush is brimming with little 15mm diameter berries. Pink and green. I've given it ZERO care and attention.

Apparently not ready to harvest, but it shows promise.

And some of my strawberries have big happy flowers.

Meanwhile, a question.....
Chop and drop with weeds. Hoeing or plucking, and letting the weeds rot where they fall.....
.... Dare I do that with my marestail shoots? What I've dumped in a bucket has gone brown and dried. After a week, I THINK it's stone dead.

Oh. And some bu66er's been eating my peas. That never happened in my garden. Can they recover from half eaten leaves?

[jansman]

Whoo Hoooo. I have grown some FRUIT!

While weeding around my legacy gooseberry bush, I saw this tiny berry on the ground. Looking up .... Whoop Whoop. The little bush is brimming with little 15mm diameter berries. Pink and green. I've given it ZERO care and attention.

Apparently not ready to harvest, but it shows promise.

And some of my strawberries have big happy flowers.

Meanwhile, a question.....
Chop and drop with weeds. Hoeing or plucking, and letting the weeds rot where they fall.....
.... Dare I do that with my marestail shoots? What I've dumped in a bucket has gone brown and dried. After a week, I THINK it's stone dead.

Oh. And some bu66er's been eating my peas. That never happened in my garden. Can they recover from half eaten leaves?

Weeds: pull ‘em up and move.Many types can re root just lying there.

Peas are desirable to many creatures . Will be eaten by mice or birds probably. Then there are slugs and snails of course…

[jennyjj01]

Meanwhile, a question.....
Chop and drop with weeds. Hoeing or plucking, and letting the weeds rot where they fall.....
.... Dare I do that with my marestail shoots? What I've dumped in a bucket has gone brown and dried. After a week, I THINK it's stone dead.

Oh. And some bu66er's been eating my peas. That never happened in my garden. Can they recover from half eaten leaves?

Weeds: pull ‘em up and move.Many types can re root just lying there.

Peas are desirable to many creatures . Will be eaten by mice or birds probably. Then there are slugs and snails of course…

Thanks. Will do.
The critters are deximating my direct sowed peas, so replaced with indoors seedlings. I think it was pigeons.

[Arzosah]

"Deximating". Obviously a typo, Jenny, but a *really* good one, I love that word

[jennyjj01]

"Deximating". Obviously a typo, Jenny, but a *really* good one, I love that word

I was using my phone whilst being driven in a shaky van. It should be a word, though, shouldn't it.

[Frnc]

"Deximating". Obviously a typo, Jenny, but a *really* good one, I love that word

I was using my phone whilst being driven in a shaky van. It should be a word, though, shouldn't it.

Verb: to have ten partners.

[jennyjj01]

Rats!!!!!
I'm conflicted by these beautiful intelligent little buggers...Vermin.... But so cute !
It all started when I got passionate about composting...

I've been bringing home all the green waste from a cafe for a few weeks, and tonight, I Christened the new composter by emptying 20 big carrier bags of cafe waste into it:...
I do hope my new heap doesn't upset the locals with pong and rat infestation.

*It's pretty big. About a 4 foot cube. I'm blagging cafe waste at a great rate...
This will be the best heap on the site. I wonder if there are prizes

Prizes!? I might get severely reprimanded by the committee!

It seems my composting is going completely against best practice and is sure to attract rats: Much hated by other allotment owners.
Consulting the man on the internet, including Charles Dowding and BBC Gardeners World and others, it would seem that
a)Rats are inevitably going to be around
b)Compost heaps will always attract them
c)Some folks say try to seal a composter. Yeah Right!
d)food waste in compost heaps will attract them more
e)I could be helping them prosper and could cause the population to explode!
f)Baby rats in a nest in a compost heap will be easier to cull.

***K IT!
I'm making a problem. I MIGHT have to become a ruthless murderer of these cute bu66ers.
I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN DO IT! To encourage them to get born and then to murder them haunts me as a concept.
HELP!
My previous encounter with a mature rat that visited the shed was disturbing enough, where I caught the thing alive and was then troubled by it's disposal. It's also a legal nightmare to not deal with them appropriately, and 'appropriately' cuts across my moral compass. Whack them with a spade is appropriate. Drown them not so!

I have to find my own moral balance on the issue. Not there yet. If TSHTF or if they got out of control, and it was me or him, I'd get ruthless. Till then I don't want to kill any critter without a semblance of justification.

British Red and others recommend some brutal but humane traps. I expect they'll be along shortly to give me a stern talking to. I know I'm in the wrong, so be gentle with me, guys.
Am I the only soft fool that would not want to kill multiple rats: Maybe baby rats?

Incidentally, what do the more sanguine amongst you, do to dispose of killed rats?

[jansman]

Rats should be controlled. I always used ferrets and terriers back in the day. Now it’s Fenn traps and poison. Rats are bad! When I was seventeen I caught Weils disease - caused by rat p*ss. Nearly died. I have no issues at all when people want them dead. Rats are diseased and people should have the old fashioned attitude towards them.

[jennyjj01]

Rats should be controlled. I always used ferrets and terriers back in the day. Now it’s Fenn traps and poison., Rats are diseased and people should have the old fashionede attitude towards them.

I expect my heap will soon be rat HQ, if it's not already. It will be a prep to start adjusting my attitude before I get told to. Will commission a trap station of some sort.... Which I suppose I'll need to monitor.

[jansman]

Rats should be controlled. I always used ferrets and terriers back in the day. Now it’s Fenn traps and poison., Rats are diseased and people should have the old fashionede attitude towards them.

I expect my heap will soon be rat HQ, if it's not already. It will be a prep to start adjusting my attitude before I get told to. Will commission a trap station of some sort.... Which I suppose I'll need to monitor.

Keep turning it regularly. That disturbs them.