Gardening column: Foxes and gardeners are not compatible

It was about fifteen years ago that foxes first found our thin rectangle of land, made up of the back gardens of longish terraces of Victorian houses with shorter ones at either end.

From scuffly pawmarks, it looks like there are only two places they can get in, over garage rooves. Once inside, a calm space awaits, with trees, sheds and a fair bit of undergrowth. It was not long before foxes started burrowing under a shed and bringing up a family.

To their human neighbours, the novelty of their coming soon wore off, with local opinion divided between delight at the adorable fox cubs, and frustration at the nuisance their upbringing entails  - tunnelling, knocking over flowerpots, squashing of plants, detritus from takeaways, defecating, seasonal screaming.

The fox cubs in Ruth's garden may look cute but they are a nuisance for gardeners and householders (Image: Ruth Pavey)

With a gap of years in between, two fox families have lived under my shed, reducing me to gardening despair, but this year has been the worst.

They nested elsewhere, but the adolescent cubs have learned how to use the cat flap.  This is what prompted me to ask the local council for advice.

Via clicking on various council website options, including “anti-social behaviour”, a paper headed Urban Foxes, A Guidance note for Living with Foxes arrived.

The notes make clear that lethal control is out, that foxes are not vermin and that the council has no statutory duty to deal with them. Mainly, we are encouraged to tolerate or deter rather than persecute.

Ruth turned to the council website and discovered a link to charitable trust The Fox Project (Image: Ruth Pavey)

A quote from London Wildlife Trust’s “Fox Code” suggests we should celebrate foxes for having managed to adapt to urban life. But really, might not celebration be excessive, when that adaptation includes coming indoors?

Among the suggested sources for further information is The Fox Project, a charitable trust that incorporates a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation service with a fox deterrence consultancy.

Liking the sound of it, I sent off for The Fox Project’s publication, Unearthing the Urban Fox, by Trevor Williams and John Bryant.  A thoroughly sympathetic, informative and illustrated booklet, it explains what foxes are up to, their reasons for doing things, and something of the quality of their short and high-risk lives.

I’m not sure that one of their favoured methods of deterrence, using the repellent Scoot, will work in my garden because it might repel the cats as well, but will research it further. But I do recommend readers with anything like a soft spot for foxes to go to the project’s website, foxproject.org.uk

THINGS TO DO 
Highgate Horticultural Society Autumn Show is on Sunday 29th September 2.00 – 4.30pm at The United Reformed Church, South Grove, Highgate Village.

Beale Arboretum in its autumnal guise is open for the National Garden Scheme Sunday, 20th Oct, 1.00 – 4.00pm.  Not exactly local, except in the hotel’s lost predecessor, Beale’s Tea Room in Holloway, West Lodge Park and its trees are well worth the trouble of getting there, Cockfosters Rd, Hadley Wood, EN4.

End-of-season clearing up and cutting back, wildlife will benefit if you don’t get too carried away.