Has anyone got a hedgehog for sale? Or hire? Or better, a family of hedgehogs? For snails are a menace in this particular type of garden - Dublin inner suburbs, Harold's Cross and Rathgar, built around 1860. For the walls are of fine stone which, as they lose their cement, shelter huge populations in some cases, of the said gastropods. More than a generation ago a newly-wed pair came across the phenomenon - but also were presented with the solution through no effort of their own. The owners had done all they could by day, using soot in the innocent way of their day; they were losing the battle. Then, liberation. One night they heard crunching. They went to investigate and found they had acquired a hedgehog - how, they never knew. And the hedgehog was in his prickly heaven: all the snails he could possibly eat. Crunch, crunch. Blissful background noise for the owners as they went to sleep.
He never got a mate. How it would have been with the place arun with little pricklies, the owners were never to know. And unfortunately, after two or three years they found their saviour dead. No signs of violence. There were no noxious pesticides used in the garden. He was just dead. Not long after, the couple moved to a bigger house for a bigger family. Now they have found that a young couple have moved into a similar-age house with a similar problem. Snails. Gratuitous advice: try to get a hedgehog. The couple are well schooled in organic gardening through Rossinver and the Henry Doubleday Foundation. They are not going to put down any noxious chemicals. A few days ago their young daughter was seen picking three snails of an artichoke leaf. Moreover, they have in the space of 100 feet by 40 an admirable concentration of fruit and vegetables.
They inherited from the previous owners two sugar-pear trees and some apples. Now they have raspberries, loganberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries - even, dammit, two quince trees. Plums. Peach? Can't remember. But vegetables galore and herbs. Broccoli: "You must take some home with you." Lettuce, of course. And they couldn't do without four short drills of their own potatoes. Why do they do it?, you ask. Why doesn't everybody? As to the hedgehog, we'll leave it for another year until the children are a bit more able to handle the idea. Y