Page 14 - Brandon Sun - Your Home your Way (2019)

14 THE BRANDON SUN • YOUR HOME YOUR WAY • THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019

A wattle fence made to protect a garden on a property in Contrada Petraro in the mountains of northern Sicily. In northern Sicily, fences are essential to protect
gardens against wild pigs. (The Associated Press)
» WATTLE FENCES...

…Weaving branches takes time, yields rewards

CONTRADA PETRARO, 19th century, but their numbers wild pigs. ing a fair amount, they can mal-
Sicily — They come in the mid- have exploded since they were Our farm, like much of the function, and pose the obvious
dle of the night and are gone by reintroduced more than 20 years countryside hereabouts, is patch- problem of causing nasty electric
morning. But without fail, they ago and crossbred with domesti- ily ringed by wire fences thread- shocks.
leave their calling cards: Pronged cated pig species, authorities say. ed with strands of barbed wire. Sturdy wire fences with ce-
footprints and gashes in the Plant a vineyard? Don’t both- These fences weren’t designed to ment posts are common. But I
ground where they’ve dug with er, locals told me. They’ll eat all keep wild pigs out but to keep found them unattractive, expen-
natural abandon. your grapes. flocks of sheep in. Held up by sive and boring to look at with
This nocturnal troublemaker Put up a fence and they’ll find withered sticks and even sections their uniformity in shape and
in mountainous northern Sicily a way in. These pigs can jump 3 of plumbing pipe, they were old purpose. Besides, I was told that
is the “cinghiale,” the wild pig, a feet off the ground, I learned. and falling over. They were use- pigs will get under them eventu-
bane to those who tend a garden. One neighbour told me he less, and a nuisance. One section ally.
When I came to live with was removing his vineyard due cut across our land and had to be As spring approached — and
my wife and two boys on a small to the pigs and their bottomless removed both for safety and ease with it an urge to sow seeds and
abandoned farm that we bought appetites. “They’re terrible,” he of passage. I didn’t want my boys plant vegetables — we still had
here in the Madonie Mountains, said with regret. to get caught on the barbed wire no fence. And on several crisp
the locals quickly instilled a fear But I had visions of turning while they were running and winter mornings, I found the
of the cinghiale in me. Accord- sections of our three acres into playing. telltale signs of wild pigs: big
ing to many people, these ani- garden spots overflowing with With wire cutters in hand, I holes dug around olive trees and
mals have made gardening near- carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, removed these obstacles. along muddy trenches where
ly impossible. herbs, artichokes. Many people string up elec- rains drained off our hillsides.
The wild pigs disappeared I began to think harder about tric fences around gardens. But
from Sicily around the end of the fences that would keep out the there are problems: Besides cost- » Continued on Page 15