Garden landscaping and foxes - how to handle?

[WednesburyUnreasonable]

We are in prime fox territory, ie South-East London, and I’ve just spotted four brand new cubs living under our neighbour’s fully-decked garden. Unfortunately, next door’s immaculate show garden comes at the expense of ours, as the only entry way is under our fence. So basically they live under her garden, and play, dig and shit in ours.

We were already planning to have the garden entirely re-landscaped, as currently it’s a bit wild, very overgrown in places and the previous owner’s tastes are not really working for our lifestyle (ie lazy). However, I’m not sure how best to sequence this with the foxes - wait until summer and the cubs hopefully move out, allowing us to lawfully block up the den at the same time? Press on now and accept we can’t touch the den and the foxes may immediately mess everything up again, leading to further work? Get someone in first to humanely encourage them to move on? Is that even a thing? I’m originally from rural Scotland, where people would just shoot them, which is obviously not how I’m going to proceed!

Living with the den in that position indefinitely isn’t an option - they made the place filthy by constantly dragging in weird rubbish last summer when we had newly moved in, and we have a four month old. I can’t imagine even letting her in the garden currently.

Any similar experiences / advice much appreciated!

Could you build cleverly placed raised beds/architectural features that create a 'fox tunnel' from their entrance to the gap under the fence? So they can easily pass to the neighbours decking but not into your garden. The foxes will be eating any rats and may be preferable neighbours to a rat colony under the decking.

Please leave the den alone while there are cubs present, its hard enough for wildlife to thrive as it is. Wait until Summer when the cubs have moved out, which they will as they go on to form a new territory. If you really feel youre going to have to block up the den at some point, please make sure it's 100% vacant before doing so.

I'm avidly in favour of helping wildlife and make my garden as wildlife friendly as possible. The previous owner of the house, you might describe as "lazy" but environmentally was doing a lot of good letting parts of the garden run wild. We have an old lady behind us who does the same and it's great for nature.

i lived with a fox den and had a toddler at the time. They used to steal his toys and any shoes that got left outside.
it wasn’t an issue. It was lovely to watch, I just packed it away at away and checked the morning for any random pop’s that got a bucket of hot soapy water. Then we watched the babies play at night.
they do a good job of ratting, they also stop other foxes moving in. My best advice learn to manage it and embrace it. We all co exist on this little island.

I asked a fox specialist on a trip to the British wildlife centre. The random crap they bring back is for enrichment and learning for their cubs. Which is why I found loads of golf balls in my garden, they’d collected them for the cubs to play with. They also mate for life. So separate over winter and come back together - hence the calling.

The foxes will be eating any rats and may be preferable neighbours to a rat colony under the decking
Excellent point and one of the reasons I don’t mind the foxes that are currently living under my shed!

Get someone in first to humanely encourage them to move on? Is that even a thing?
Not sure if it is a ‘thing’ but even if it is it’s probably pointless. They are there because it’s perfect for them and so it’s highly likely, probable, that others will just move in to the territory if you moved this lot on. We sat in the sitting room late last night watching four teeny cubs come out to play in our garden. And dog out lots of the newly topsoil filled raised flower beds I had done on Wednesday! 🙄 I’ll just put up with it I think, not much to be done. The cubs will move on eventually, though there will likely be more next year.

sorry didn’t proof read! I packed the toddlers stuff away at night. Which is sensible anyway really. I use to say It was the night shifts turn to enjoy the garden (foxes, hedgehogs, bats etc).

our gardens may be owned by us for us us to enjoy. But they are the houses and homes for millions of others.

I’m describing our lifestyle as lazy, not the previous owner, who planted lots of fast-growing bushes which have now grown out of control.

As I’ve made clear, we will not be unlawfully blocking up a used den.

I’m all in favour of helping wildlife but unfortunately my generosity simply can’t extend quite as far as having my daughter’s tiny amount of outdoor space covered in fox poo and next door’s nappies and chicken carcasses retrieved from the trash, which is what happened last summer. I have a tiny garden and lots of neighbours with badly secured rubbish. I honestly don’t care about the foxes living next door, or even any damage to our lawn etc, but I’d like them to find another path under so that we don’t have to constantly deal with the filth.

The suggestion of building in a path is a good one.
you run the risk of the foxes undoing anything you do to ensure they can get to it regardless. Which will be more costly.

if you’ve unsecured rubbish. Rats really are a bigger problem

We’re planning to put in raised beds along the edges - this is simply because that’s what we want, but it will inevitably interfere with use of that den entrance and can’t be done while they are in there. Hence the question about how on earth to sequence all this - I think people are focusing on my comment about blocking up the den, but while I obviously want the foxes to stop using our garden in this way and will be taking steps to try to encourage them to find a new path next mating season, it’s not actually the primary point of my post. I think I’ve phrased myself badly!

I think it’s probably a good idea to leave a slight gap - it can act as a fox corridor if they really can’t find another way under the deck, and might help contain the random shit they bring with them to behind the flower beds.

Reading back, I realise I’ve not made myself clear at all about our plans, whoops - the landscaping we had always planned will involve putting in raised beds. We are not putting them in specifically to block up the den entrance, but we also won’t be working around the den entrance because I don’t want to actively encourage them to keep using our garden. Hence the question about how to handle it re:timing etc so that we can carry out our plans, but not unlawfully interfere with a den in active use.

Ok. Yes that makes sense, I thought you weee blocking it up. I would probably do the work at the end of summer, have a chat with the fox project to double check about managing it.

leaving a gap is sensible otherwise it would be like you coming home and you finding your door blocked up, your at least going to have a go at moving it.

oh and you don’t have a fox problem. It’s a neighbour one

Say what you will about my neighbours, I admire their dedication to repeatedly hanging out their underwear in June despite it inevitably ending up chewed in my garden.

Yeah, I think I’ll just accept that we won’t get what we wanted done pre-summer. Once the current lot are out, we can evaluate how best to do what we want to do while discouraging the foxes from destroying our garden with huge holes but also not entering perpetual pointless turf wars with nature.

oh god that is grim, worse than the nappies and chicken carcasses!!

I had two cubs last year who are now adults and come to shit every day and play every night. They also bring weird stuff into the garden which left me confused as to whether or not they were bringing it in or if it was fly tipping! Mostly toys appear in my garden and they have destroyed our garden toys. My solution is to make the fencing higher which I plan to do shortly. At least they keep the rats out!

You're probably not allowed to make your fencing any higher than two metres, and I hate to tell you this, but they're pretty nimble. The foxes we see easily get onto our garden building roofs, which are at the two metre mark. They also get over our side gate which is over six feet.

Maybe a better or additional option is the cat proofing that people use to keep their cats in and others out?

I don't know how far you are into the process of getting a quote for the work but in my area most companies ( i work in landscaping) are booked until the end of summer for any building work. Most would be happy to book you in for autumn as that van sometimes be a quiet period as demand drops.