Busy Sunday in the Hood. Our favorite neighbor The Major returned from Afghanistan last Saturday. In the past week he's adjusted to a 8 and a 1/2 hour time difference, learned while it's okay to put beer in the vegetable drawer it's not okay to put in on the vegetables, been to Home Depot one million times and I believe has found out home repair is not as much fun as golfing.A 6 week old German shepherd puppy also arrived on the block last Saturday. She too is being domesticated, but since she doesn't drink beer or handle power tools it appears to be going a little more smoothly.
While watching the Major and his one true love hang a new storm door today and visits with the new puppy we gave the garden a day of beauty. The front yard and beds are pruned and weeded, the grass mowed, the edges trimmed. I was feverishly weeding a side bed when out popped a vole. That was an adrenalin rush and a half and drove me inside to make my first batch of chili for Fall 2010.
Now it's raining, the dog is snoring, the defiant cat is outside soaked to the skin. All is well in our house and I hope in yours. Oh, yeah, and if anyone has any suggestions as to how I can remove the fern chewing, hosta chomping rascally vole from my flower bed please tell me. ASAP.
Just find that vole a love match in another neighborhood.
ReplyDeletehi jane,
ReplyDeletei know nothing of voles. shocking huh?
why didn't you take any pics of all your hard garden work? damn you.
~janet
I've never seen a vole. Humane trap baited with sunchokes, release in the vole version of Iraq? Shame, poor vole.
ReplyDeleteHad to look up vole on google. By golly they do some damage! I'm with Marie trap and release miles away!!
ReplyDeleteWe painted in the cottage all day today and after 6 years of sitting there just being, it is starting to look quite good! Maybe someone will even buy it!!!
So all good in our house! xx
Denise, I would just love if it would go to another flower bed, my neighbor's is 15 feet away, what's not good about her plants?
ReplyDeleteJanet, After I fled to the house and started cooking, it started raining so no pics. Still raining today, might have to join you for a soy latte.
Marie, Poor vole? No way. It's eaten the roots of 2 hostas, 1 fern and built a nest under my persicaria. Grrr.
Julienne, Cottage pictures please? Where do I get a trap?
If you have to go with a trap, try Havaheart at your local garden center - try Hechingers.
ReplyDeleteOr there's lead poisoning... got a BB gun?
Naughty vole - they are cute but ..... - doesn't the cat chase it? Our cat used to bring voles into the house on a reg. basis!! And can we see a photo of the chilli? Glad you had a good weekend. xx
ReplyDeleteIf you lived in Australia I would say Bunnings or Mitre 10 but as you don't, haven't a bloody clue!!!! Sorry pet but we have the best mouse trap it's a square wire cage about 8X8" with a funnel in the top and a solid base which slides off. The funnel starts wide and narrows and we put peanut butter in each of the corners, Mice love the stuff. They dive in to get it and can't fit back out. Top then takes them down to the river and lets them go!!!! xx
ReplyDeleteA vole or a mole?
ReplyDeleteThe Hound doses a nice side line in pest control.
xx
We leave vole control to the cat, and she does a pretty damn good job of it! What a nice weekend you had...ours was spent traveling and visiting. Nice, but hectic and not at home where we needed to be. karin
ReplyDeleteWebb, No BB gun, no more Hechingers around here. Can you come to visit, armed?
ReplyDeleteDemi Expat, Cat too old and blind to find voles, dog too scared to chase them. Had unexpected visitors on Sunday, dropped by after rock climbing. had to feed them pronto, no time for photos. But, there will be more. It's chilly!
Miss P., Please send hound, Lab too scared of voles. Don't know why, can't keep her away from SQ's or rabbits.
Karin, I think i need a new cat. Mine blind in one eye, missing eyeteeth and walks with a hitch. But she's get em if she could, she's a toughie.
Beware the voles, and show no mercy. Seriously. I had a large crabapple tree planted at the corner of my house last Fall, voles girdled it during Winter, did not notice anything amiss until the snow thawed in Spring; trees showed some signs of life in early Spring but is now dead. I am not replacing it until the voles leave. $1,000 problem, given the cost of the tree and its installation. They also ate all the roots of two oakleaf hydrangeas, simply blew away in early spring! Chipmunks and moles do not cause trouble for gardeners, but voles eat roots. I put fox urine on cotton balls in perforated plastic bottles, that seems to help. If I see them this Winter, I will resort to Victor traps under plastic planters, which is supposed to make the traps specific for voles.
ReplyDelete