I had to rake up all the mulch I put around our Dogwood tree due to a nasty vole that's been reeking havoc all around our place. Apparently voles like mulch, and I read that to prevent them from tunneling around trees to keep mulch 3 ft away from the tree. When I raked it up, sure enough, I found his entrance hole and some tunnels. You can barely see the hole halfway between the tree trunk and the brown pot. Also discovered something sprouting, it's halfway between the tree and the gray pot to the left. Probably a left over narcissus.
The vole also tunneled extensively in the front, including around the fountain I just got running, which REALLY PO'D ME! The base of the fountain just sits on top of the ground, so if it tunnels too much under it, it will start listing and I will have to dismantle it and move it again, NOT a fun job! So I googled "hot to kill voles" and found this website
http://www.howtogetridofvoles.... which is very user friendly and full of information. The only thing they suggest that I question is the flooding method and the sound gadgets. I went to the "cheap" category and chose the garlic method. After I tilled in some soil amendment, I planted 56 cloves of garlic in a perimeter in the front garden and near the fountain and marked them with plastic forks and spoons. I ran out of plastic cutlery and used some zip ties for the few remaining. (My wife teased me saying she can't wait for the green zip ties to bloom!)
Other work I need to do to combat the vole is keep the lawn mowed and rake up the pine needles and debris on the side with the tree line (voles like tree lines, pine needles, and tall grass.) That'll keep me busy (and tired) for the next couple of weekends.
On the funner side, I planted the rest of the Scarlet Runner Beans. I put some in an empty space in the cedar container next to the shed and used a fan trellis I had on hand for them to climb on. The remaining beans I planted in a smaller cedar planter and placed it next to the front porch where they can climb on the rails. The SRB that have already sprouted are doing just fine so far.
