Your 2024 Garden

[Nomadicus]

Mole or gopher? Moles generally just eat bugs.

No gophers here to my knowledge. I know moles like to eat grubs. When I brought two potatoes in to show my wife what was going on with them I noticed one had fire ant damage just like they did to the Irish potatoes. Now it's going to be all out war on fire ants.

 

[NanaK]

No gophers here to my knowledge. I know moles like to eat grubs. When I brought two potatoes in to show my wife what was going on with them I noticed one had fire ant damage just like they did to the Irish potatoes. Now it's going to be all out war on fire ants.

Could it have been voles?

They tunnel just like moles but voles love root crops like potatoes, turnips, carrots. Voles will also eat roots off many types of trees, shrubs and flowers.

I have had voles eat dahlias, carrots and a young pecan tree I had grown from seed.

Voles look like a pointy nose rat with a short tail.

 

[NanaK]

Weather has been wonderful this week! 80s/50s I love the cool mornings. Heat and humidity coming back next week.

Yesterday I moved compost. I spread it over 3 rows were I will plant some brassicas. Still have more compost to move.

Picked 2 Sugar Baby watermelons. Cut one last night. Yay! Ripe and sweet.

I am not always good at deciding when to pick melons.

 

[Sally PB]

Mole or gopher? Moles generally just eat bugs.

And earthworms.

Voles look like a pointy nose rat with a short tail.

I've caught a few in a mouse trap. They looked like a beefy mouse with a short (1" ish) tail. They have gone down row of veg in my garden and eaten the roots enough to kill the plants.

My tomatoes looked like they needed to be watered. Nope, just had a half inch of rain.

 

[NanaK]

And earthworms.

I've caught a few in a mouse trap. They looked like a beefy mouse with a short (1" ish) tail. They have gone down row of veg in my garden and eaten the roots enough to kill the plants.

My tomatoes looked like they needed to be watered. Nope, just had a half inch of rain.

I had a vole tunnel under 16 in concrete pavers into my greenhouse. Somehow entered through the tiny crack between the pavers leaving a hill of sand inside.

Caught it in a mouse trap. I thought it was a rat until I saw that short tail.

They can drive you bananas!

 

[Sally PB]

Yes, I caught two or three in my greenhouse in mouse traps. They had to tunnel in as well.

Voles, besides the shorter tail, are not as ... cute... as mice. Of course, no animal is cute if it's eating your garden produce.

 

[Nomadicus]

I've never seen a vole. First time for everything maybe. From the looks of things we may be buy sweet potatoes again this year. Not Happy about this. This is one thing we always could depend on in the past. l guess it is the nature of things when working in a new climate with new soil and man new pests it can be a steep learning curve.

 

[fuzzi]

Planted vegetables today!

I put a short fence around to discourage the cats from digging:

Then added row cover on top:

Once the weather cools I'm going to put the cattle panel trellises over the beds and add the row cover on top. I grew lettuce well into the winter last year with that method.

Tomorrow I'm planning on planting carrots, turnips, rutabagas, and possibly peas.

 

[fuzzi]

And today I made an investment in rain barrels, this one is intended for vegetable garden use.

 

[Nomadicus]

I have read up on Voles. I don't don't how they found the sweet potato ridge as much as I kept the adjacent areas tilled up that would have destroyed their tunnels. The are here according to what the State of AL has on file on them. They are down right out nasty mean destructive garden predators. There reproduction rate is phenomenal. I may have to go to a protected raised bed method of raising a few hills of sweet potatoes if we are to have any to preserve.