Sooo, About That Straw Cover...

[dickiebird]

I till my garden each fall and then cover it with compost, made from chicken and burro droppings.
I let the weather "soak" the compost into the soil.
Come spring I add another layer of compost and then till that in with my "big" tiller.

THANX RICH

 

[bobm]

Don't forget... when you cover / till in compost, green cover, mulch you are feeding worms that then have a sex orgy to reproduce. Then the moles start to migrate in and follow the worms' mode of operation. We have about a dozen feral cats in our neighborhood, and I have set traps, noise makers, etc. and just about anything else that is recomended by nurseries, pest compnies, etc. to get rid of these vermin to no avail ... so far NOTHING has worked for several years as the mole population is increasing. Here in the PNW , it is illegal to use poisons or gas to kill gophers, moles, voles, etc. Anyone brave enough to share a good, bad, or ? method to get rid of the moles that actually WORKS ? PLEASE !!!

 

[Beekissed]

Can't help you there, Bob...since we got cats again we haven't seen anymore moles that weren't dead ones brought in by the cats. If folks would stop feeding those feral cats or feeding the wild birds that then feed the cats, the cat population would probably do their jobs better.

When I think about it, my Jap beetle population went higher as my mole population was eliminated. I think I'd rather have the moles.

 

[flowerbug]

for moles we've used traps that work fine for us.

the nash loop type trap works but it takes hand strength to set and with my pulled tendon in my arm that wasn't going to be workable this year. early in the fall Mom picked up a trap called the mole eliminator which you can step on to set and we put it out and nothing happened, because you do have to find an active run (moles feed about every 4 hours so if you find a run they are using you can get them), one day she was walking around another part of the yard and told me there were moles all through there so i moved the trap over there and had a mole in it the next morning.

for voles, i heard from another poster here that rat traps baited with apricot pieces stuck to the trigger will work. we haven't had too many of those the past few years.

chipmunks are the usual culprits around here and i trap and get the air rifle out at times for those. poor creatures... and then there are groundhogs and mices and deer and ... good fences help with everything but you need a pretty fine mesh to keep chipmunks out (and a hot wire part way up that they can't jump past/over).

 

[flowerbug]

Can't help you there, Bob...since we got cats again we haven't seen anymore moles that weren't dead ones brought in by the cats. If folks would stop feeding those feral cats or feeding the wild birds that then feed the cats, the cat population would probably do their jobs better.

When I think about it, my Jap beetle population went higher as my mole population was eliminated. I think I'd rather have the moles.

if we didn't have so many decoration areas i would like to leave them alone. they tend to go away because under all the black plastic and stone mulched areas there is no food for them at all. they're in the few remaining grassy areas we have though and that makes the turf rough for Mom to walk on when she's mowing. i go out and stomp things down and smooth it out.

 

[Nyboy]

Bee you can rent a big tiller for a day or 2

 

[canesisters]

Well.... this makes me very sad since I spent all of last summer setting up to use stray/hay mulch to start a large section of lawn as next year's garden.

 

[Beekissed]

Well.... this makes me very sad since I spent all of last summer setting up to use stray/hay mulch to start a large section of lawn as next year's garden.

Don't be sad....that's a GOOD move. Just be aware that you may have to combine tillage with deep mulch and that hay mulch you set up last summer will soften the ground and ready it for tilling this next season.

I don't think that composting mulch is ever a bad idea, it just needs to be worked around to suit your area and gardening situations.

 

[flowerbug]

Well.... this makes me very sad since I spent all of last summer setting up to use stray/hay mulch to start a large section of lawn as next year's garden.

don't panic.

you have kitties and chickens around (if i recall correctly)...

 

[thejenx]

Well.... this makes me very sad since I spent all of last summer setting up to use stray/hay mulch to start a large section of lawn as next year's garden.

Don't worry, it will be alright!
From what I read about mulching, it takes 3-4 years to get a natural balance between pests and their predators. In some wetter mild climates in can be better to remove the mulch in winter/spring to get rid of snails and such and then put the mulch back before summer.