Brooklyn1 wrote:
....
All excellent suggestions. However even taking every precaution weeds
will come/gardening is work.

yep. i like to make the work as easy and
as multi layered as possible. the soil here
really can use all the organic materials i can
put down.


Also I once had the not so bright idea
to cover large sections of my garden with cardboard and to leave it
over winter... made a wonderful home for voles... among other plants
they ate the roots on my blueberry bushes and rug junipers... got all
the blueberries to heal but for three, the once gorgeous rug junipers
are no more. For mulching a vegetable garden I strongly suggest weed
block cloth, voles don't seem to find it attractive to make their
homes, but they love cardboard and they also like wood chips
especially pine bark nuggets. Once the subteranean critters establish
a home they don't like to move and I refuse to use poison... sometimes
pouring ordinary household ammonia into their entries repels them but
not permanently.

once in a while i'll see a vole, but not that
often, instead we have a good population of chipmunks
and mice around and that seems to keep the feral
cats and the neighbor's outdoor cats well fed.


songbird