voles (was Let's Talk About Mulch)
 

"Shiva" wrote:

For the voles, I don't know. Maybe a layer of permatil on TOP too,
just under the last layer of soil?

For my veggie garden I got one of those German made anodized
aluminum tubes with one pointy end and a plastic screw-on cap on
the other end, containing a holder for 4 "D" cells and a wee motor
that drives a buzzer/vibrator gadget for a few seconds every 30
seconds. It seems to stop things burrowing in or near it: the garden
patch is full of burrows and holes without it, but new ones stop
showing up after I put in fresh batteries and put it into the dirt.

I don't know about voles: I have a huge colony of them a couple hundred
yards from my roses (I have 36 acres) and whenever I run the bush
hog over it, hundreds swarm out of their vole holes; they have not
discovered my roses yet or my veggie garden and I don't know whether
this German gadget would deter them. It's about $30, and various places
sell it, e.g. Jerry Baker's catalog/web site.

Mark.