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voles make runs just under the surface, or when you move something that was resting on the surface the runs will be exposed and open. mole tunnels are deeper and a bit larger.
voles love our no dig mulch
and they’re supposed to be very destructive, particularly eating roots. in our patch some things are thriving despite them, while other things are disappearing and we’re not sure yet whether this is voles, slugs, the grubs that come when you are converting pasture into garden, or a team effort.i’ve been advised that a bottle sunk into the soil, neck upwards, can cause vibrations (from wind blowing across the top) that voles and moles don’t like, but we haven’t got round to trying this yet
i top-dressed my blueberries with needles and twigs from a pine tree that had been chopped down and left in a heap. i was also considering collecting people’s discarded xmas trees for this, will do this next year.
does anyone know if they are as harmless to hedgehogs and birds as the manufacturers make out? and do they work?
after spending too much money on beer for our slugs we are are now going to experiment with yeast & water traps as we heard it’s the yeast in the beer that attracts them
i second what several people have said:
– coal ash is toxic for the garden
– wood ash is good either in small quantities in your compost heap, or directly around fruit trees and garlic (my garlic had an instant growth spurt after i put it on). it provides a potassium boost.
– charcoal finings DON’T add nutrients (it’s almost 100% carbon) but DO provide nooks and crannies (surface area) for soil bateria and fungi, and water regulation in soil, thus helping long-term soil health. some permaculture types swear by ‘charging’ the finings before application, by using urine or nettle/compost tea, or putting it in the compost heap instead of straight on the garden. i haven’t had time to do this yet so i’ve just been scattering it on top of my mulch.
– you could break up ordinary charcoal to make finings, but do see if you can find some charcoal made in UK woods, as mass-produced supermarket stuff is pretty destructive to environments overseas, whereas charcoal-making is making a comeback in the UK as part of reviving woodlands here (google coppice / woodland management for your area, or a local organic/permaculture group will know where to find it), or DIY-it as someone saidhi, sorry i don’t have any answers to your question but i’m excited by the sound of your project and by your success with growing those plants in the UK. do you have a blog or anywhere where you have written about what’s worked and not worked?
hi,
the rhizomes themselves are not all that thick, they are as thin as grass stems. but they can make a thick mat of themselves immediately under the visible ‘grass’. (i.e. where the rhizomes are in the light they will sprout into grass, where they are in darkness they will be white and stringy.)
if you had only a bit of couch grass you might find some long, white, thin, rhizomes running horizontally but not a mat of the stuff.
but if you have none then i think you will be fine! other UK grasses just give up when covered using charles’ method
they look just like your picture, except they are not translucent, more of a solid cream colour.
is is possible that vine weevils would be hanging about in a pasture? we only began the garden in september, and these grubs were already here. there are no other veg plots within half a mile, just sheep and cows. and our weather is in no way mild as we are in the pennines.
something has been eating holes in the centre of my strawberry leaves though, and vine weevils like strawberries?
thanks for your input
garlic is a good companion plant for raspberries, it supposedly reduces fungal disease. actually it’s a good companion for almost everything except for legumes, if i remember right.
hello,
we were talking about coffee grounds the other week:
http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/content/spent-coffee-groundshi kate, i don’t have any experience yet to offer re lettuces, but i noticed you sow your leaves on the descending moon leaf days. i am trying to get my head round asc/desc moon phases this year (last year i only paid attention to whether it was a leaf/fruit etc day).
my understanding so far was that the desc moon is important for transplanting, but not important for sowing. i even read somewhere that the asc moon is good for sowing as the ‘forces’ are drawn ‘up’. i know there’s no right or wrong to this really, so i’m interested in why you like to sow on those days and have you noticed it working well? i’m hoping to find time to do some experiments myself.
a recent thread i saw on another forum seems to think that it’s hard to overuse coffee grounds –
http://www.permies.com/t/10260/woodland/Coffee-grounds-mulch