Working around Moles
The AntiGardener
Posts: 2
Half of our "garden" used to be a railway banking. This land has been untouched for 30 or so years. It's overgrown with Blackberries, Nettles and Ivy. I'm in the process of hacking this all down, digging over the land to get out the blackberry roots and the ivy creepers and burning what I've hacked down or dug up in an oil-drum, and digging that ash back into the ground as cheap fertilizer.
We've also got moles. Death-Machine the Cat has killed one, and had another which we rescued and but back.
My neighbour on the right side has a lovely lawn, easily 40 years of care and tending. My neighbour on the left side has just as much ivy, blackberries, nettles and fallen tree branches as we had. On the far side of that our far neighbour has a nice turfed lawn, and has had mole problems in the past, and the ivy is starting to creep up to him.
We will eventually be hacking down the neighbours scrub land to control the ivy and the blackberries. (She is an OAP, and is happy with us doing this. Currently she has conifers blocking off the bottom half, so she only sees the tidy top garden.)
I'm hoping to put a rough lawn in the bottom garden at the end of the year, so the grand-kids can play down there. I don't particularly want a beautiful ornamental lawn that the moles will destroy and the kids will kick to pieces, and even rough grass is better than the current eyesore.
My problem is that I don't actually want to kill the moles: I'm happy for the cats to kill any that are stupid enough to make themselves visible and I really don't want the moles to move into the neighbours nice gardens and wreck their hard-work.
I've done some research, and know that moles feed on nasty grubs and goody worms at root depth. So I've come up with a cunning plan: What if I were to seed my new lawn with drought resistant grass that puts down deep roots (Tall Fescue seems to be the variety). Would that force the mole to feed at a deeper depth,1 or 2 (or more) feet below the surface where the tunnels wouldn't be as disruptive to me? I could deal with one or two molehills, and the cleared scrub next to us in the would also be available to the moles.
Would my plan work? Are there any good ways to live in harmony with an active mole?
Posts
I think you've got the makings of research for a thesis there - you'll end up with a Doctorate in Horticulture at this rate ......
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Moles dig at hunting depth so deeper in winter when the worms burrow down to escape the cold and more shallow in summer or wet weather when the worms are nearer the surface. We have them and dependng on conditions we get molehills or galleries that sink when it rains or leave a trail of grass that goes brown from drought form having tunnel instead of soil for its roots. Ialso get mole hills in my flower beds which then become anthills as they are raised and dry. In my experience they barge straight through roots Under grasses, rhubarb, currant bushes, perennials........
The best treatment in the UK is a professional mole catcher.
Cats and dogs catch them too but with our terrier cross, that always involves some digging which is as bad as the moles. As I live in Belgium I can blast them with one of these - http://www-be.detaupeur.com/ - but we haven't used it in anger since we got the dogs. Excellent toy though and very satisfying and effective.
If you do catch and release any live ones, do it across a stream as they are less likely to come back but who knows? I've watched one lot migrate from the paddock across the road, tunnelling under the road and into our garden.
Here I am again, a year and a bit later. I've finally finished clearing, digging and levelling. I did this in sections, giving Moley time to move from where I was destroying Moleopolis, the legendary city of moles, She is still around, digging her heaps in the bare soil of the AntiGarden, and a few heaps in the scrub garden next door.
The grass was sown at the end of last week: I was hoping it wasn't too late; the rains had started, and the sun had gone away. Now we are looking to have an Indian summer, which is causing every other seed out there to grow, but not the grass, yet...
Hopefully, I'll have grass in the next fortnight or so. I'm expecting plenty of molehills as the new Moleopolis is built, but I can live with that. The real test will be next year as the lawn establishes itself and deepens its roots.
As Pansyface suggested, I'm sticking a compost heap in behind the garage, with plenty of nettles to go on it. I just compost the green bits and stick the roots in the garden waste bin, don't I?
on the plus side mole hills make a great addition to potting compost, just be aware that you might get some weeds popping up in it.