Garden beds made by moles?

We have talked on permies about using moles to dig your garden beds, I've always thought that's a great idea. Something I did for other reasons is bringing this to my mind again.

This area has been under a serious heat dome. I didn't realize it was coming, was just working on things at my own pace, got some edging beds cleared of weeds, replanted with alliums, and mulched with last year's leaves, then seeds for some easy grow rowdy things (zinnias, kale, parsley etc) put into the mulch. And then the heat hit. I have been watering every morning, hoping to let my replanting and seeds grow.

There's an interesting effect going on though. It's so hot and dry that where I'm watering is pretty much the only green out there and the only non-rock hard soil. Worm population explosion. Grub population explosion. And the moles are having a GRAND time! That whole area is seriously soft due to moles (ankle twisting if you are not careful) and if I wanted a garden bed right there, removing the grass would be simple, that soil is turned at least 8 inches deep. I don't want one there, the maple trees put out close to the surface feeder roots and I learned that they will just turn a garden bed into a solid rock of roots in a year, but the idea....

If I wanted to do this right, I think I'd put drip irrigation lines under leaf piles, keep it damp, let the wildlife have it's way for a couple of weeks, then run a turning fork through it all. Bet it would be as soft and easy to work as this is. You might have to be sure there are moles in the area (I don't think you can buy seed moles on the net!) (Although you might be able to get paid to set mole traps, use live traps, and put the moles on your land, make sure you have a LOT of land though, suburban neighbors WILL get MAD if you add moles to the area!)

Could make swales this way too, put drip lines and mulch where you want the swale, let the wildlife do their thing, then dig out the soft dirt and move it to where you want a planting area, leaving the swale behind. Repeat as needed.

I have dark dwelling, burrowing little rototillers running out there, and I'm wishing I had focused them better. And for what it's worth, moles are carnivores, they eat worms, grubs etc, not your plant roots.

I had never thought of using moles before. I have covered an area with leaves and given it time... but it took the little guys (worms, bugs, microbes, etc) a whole fall, winter, and spring to get it soft and "tilled". Adding moles might speed things up.

Matt McSpadden wrote:I had never thought of using moles before. I have covered an area with leaves and given it time... but it took the little guys (worms, bugs, microbes, etc) a whole fall, winter, and spring to get it soft and "tilled". Adding moles might speed things up.

Making sure it's wet might help too. And if you need to, buy a tub of red wiggler bait worms and toss them in. The moles around here move in pretty fast. I learned here that bait worms catch a lot of moles!

I expect that moles would be similar to mice in that they "poop as they go", so I suspect they turn those worms into fertilizer fairly fast?

Anyone know if that's the case?

Jay Angler wrote:I expect that moles would be similar to mice in that they "poop as they go", so I suspect they turn those worms into fertilizer fairly fast?

Anyone know if that's the case?

I can't prove it, but everyone poops, and I know they don't like to come up above ground, so I assume so.

I've done the deep leaf mulch thing for new beds and yeah, a full season minimum before it's worth planting into. Never had moles to help but I can see how they'd speed it up considerably.

We are on the same boat, except I also have armadillo coming out at night and digging holes in the wet spots. Soils are loose but some seedlings also get damaged.

I think the thing would be live traps to move the moles to different areas of land to build soil in different sections.  I like this idea of live trapping moles where people don't want them and then bringing them to where people do want them.

I'm sure there are moles here, likely kept in check by the feral cats nurtured by a kind hearted neighbor, but I have yet to see any. The cats certainly got rid of our chipmunks, and most of the squirrels. That leaves me with the other burrowers mentioned above, the worms and grubs which are welcome and encouraged to dig to their multiple hearts' content.

And ants. Yes, I am one of those misguided souls who intentionally seeds his garden areas with fire ants to plow, aerate, and fertilize all my growing spaces, to tremendous effect. If I had moles, I'm sure I'd put them to work, too.

Hmm. Using moles to till your garden beds sounds like a great idea at first: they sure are tilling the heck out of my little lawn right now! How would you bait them to visit your beds?
Because moles are insectivores and carnivores, they do not eat plant roots, bulbs, (yeah, great!) or grass.
So, yeah, you will still have to deal with your Johnson grass, which is a curse here, in my sandbox..
Their diet consists of  90% earthworms. Then beetles and other insects, spiders... Beetles, ants, crickets, slugs, centipedes and millipedes.
I want to keep my earthworms, though.
Another question is: After they have tilled your beds, how will you get rid of them? Will they come back once your  earthworms do?
Is there a critter that would rid me on Johnson grass and other undesirables while leaving my bulbs and roots alone?

You know I've thought of that too--for gophers instead, as we have many. I don't know how it is with mole diggings, but I've noticed that nothing grows very well where the gophers have dug for quite some time. It's odd as you'd think things would grow better, and that it'd stir up at least weed seeds, like when you disturb the soil by digging it with a fork or shovel, but no. Things just don't grow in there for at least a season.

Prairie dogs are who dig my soil.  It doesn’t seem to grow anything for some time.  What they bring up is subsoil.  Is it possible there aren’t seeds in the subsoil?

I tried an experiment.  I took a rake and a mixture of seeds down to the prairie dog town.  Around each hole, I raked the diggings fairly smooth and tossed handfuls of seeds out, then raked again to provide light cover.  I used seeds different from what grows there in between the holes.  If there’s germination I will be able to recognize the new species of plants, as well as by the locations… 🤞🤞🤞

I did it before I thought we might be going to get some rain, and, lucky me, the rain came.  We’ve had intermittent showers and sun for at least a week.

In another part of my pasture, there are tiny green seed leaves of a local brassica.  I will be visiting my seed test plots as well as making more.  Early fall is the best tme for planting.

Sounds good, Thekla. Let us know how the experiment turns out, please. You also might want to sew the seeds in the areas around the loose soil too, to serve as a control. Good idea about the subsoil.

Thanks, May,  it would be good to have a control area.  I have missed these rains so things won’t be equal, but I do have an area with more developed soil that is also bare, and my long term objectives for my lower pasture are to have more vegetation and fewer prairie dogs, so I don’t lose any thing by seeding additional areas.

I worry that if I don’t cover my seeds with something, soil or plant material of some kind, then the birds and mice will take the seed, but it’s probably worth a try.  

We’re hoping for a wet season, and with snow as mulch once we get late enough in the year, so it’s a perfect time for getting seed out and germinated!

May Gardner wrote:You know I've thought of that too--for gophers instead, as we have many. I don't know how it is with mole diggings, but I've noticed that nothing grows very well where the gophers have dug for quite some time. It's odd as you'd think things would grow better, and that it'd stir up at least weed seeds, like when you disturb the soil by digging it with a fork or shovel, but no. Things just don't grow in there for at least a season.

That's interesting as it is counter intuitive. But I remember that at least one other person made a similar remark.

I have posted before how moles make under ground irrigation for me.  As the flooded areas of the field dry the moles  fallow the edge back.  When the rains return this month and area floods again the tunnels cary the water back out into the clay soil that otherwise resists the water from the surface which has dried over the summer.