Cristo Balete

Dennis, I have not had onions work.  In fact, the voles have chewed chunks out of them as they sit on top of the soil.  They also went after some walking onions that were expensive, so I had to put chicken wire around those.

The latest plant I've just discovered gophers and voles leave alone is mustard, field mustard and salad mustard, which is pretty prolific in its ability to reseed.  Even traditional farmers on the West Coast will use mustard as a soil amendment between crops, so when they turn it under it adds biomass to the soil.  The salad mustard I got in a mix does well in a hot greenhouse and doesn't instantly go to seed, makes a nice, mild salad.

I also catch lots of mice and voles in a spinning can suspended over a 5 gallon bucket.  See below.  A wide stick leads up to the top edge of the bucket.  The can is suspended on a piece of wire coat hanger that reaches from side to side, and is at least 3 inches down from the top so they have to commit to the can when they jump from the edge.  It's a soda or beer can with holes just big enough to fit the wire through so it can spin freely and evenly.   There's a touch of peanut butter on the ramp stick and on the can that lures them in.   These are on YouTube, and some people plaster the can with peanut butter, but that isn't necessary.  Critters have such a good sense of smell a dab the size of your fingernail will tempt them.  Even the residual scent of the peanut oil will lure others if the first one ate it on the ramp.

Beware of small critters, baby birds, lizards falling into the 5 gallon bucket, so put it under a low patio side table.  Putting it where it's protected is also a big lure for a rodent because it isn't as exposed climbing the ramp.

I've used this style of bucket to catch the rodents trying to nest in the truck engine, too.  The bucket slides right under the truck bed in front of the back tire on the driver's side, so I don't forget it's there and drive over it!  I also spray the hard parts of the engine (no electrical parts) with peppermint and clove oils mixed in water, a little dish detergent, in a 30 ounce spray bottle.  

I had a real problems with adding plants the honeybees like, especially thistles.  They flocked to it, and wandered around on the floating bits and wouldn't leave.  They looked drugged.  Then I tried making it in  garbage can with a lid, and they managed to find a tiny place to squeeze under the lid and got stuck and died.  I lifted the lid and there were at least 100 dead honeybees trapped in there.

Since then I just chop and drop the weeds and stick to plain compost tea.

Dennis, just to be sure, the garlic and other plant deterrents only work down at the tunneling level.  Any voles that are above ground won't be deterred by garlic/asparagus/daylilies as far as chewing trunks or leaves and stems.

I just found the voles had circled the chicken wire basket I put Shasta Daisies in, exposed the top couple of inches to the air, so I filled that in with 1/2" rough rock (not round, slippery rocks.) and that stops them from circling, but wouldn't stop them from chewing.   I check those rocks every couple weeks by tapping with the end of the shovel to see if they've tunneled underneath the rocks.  Mostly they don't fall, but if they do, I just add more.

Another temporary vole deterrant is a scare bird.   The bright yellow beak, and yellow eyes, and flat black body (a type of falcon) cut out of an old plastic lid for a tote container, hanging from the ceiling on a string.  I've made these out of cardboard but they don't do well in the rain.

I changed one of the greenhouses into a chicken wire covered greenhouse for greens that can't do the heat,  and hang the scare bird from the ceiling on a string where the breeze moves it around.  The Ravens can see it when the eyes are facing upwards, and flew over the greenhouse very low in pairs double checking on this enemy, so they believe it.  After a week or 10 days they seem to have relaxed a bit because the scare bird is in a "cage" and isn't loose in their territory.

So to deter rodents in general, in the hot greenhouse with the eyes facing down,  hang it on an S hook and string in different locations on the ceiling every few days since there isn't any wind in there.   If it's outside it can upset your real predators, owls, other falcons, hawks, so take it down at night or cover it up.  

Until I catch the voles and mice, the scare bird helps make them hesitant.

According to this quick research, rubber is okay if exposed to sunlight.  Although I don't store anything garden equipment or tools outside in the sun.  I'm really tired of buying them over and over again!

I did not know about silicone rubber, though.  Interesting.

(I have no connection to either of these websites, it's just info.)

https://www.timcorubber.com › blog › archive › what-is-the-best-rubber-for-uv-resistance
What is the Best Rubber for UV Resistance? - Timco Rubber
Apr 3, 2024This versatile, cost-effective rubber material is known for its durability, which includes excellent weathering resistance, including an ability to withstand regular exposure to sunlight. Silicone Silicone rubber is one of the most popular materials for high temperature environments, and it can help you beat more than just heat.

siliconemakers.com

https://siliconemakers.com › uv-resistant-silicone-rubber-products-long-lasting-performance-under-the-sun
UV Resistant Silicone Rubber Products: Long-Lasting Performance Under ...
The UV-resistant silicone Rubber is a great invention, making life easier by utilizing its ultraviolet-resistance elements

I will have to say, as a person who's lived their whole life on the West Coast of the US, where most of it is one step above a desert, I have never once had a swale get even 2 inches of water in it, let alone slow water down.  

There are no monsoons here.  There may be two months where there could possibly, may be heavy enough rain where you'd think rain water might run along the ground but it just doesn't here.    We don't get any rain from the end of May through the beginning of December, so those swales sit there doing nothing for most of the year except make it hard on a wheelbarrow and a car.

If it's a drought year there's no rain in general, let alone trying to catch it and divert it.

I've almost sprained an ankle a few times stepping into one, either in the dark, backing up or losing my balance, so they add a level of danger for a person living in a rural situation who relies on having all limbs working 24/7 in order to do the physical labor needed to live in such a place.    Swales just don't do anything here.

We also have to alter other versions of Permaculture in general; hugel mounds into hugel trenches, tactics to deal with gophers and voles, it's too dry for cardboard/straw mulch, and it just makes a safe and hidden place for rodents, etc.  

So the type of rainfall is a very important factor, how many months of rainfall there are, and the type of soil, location.  

If you are going to fill a raised bed, plants need soil, so just woodchips will suppress growth until it's completely broken down, which could take years.

The trouble I have with heavy clay soil is that even if there is rodent wire at the bottom of the raised bed, voles/gophers, digging rodents can still dig around under that wire and create air tunnels that roots go into.  I can't get under the raised beds to stop that, so I've stopped using them.  Digging rodents also are brilliant at using any stick or board as a solid roof over their entrance, and they just go to town under there.

You used the word "mulch," so I'm guessing wood chips are just for the top.  That has worked well for me.  The smaller the chips, the better.

If you are going to put branches or logs in the raised bed, be sure the wood at the bottom is rotten enough to break with your foot, and doesn't fill up more than 1/4 of the height of the bed.  If you put another layer of really rotten wood about 4 inches down from the top, make sure it's pithy and you can break it with your hands.  Then the plant roots can get into it and get the moisture.

Large, thick layers of wood chips on a path are good because roots also go under the paths and can benefit from the decaying wood.

Piles of wood chips definitely get hot!!  

I recently bought a garden hose that was no-kink.  Sounds handy enough.

What didn't show on the packaging until I got it home, cut it off, and read the inside, was you have to Wash Your Hands every time you use it!  Seriously?  Why didn't that show on the outside before I bought the thing?  Why would they make a garden hose that could easily be used for vegetables out of something that is too dangerous to handle???

I did find a rubber hose, the only one that didn't have a Danger warning on it.  It does kink, but being careful and unwinding it slowly lessens that.

I've got willows that grow like mad in just damp soil.  Feeding them would send them over the top.

One kind of willo I have eventually falls over, and unless it is cut up and removed, it triples itself in just a few months.  A storm snapped one of them into the pond water, which was at a high level at that time of year so we couldn't get to it to cut it out of there.  It grew shoots out the top and roots out the bottom in just a couple months it took the water to recede.  

Not to mention, when that tree went over, the roots came up in a huge solid mound about 3 feet high and 5 feet wide.  That causes trouble even at the edge of a pond, let alone near a house or shed foundation.  Even if the tree roots didn't get involved in a storm, big tree roots near a foundation is never a good situation.

And aren't willows near a water source?  A pond, a creek, ground water that animals or humans drink from?  You want years of sewage going into that ground water?

They are so much work just under a regular circumstance!

One thing to be aware of with Rumex plants is they can have high amounts of oxalic acid, and some people have bad reactions to that.

A woman from an Eastern Bloc country used to come to my farm stand and was so happy to get sorrel, it reminded her of home, so it's a cultural food.

It's nice used in small amounts in a salad mix, the lemony flavor is not overwhelming.

I have the dock weeds here, and they stop the gophers and voles.  I've been gathering their seed heads at the end of the summer and put them around the circumference of the garden to try to stop them from getting past the fence.  I also let them grow up around plants the gophers go after as a protection plant.  They don't seem to compete with plants and the gophers go around.