

Getting Started with Flower Gardening
Building a Raised Flower Bed Garden
Choosing Flowers
Types of Flower Gardens
Flower Gardening for Pollinators
Growing Flowers in Containers
Spring and Fall Bulbs
Caring for Flowers
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The rabbits in my neighborhood eat crocus leaves (& blooms) right down to the ground! I've had to cover my crocus plants with chicken wire to prevent this from happening.
Hello while tidying up the garden and deciding what to put where with plant rotation. When digging over where the runner beans had been we came across huge bean tubers and on knowing that these are full of nitrogen?? Can we break these up with added compost or remove them as we are going to plant cucumbers here this year and I'm unsure as of what is best for preparing the soil for my cucumbers it seems a waste to throw these nutrition rich freebies away but I am just not sure what to do for the best many thanks Liz from UK.
If you can break them down into small pieces, they should make for excellent compost! The best approach would be to toss them into a compost pile or bin and have them break down properly, but if that’s not an option, having them decompose in situ works as well.
After planting tulip bulbs the next day the bulbs had been dug up..not eaten thankfully….dug up. I had failed to turn back on our motion activated water jet that keeps the elk and rabbits away…(grrrrr)…as I inspected the bulbs before replanting, I caught the scent of the culprit: JAVELINA! Those stinkers had dug them up…so I replanted and spread leaves from a nearby tree over the area then reset the water jet. No more piggies. That said, winter is coming so we had to disconnect the water source to prevent freezing…FINGERS CROSSED they don’t return until spring when the water jet can be reconnected!
Having had minor vole success with alliums, I planted 140 all around the perimeter and many got eaten, some before leaves appeared, others never got flowers, just withered and died.
They even got under my paved driveway. ☹️ Zone 6b Lake Tahoe CA
So sorry to hear that the alliums did not work for you! It sounds like your vole problem is even worse than mine, something I did not think was possible! The voles have not bothered our alliums but we have resorted to building raised beds with hardware cloth on the bottom to keep the critters from eating more valuable bulbs.
most of your articles are based around the East coast, you report of problems with rodents yet chipmunks and squirrels are not a huge problem out West. I have a HUGE gopher problem. They have taken out every vege I planted this year. Smoke bombs, juicy fruit and flooding have all failed. PLEASE HELP
what advice do you have to get rid of Moles and Voles down here in Zone 9A
they destroy my Amaralys beds,
Varigated ginger and just about every bit of St Augustine grass is tunneled and roots destroyed,
Mole tunnels can damage your plant roots but they are carnivores so they don't eat roots and bulbs, preferring to dine on caterpillars, grubs, and earthworms. Voles share tunnels with moles and they do eat plants so they are probably the ones doing the damage. You can try trapping them by placing mouse traps baited with fruit flavored bubblegum or apple slices spread with peanut butter near the entrance to a tunnel. Cover the trap with a large black nursery pot to keep it dark since voles do most of their damage at night. One female vole can have up to 100 babies in a year! They do have lots of natural predators including cats, weasels, hawks, owls, snakes, and foxes.
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