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Moles, Slugs And Compost

hughe — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 12:11:00 +0000

Did you know that pound-for-pound the common garden mole is more efficient than the 642-ton Emerald Mole tunneling machine? While the Emerald Mole achieves 5 feet per hour on a good day, the little critter can dig 15 feet per hour in good soils. What most gardeners will be interested in is not how quickly moles can dig, but how to prevent the appearance of molehills in their lawns.

“When moles are most active, about 20 percent of the calls agent Dave Pehling takes at the Washington State University extension office in Everett, Wash., are from people exasperated by moles.

“There’s not really a lot we can tell them,” Pehling said. That’s because nothing really works for long to get rid of a mole, and if it does, another will just move in”.

But if you can contain your irritation, there is a plus side.
“People should be grateful for moles, agrees Linda Chalker-Scott, associate professor and extension urban horticulturist at Puyallup for Washington State University.

“They are definitely your friends. They are nature’s little rototillers; they aerate the soil and do a wonderful job of bringing a lot of organic material into the soil. They are doing all this great work for us, we don’t have to pay them anything, and most of us are out there trying to kill them.” Read more..

And the soil from those molehills can be converted into excellent potting compost. Read more..

Slugs are another common problem for many of us. The way that they nibble at our emerging plants I find particularly annoying. Suggested remedies are many and varied. My bookshelf contains a slim volume entitled “50 Ways To Kill A Slug” which lists all the conventional forms of control plus several weired ideas. Kym Pokorny writing in The Oregonian has her own suggestions. Read more..

The fact that there are so many different ways to make compost tends to make the process seem more complicated than it really is. Here’s a suggestion for making compost indoors using some rather unusual ingredients:

Lizards, Lilies and Gardening For A Lifetime

hughe — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:44:20 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

What’s free, green and provides exercise in the fresh air? Well according to George Weigel it’s compost. Free because you are using grass clippings, fallen leaves and other plant matter from your own garden. Green because you are recycling matter that would otherwise have to be carted off to landfill and the outdoor exercise comes from building and turning the compost pile. In his article George dispels the common misconceptions about smelly piles that atttact rodents and then extols the benefits of compost in the garden. A useful reminder of why every yard should have at least one compost heap. Read more..

When I read the headline “Natural Selection and Macroevolution in your lifetime” I could not understand why this was included in a list of gardening articles. Furthermore the headline itself was hardly enticing, but I was curious and did read the article. At first glance it is about a particular species of lizard, but read on and you will discover how the lizard’s relationship with a variety of arum lily has changed the landscape of a Mediterranean island in just twenty years. Read more..

“As young gardeners, we put in youthful plants that proceed to grow in unexpected and often unintended ways. Suddenly, or so it seems, we become older gardeners and find ourselves trying to control the unwanted but perfectly natural behavior of mature plants.” This is a quote from “Gardening for a Lifetime — How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older” by Sydney Eddison which is reviewed by Jim McLain in the Yakima Herald-Republic. Read his review and if you are interestd you can by the book at Amazon from the link below. Here’s the review.

Exploring the Compost – Garlic Connection

hughe — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:53:32 +0000

I was intrigued by the above headline that was on an email I received from Kitchen Gardeners International whose newsletter drops into my inbox every month. The article talks of three ways that compost and garlic are connected. The first two are fairly obvious that using compost to amend the soil helps to produce a great crop of garlic and that November is the time to build your compost pile and to plant garlic. The third link is that the two most popular videos on KGI’s YouTube channel cover these topics. Completely by chance I included the “Planting Garlic” video in the October issue of Garden Ramblings, so to complete the link here is their advice on “How To Make Compost”.

If you haven’t completed your bulb planting yet, I’ve just heard that Dutch Gardens are having a Fall Clearance Sale where you can save up to 40% – worth a look.

Conservation Gardening and Gadget Reviews

hughe — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:20:01 +0000

“Mowing your lawn for an hour produces as much pollution as driving a car 650 miles” is just one of the facts quoted by the Virginia Living Museum in its campaign for the creation of conservation gardens. While it’s a well known fact that gas mowers cause pollution, I have not seen it spelt out quite as starkly as this before.

But a conservation garden is not just about grass. “The new 7,000-square-foot Conservation Garden features environmentally friendly gardening with an emphasis on native plants and mulching and composting techniques to reduce the use of commercial fertilizers and pesticides that are potentially harmful to people and nature”. The article contains some helpful hints as to how you can adopt these priciples in your own backyard. Read more..

A few months ago I wrote about various garden gadgets that were new on the market. Now I’ve found a couple of articles by people who have bought some of these products and tell of their experiences. First is Larry McDermott writing in The Republican who is not too happy with his $12 watering wand. Read more..

“One of my favorite parts of writing this column is that it provides the perfect excuse for buying and trying gardening toys. Usually, I have three or four new tools or gadgets to play with, but the second one I purchased this year was such a whopper of an expense that I quit after two” says Linden Staciokas writing in the Daily News-Miner. The “whopper of an expense” he refers to is an indoor composter costing $400. When I read about this product earlier in the year I thought it sounded too good to be true and so it turns out. Read more..

And finally the September of my Garden Ramblings newsletter is now online with articles on spring bulbs and organic lawncare among others.

Green Lawns, Children And Beneficial Pests

hughe — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:00:56 +0000

For Clyde Tressler going green in caring for his lawn means more than using organic fertilizers. For him throwing out the gas powered mower is the key and he makes a spirited case for “the reintroduction of manual labor to lawn care”. I love the way that he suggests that while your head may reject the idea, your body “is quivering (possibly even jiggling) with anticipation”. Read right through to the end and see if you are convinced. Read more..

On the face of it teaching children how to cook seems a strange way of getting them interested in gardening. But harvesting the crop and then preparing it to eat makes the connection and gives kids the incentive to become involved in the gardening activities. The problem is that children usually don’t have a lengthy attention span, but the article explores various ways of overcoming this. Competitions and experiments are just two of the suggestions. Read more..

Organic gardeners do not use pesticides and so have to find other ways of controlling the aphids and other pests that invade their gardens. Here’s a description of “5 Beneficial Garden Pests That You Will Want To Live In Your Garden”. Read more..

“Design a compost heap into the landscape” is the message from Jane Gates in the LA Landscape Design Examiner. We all know the benefits of compost, but it’s useful to be reminded of all the different methods of converting garden and kitchen waste into this soil enriching material. Full of practical tips. Read more..