A Look Back at the Gardens of Serendipity Shore-2012

Pic of Day
    

Candidate for Safe Worker of the Year

 

 

Okay, so let's talk moles.

Of course I've had moles before. Once I drained my already defective well dry by running the hose in losing attempts to flood out the moles then tearing apart my gardens.

That time it was in my other home. Throughout my ten years in Delaware, well I've had moles on a couple of occasions. Only problem is I didn't know it.

One year my entire honeysuckle bloom failed to fill the air with the aroma of heaven. I noted the honeysuckle, a vine that normally blooms with vigor and delivers spring directly to my nose, was void of its leaves and, of course, its smell.

I was working for the Delaware Nature Society at the time and I even asked a buddy in this organization what the hell could be wrong with my honeysuckle. He said I should check to see if maybe it's an annual and it is intended for the vine to wither once its bloom is done. Only problem is it never bloomed. I didn't know it at the time but the moles had so nibbled and destroyed the honeysuckle's roots that it didn't bloom at all that year.

Oh yes, moles make ugly burrows all around lawns that looks as if someone had taken an egg beater and swirled it all around the land to fill it with mounds and holes while killing the grass.

Moles also love to chew on the roots of mature bushes and trees and this years the moles really did me dirty.

It was the moles what ate my honeysuckle that year of no bloom. It's also the moles who almost destroyed my azaleas and hedge roses.

The front porch garden too had moles running amok

Yes moles gnaw on the roots of certain vegetation that are used by insect larva on which to feed. A plant chewed by the roots by merciless ravaging moles often does not totally die from their invasion. The honeysuckle of my tale are still alive and they will bloom fantastic those years when I get the moles under control.

Indeed if I can stop the moles from their underground root destruction the hedge roses and azaleas might recover.

Moles will also eat annuals and ground cover in their route to the bugs. They will avoid some plantings but if there's a larvae across the way the moles will destroy all root matter in its way to get to it.

Look at that cactus plant growing in the swamps!

Getting rid of moles is possible though most folks who get them say it's impossible to get rid of moles.

Way I figgered, I'm over 200 pounds and a mole weighs maybe what? 2, 3 pounds? I got the advantage here even not taking into account my superior brain.

This year I didn't have A mole. I had moleS. There were many moles in my small plot of earth on this planet this past spring.

Of course I didn't realize how bad it was until the lawn mower practically sunk to China as it tried to MOWMENTUM its way through the grass. Then I saw the swirls as if aliens from above descended to the earth with giant mixers and mixed the soil to a perfect checker cake work of art.

The container garden

Both back and front yards were huge mole runs all connected as they meandered all around to where the infant bugs tried to live to hatch.

Yes I put juicy fruit down in the run. First, I didn't know you had to chew it first. Second, when I started chewing it and shoved it down the hole the dog managed to root out the gum so I had to reconnoiter, as it were.

Over the course of the summer I tried the gum and I tried poison mole pellets sold in a catalogue.

I do believe I somehow culled down my eco-system's mole population by simply making life very unpleasant. In due course the mole runs became fewer and fewer.

Front porch and dog
 

One thing I found that ALWAYS works with moles…..every chance you get go walking over and stomping down their mole runs. More than anything this will drive them over to that nasty neighbor 's yard to escape your big feet and their disturbance.

After only a week or so of this relentless destruction of the runs they dig, soon they'll go away, probably cursing you out and all of your descendants.

Ah but they'll come back!

Got to walk the lot every day, got to stomp down their runs. Best way to spot a fresh mole run, the soil on top is cracked open as if a tiny earthquake opened up the top of the ground. Press it down soon as you see it, walk on it, STOMP on it.

The moles will curse you out but he or she will leave for your torment.