Garden Battles

Its a good thing the sun is shining today or I would be staying in bed with the covers pulled over my head.  Yesterday evening I went out to check on my veggie garden, the ones the cat love so much.

These plants were laying all over the top of the soil and some buried too.

True to form the cats once again took their liberty but this time decided to dig up my best looking sugar snap peas so they could relieve themselves. (face turning red) It took me a good half hour to do the needed readjusting of the soil barriers in Garden Alcatraz.  If this last attempt doesn't keep them out  I guess I'm going to have to put up and electric fence around each of my garden boxes to keep them out.  This is just  nuts.

So much for it looking artistic, at this point I only hope it work.

As I was starting the barrier redo I noticed soil that had been heaved up.  "You have got to be kidding MOLES TOO!?!"  I was shouting at them now.  I'm sure the neighbors, who were in their back yard appreciated all my vows to destroy these vermin but I really didn't car at the time.

Can you relate?

Besides the need to vent, the reason I'm even sharing this is because we thought we had the moles licked when we installed hardware cloth at the bottom of our boxes but I guess not.  The sneaky buggers have somehow found how to get past it!  The mole managed to find his way into into 3 out of our 4 boxes.  I literally wanted to cry

NO not my special leaks!  Yer gonna die!

He tunneled in the leeks that were just getting established, then hit the carrot and pea patch the cats hadn't pooed in, and then ran under several of my beautiful garlic plants.  WHAT!?!  Oh if I could only fire a gun in city limits.  This means war!!!

The ground heaved and yup...that's a hole all right.

I can't run electric fence underground though right now I sure wish I could.  Moles are very difficult to evict from raised box type gardens...I know we tried that a few years ago when we constructed bed using landscape timbers in our front yard with no wire mesh barrier.  It was a nightmare.

The only thing I can figure happened is that the tunnels made by the mole for the last couple of years have somehow allowed the wire mesh to push down enough to where he can sneak in.  (Note to self...next time staple it to the sides of the box.)

Well...thanks for the ear and I hope this bit of mental processing will somehow help you in your own gardening problems.

Happy Gardening!