Heucheras: Changing through the seasons
Surprising plants succeed in dry shade

More depressing vole stuff (sorry)

Hosta eaten by vole. Image ©GardenPhotos.com (all rights reserved) Those voles are still at it. This picture shows the latest hosta chewed right through at the crown in one night. There are spaces all over what is usually a very crowded garden, now, though fortunately they don't seem to go for coleus or phlox or shrubs. Hostas are definitely the favorites.

Nicki the Vole Slayer must have caught more than thirty so far, when it started we never thought to keep a proper count. Duffy the Duffer (who's usually dozing when Nicki is out on patrol) has had two that we know of and perhaps a few more. Yesterday I watched Duffy stroll across the living room and simply step over a dead vole dispatched and left there by one or other of them. Never even looked at it. [Scroll down to see the two of them on the left.]

The guy, by the way, with the live trap (that would be me) has caught two voles, plus two chipmunks and two mice. So Duffy and I are about on a par – except I spend less time sleeping.

So what next? I'm worried about the winter when I'm afraid they'll spend months munching away under the snow. Poison has been mentioned, says the vegetarian. We're that desperate.

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