Ditch Digging

Wonderful Husband and I spent yesterday in the yard.  Not that this is really worth writing about, except it was the hottest day of the year, high noon and the humidity was so high, we felt like we were broiling.   And, what were we doing?  Digging a drainage ditch!  No kidding!  It’s not a long ditch or a big ditch, but our sloping yard continues to present a real erosion control challenge, so in addition to simply gardening, we take on these projects better suited to brawny young men.

Could we or should we have hired someone to do the digging?  In hindsight, probably!  While I was dripping sweat and panting for breath, I remember thinking, “We are too old, too fat and too out of shape to be doing this!”

It’s also taken us three trips to the plumbing store to pick up pipes and fittings, and there’s probably at least two more trips in our future.  But the terraced beds we started two years ago can’t be finished and planted until we complete this phase of our overly-ambitious yard project.  Since we have also purchased about $400 of shrubs and trees which are sitting patiently waiting to be planted, we have to keep making progress and get this part finished before cold weather.

We should have known better.  But we’ll get it finished – in addition to being too old, too fat and too out of shape, we’re also too stubborn to quit!

Hungry Voles

So, what else has been going on?  Remember last year, I discovered voles had invaded my gardens and were devouring the hostas and the irises (see “Hungry Voles”)?  My dear friend E suggested I drop castor oil beans down their holes to chase them away.  I dutifully purchased 50 seeds and used them all.  Some of them sprouted, but I couldn’t really tell if any of the voles found other homes.

So, I researched the internet: it suggested poisoning or trapping, but I have a few ethics and needlessly causing death or suffering to an animal is definitely on my “will not do” list.  Others echoed the castor oil bean method.  I read somewhere that voles won’t bother anything with daffodils around it.  Since it wasn’t the right time to transplant daffodils, I thought, “Maybe garlic would work to keep the voles away!”

I optimistically sacrificed about a dozen heads of garlic and carefully planted them around the hostas and irises.  Dare I hope that I’ve solved the Case of the Hungry Voles?

Nope!  I should have known better!  The voles ignored the sprouting garlic but continued to devour the hostas beside it.  At least the garlic is growing well in my gardens!