Submerged garlic and root-diving voles

Garlic beds partially submerged

For all of the melt-off’s magical moments—garlic tips emerging and big puddles that look like tiny seas—there are mild melt-off concerns as well. About one third of the garlic beds have been fully submerged for nearly two days now, and may stay that way for 2-3-4 more, especially if it rains tomorrow as promised. (This area usually doesn’t get flooded with runoff, but I should’ve paid attention to the natural gully and not rotated the garlic there, just in case.) I doubt being underwater for a while will affect the garlic, but I don’t know for sure… How long garlic can hold its breath is another thing I’ll soon find out! And elsewhere, I discovered the handiwork of VOLES (it had to be them) in the herb patch. Under cover of snow, they’d neatly excavated 25′ feet of parsley roots, methodically working their way down the double row. These aren’t tunnels, just holes that go down about a hand’s length. Interesting. Another first. And no loss. But could this be population explosion year in the local vole cycle? Last year’s spring lettuce raids in the greenhouse were nothing compared to organized action like this… Good thing they don’t like garlic!

Vole excavation of parsley roots

3 thoughts on “Submerged garlic and root-diving voles”

  1. Wow, when you get puddles, you get puddles!

    Those vole holes are pretty evenly spaced aren’t they. I suspect some of the holes around here will be voles, but it’s mainly moles I’m dealing with at the moment.

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  2. Deborah: That’s what I mean, they’re kinda diabolical. Those aren’t tunnels, just neat holes about 5-6″ deep where the parsley stood. I’d transplanted two plants together at one foot in-row spacing, two rows wide, and the voles went along and ate the roots of the evenly spaced parsley…. There’s 25′ of that…

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  3. That is a lot of water. We still have about a foot of snow over my gardens right now here in Maine. But I can see all kinds of mole tunnels where the lawn is showing. Dang moles!

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