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Re: Growing potatoes?

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

At 12:41 AM 4/14/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>The only thing I know is that we uprooted an entire nest of babies and had
>to dispose of them.  I didn't see any signs of anything else there.  But the
>entire row was affected.  Never had any gophers (their holes are sometimes
>obvious) and most of the critters we had did their damage above ground.
>Rabbits, birds and such.  We were in a relatively rural area but within a
>subdivision, so none of the larger animals were a problem.  Where we are
>now, my dog does a good job of making them keep their distance!
>Whatever it was, it did it's work from underground, so maybe I have detered
>them or maybe it was an exercise in futility!?!?!
>Thanks
>Cathy
>
It may have been voles. They do a lot of their work underground, even
hollowing out carrots. The tops look fine, you pull a carrot and it's a
hollow shell. They ate out a whole row of potatoes one year. By the next
year my fat beagle had learned to hunt mice (a houseguest's dog, Beowulf,
taught her to first wag her tail, then to go after them), and she went
after some underground critter. DH said she'd ruin the whole hill of
potatoes if I didn't stop her, and I said better lose a hill than a row,
and she flung dirt and potatoes and a critter...hey! this is him! Get him!
She paid no attention, so I stomped on it. I was wearing boots at the time
anyway. It was bigger than a mouse, but not a rat because the tail was
short. After I put the critter in the trash can, I looked it up in a
reference book and found it was a vole, or meadow mouse. They also develop
tunnel like runs, pulling long grass over the top so they're not spotted by
flying raptors, and can destroy an entire haystack. I had one tunnel in the
garden, emerging precisely underneath a beautiful eggplant. There,
protected from view, sunlight and rain, he ate the whole thing. The
eggplant looked like a bell when I harvested it. @#$%^ You'll learn to
loathe voles. Margaret L


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