Hedgehog vegetable garden

[ibex]

Yesterday I had a thought for Didier and his corner hedgehog: transplanting cuttings of raspberry, I almost killed a hedgehog who slept under a small pile of brush!
I made him a shelter with 3 logs, bits of planks and a good pack of dead leaves, I'm just starting the garden and I already have help!

[Did67]

We are not equal ... in terms of hedgehogs!

But it's a very good sign!

[ibex]

Following the drought of this summer I find it difficult to find hay for the vegetable garden, so I decided to add a decomposition stage and to use the hay eaten by our horses and rejected in the form of dung. I gather regularly in the meadows and I spread in thick layer, at least 15 cm on the old meadow.
These are dung, no manure, even if some herbs are mixed with dung.

[Did67]

Yes, it is a very good "substitute" !!!

[ENERC]

You're lucky to have a hedgehog.
Since the month of May, I have not seen any hedgehog or orvet - just a few worms since it finally bursts.
Usually the moles are full of activity in the autonomous and this year nothing for the moment.
This year there is a big void of animals in the garden (except the leek worms - if someone has an idea .... - but not so bad that it actually because leeks recover at the end of winter )

[Did67]

Are you sure it's moles ???

Mole rats (terrestrial voles) make the same molehills, apparently, from the outside ... They are currently very active, to reach their winter quarters: the surroundings of hedges, trees, shrubs and a few root vegetables that can still be outside (Jerusalem artichokes). Look at the axes of the alignments of "mole hills", if it goes in this direction: beware!

[ENERC]

Are you sure it's moles ???

Yes. At first I took them for pests and I burned sulfur in the gallery to get them out. I remember that my grandfather was fighting moles with his spade.
There are two tunnels to each clump of land, nothing to Jerusalem artichokes and they are preferably in wet areas (grass under the trees).
It's a little painful when they go in a sowing to look for a wetland, but it does not completely destroy the sowing.

Now I let them live quietly.

The voles, it's more complicated: I had a marten in the attic and I was quiet until the day a neighbor sent him a volley of lead (he raises ducks). I have a pool with a couple of snakes that I see from time to time. it must help. Otherwise, the cats of the neighbors, but considering their weight it is not won

[ibex]

Cats are not very effective on voles that live underground, some dogs are terrible because they dig to catch the critters, method not recommended in a kitchen garden!
A good number of raptors feed on voles, at least in part: variable buzzards, tawny owls and barn owls.
I installed perches for the buzzards and I will put nest boxes for the owls.
The top is the ermine that runs through the galleries in winter, photos here http://www.faune-jura.com/reportage_hermine.html

[Did67]

My experience goes in the same direction: I have cats that "walk" around the house; they nab surface rodents with no problem; mole rats, that's another story.
The dog, when I had one, was digging digging digging ... It was Verdun. Come on, in a few years, he must have had two or three!
I have a raptor perch. There are pairs of kestrels in nearby firs: they get on the electric wire and wait for surface rodents to wriggle, to "dive" on them ... No observable effect on my population of mole rats.
I accidentally took a big snake in a net (it was released), so I think these rodents attract them ...
I did not observe ferrets or weasels at home (too many foxes in the vicinity ???). But I think it's the best!

[Moindreffor]

Cats are not very effective on voles that live underground, some dogs are terrible because they dig to catch the critters, method not recommended in a kitchen garden!
A good number of raptors feed on voles, at least in part: variable buzzards, tawny owls and barn owls.
I installed perches for the buzzards and I will put nest boxes for the owls.
The top is the ermine that runs through the galleries in winter, photos here http://www.faune-jura.com/reportage_hermine.html

an excerpt from the text that the link follows

In summer, the ermine particularly likes the scree, murgers or simple piles of pebbles. These offer him numerous shelters with multiple entrances and exits. That's when I laid a pile of stone in the garden, the goal being to attract the ermine so that it predates the voles that have taken up residence in my garden ... Summer next, I had the pleasure to observe every evening lady ermine in the middle of the garden, thus ensuring a crop of vegetables!

Didier to you to play after, the kitchen garden of the hedgehog, throw you in a scree, who knows you will have perhaps more luck