moles proof the gardens

what is the best way to keep moles from getting into the gardens?

Good luck on keeping moles out of your garden. I have tried and tried, one would think a college education would be good for something, but it means nothing to a hungry rodent. If you find something that works please pass it along.

Here is what I have tried.
1. Landscape fabric; slowed them down.
2. Metal hardware cloth: slowed them down a bit- I think they climbed over the edge.
3. Stomping on tunnels; did nothing but I felt better.
4. Hot sauce, chili pepper and dish soap; no noticeable effect.
5. Mole plant; helped briefly and kept me out of the garden. Also very poisonous and stinky.
6. Bionic mole detector; just used up batteries and irritated me.
7. The neighbors cat; works great, but the neighbor insists on feeding her. She usually catches one per day all season long.
8. Onions; voles with bad breath.
9. Mouse traps; no noticeable effect.
10. College education; no noticeable effect.

I am going to try onions again, especially near my squash plants. The Urban Farm magazine had a brief snippet that it helped with a problem I have (Think it might be squash bugs and not moles.) I have read that you need to kill the grubs which the moles eat, but I think they just switch to worms, which I want to keep.

Happy hunting.
Patty from Yorktown

I am building new beds this year and stapled 1/4 hardware cloth to the bottom. I am hoping this works.

Scott

I've never had the problem of them getting into our SFGs although they do sometimes plow their way around in the yard.

You might want to consider putting legs on your SFGs, boffer has some awesome raised SFGs.

A friend of mine suggested putting chewed spearmint gum into their holes to get rid of them. Haven't tried that yet, but I'll need to chew a lot of gum to get rid of all the moles I have in my yard!

Hi,
The chewing gum is for the moles not the gardener. What you are supposed to do it use a gum which has a foil wrapper and put it in a tunnel. The mole eats the whole piece of gum and dies from the foil wrapper. No thumbs to unwrap the gum. I used tuti-fruity gum. Didn't work, should have eaten it myself. Good luck and keep the suggestions coming.

Patty from Yorktown

lol my barn cats eat them...

It's not my gardens that are the issue, its that in the winter they move into my house!

hee hee, a friend on another forum posted this
http://www.rodenator.com/

After limited success with my traditional garden, and plenty of trouble with moles, I'm looking around for a a good alternative. SFG looks great and with my history of problems with moles I've been thinking about something a bit over the top.

What about a concrete base to the SFG, with 1-inch holes every inch or so to allow for drainage and access by beneficial creatures like worms?

Sure, it would increase the start-up cost (don't know how much) but in the long run you'd have a permanent, mole-free (yes?) installation.