Voles in the Garden
I didn’t check my fall/winter garden the last half of January. Between the cold wind and an allergic reaction to juniper, being outside was not very enjoyable. However, February greeted us with some warmer temperatures and I thought it time to check under our row cover. I still have leeks, kale, spinach, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, and turnips growing. When I lifted the cover, much to my dismay, I found out that voles have been having a field day in the garden! They’ve uprooted about half of my kale. They’ve started nibbling on the turnips. And they are a likely culprit in the mystery of the disappearing parsnips.
What are voles?
Voles are small rodents that dig tunnels. They differ from moles in that a vole’s tunnel is often closer to the surface or even within the vegetative layer. Moles are carnivores, eating grubs, worms, and insects. Voles, on the other hand, are herbivores. They will eat a variety of plants including grass, herbs, bulbs, and tubers. When I went to check my turnips, I pulled up a few that had been eaten from the underside. The same with the parsnips: the tops were still there, but they were not attached to anything! The kale was toppled over, and seemingly had no root structure.
The above pictures show some of the sign of voles in the garden. The first picture shows a tunnel just under the straw mulch. In the upper right hand you can see how small the vole holes can be with my finger for scale. In the lower right, you can see vole damage to a turnip. I found a few empty shells with the bottom and inside completely eaten.
What does this mean for the garden?
Going back to parsnips, I was so excited to plant these last spring, knowing they can overwinter in the ground. For months I’ve been thinking about how delicious fresh parsnips will be when we have very few fresh vegetables growing. I checked them in the fall after our first frost and they appeared to be a very nice size. But, when I checked them again in January, they were gone. I now know I need to harvest parsnips after the first freeze if I don’t want to lose them to wildlife.
Not wanting my turnips to face the same fate, I chose to harvest them all. For the kale that was uprooted, I cut the tops off, saving as many leaves as I could. Hopefully, the Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, and remaining kale will be able to withstand all of the vole activity. As I have been researching voles in the garden, I see that some gardeners have reported that they will also eat leeks. Therefore, harvesting leeks is now on my to-do list as well! Now I am wondering if I need to convince James to get a second cat. Seeing all the vole damage helps me understand why I’ve been seeing Tigger hunting more often in the past month.