What plants will be alive after all this snow melts?

I wish they would!!

Do you have too many castor plants? Or do you want the deer to eat more of my hellebores? Patti

Castors are highly toxic and would kill them. They're annuals here.

I know they are toxic, but wasn't sure if you had them self seed in your garden as we sometimes do and hated them. One day I found 6 little voles all laid out, dead as a door nail, in close proximity to a towering castor plant, so I suspect they all nibbled on it's roots and found out the hard way that it was toxic. I found it odd that they came up out of the tunnel to die. I may plant more. Patti

Never self seed here. Sounds like a vole doomsday cult.

Victor, Ha, It looked that way. All obviously died within a very short time of each other. No signs of trauma. I had been out early that morning and they were not there and then in the afternoon when I was back out there, they had croaked. Maybe I scared them to death. We saw a similar thing years ago in the spring, but with 4 dead. We could never figure out what had killed them, but most likely a bulb. Revenge. I was happy to have them expire, but was worried that the dogs might eat a dead one and get ill too. Patti

you will need to tell me how you trap voles patti - i only caught one last year - somehow a container full of dirt fell on it --hard!

next year i am going to install electrified wire fencing for the winter across the back yard - might get a hunting license too - have you tried that patti - i see if used for small herds of cattle and cows here - can't be too expensive and it's solar powered

Wha, Could you put up black plastic regular deer fence instead for the season? The deer will pop or actually go under electric fence as I understand it. You have a great fence company in Littleton. Great guy, prices and information and he will know all about any kind of deer fencing solution. I know he sells poly-wire electric too. You will probably drive by this place and think it is abandoned, as it is a series of old sheds and easy to miss. Not fancy, just functional and excellant. http://www.louispage.com/

I have seen vole traps which are basically mouse traps that you put on both sides of a exit hole and then cover with a little plastic tunnel, so the vole has to go over one trap or the other when emerging and then, snap, they be done. I understand they work well and no baiting, just icky and resetting them until the population is all killed. I think we have to do this as none of the other methods seem to be working. Patti

The weight of the snow/ice brought down several sections of our black plastic deer fencing along the rear property line. It's still in good shape around the vegetable garden.

I didn't realize the whole castor plant was toxic, I thought it was just the seeds.....

patti thx for the info - i will call them today and check out my alternatives. the deer have eaten one full sized arborvite to the truck that was wrapped in burlap that they just pulled off.

I had a ton of vole activity last year and we tried traps but didn't catch a single one.

My HollyCat is for rent. Her record is 6 voles in one day!

can i borrow her?

Mew too! Patti

What about the vole weevil??

Noreaster, did you use the vole tunnel with the traps? Patti

No, we used two Victor traps with a nail through them to anchor them to the ground, inserted at both side of the hole, then covered those with pots or something. There were just so many holes..they could have been entering and exiting anywhere. Still hard to believe we couldn't catch a single one.

I've heard cats do a good job, but I we're allergic and have dogs.

I'm a bit scared to see what damage they might have done under the snow. I did use a vole repellant but it wasn't working, from what I could tell. I ended up digging up a lot of hosta and replanting them in buried containers with gravel on top. And I dug moats around the ones that couldn't be moved and filled that with gravel. I lost quite a few plants to them last year.

Sounds like it is more difficult than I thought..........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Patti

Yes, I think it is supposed to be pretty hard to trap them effectively. Worth a shot, though. Horrible little creatures. I know some people put poison down the holes, but I could never do that with my dog around.

i do not have a dog!

I heard deer will eat voles. ^_^

My last dog ignored voles. Sarah has fun with them, lol. There are no rodents within the fenced yard.
When I was a kid we had a long row of privet hedge started from cuttings by me. We had a heavy snow winter like this one, the bushes had the bark chewed off near ground level. My gardening mentor Mr. T said it was likely field mice looking for food. We lost most of the hedge.
Andy P

I pity the fool!!

My last airedale, Skip, would catch everything....of course, the yard had tunnels dug everywhere!

My new free cat ( which someone shot and dropped off at the corner, not so free) is great at catching anything, even with bells on!. My pugs however, will not work for food. But they are cute. My yorkie-poo I have taught to chase and tree squirrels that hang at the bird feeders. She loves to work. Never catches anything, but is always game!

My very first dog was named Skip. She was a good dog and the only dog my horse would tolerate. They were buddies. Never remember her catching anything though.

Oh o - I saw the pedestal for my bird bath sedum planter today. I wonder where the planted dish that used to be on top is. . . still can't see the boards that make up the raised beds.

That was very nice of you to rescue that cat, dem! Abuse like that makes me sick! Memory, hope you find your missing top!

Here is Lizzy, named after the greatest female character is literature. She still carries bb's in her head, ears and neck. The best cat I have ever met.

I went to considerable expense buying toads to help with the slugs etc.unfortunately they attracted garter snakes that ate them all quickly,however the also rid me of voles last year.Fear they ate themselves out of food and left time will tell.

Lizzy Borden?

I was afraid to axe.

She's so pretty!

Pretty coloring

Oh, Victor!

LOL, as in Benet! Only the greatest love story ever told!

Galanthus are here.

I looked on my way out of the house this morning and crocus leaves are popping up!

I'll check this afternoon when the suns out and 50's have melted more snow.