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The first method we use attempts to thwart entry into the garden itself. Voles that tunnel and scurry along the ground do not like to cross open spaces. They instinctively know that this is how they can become trapped. You can use this instinct against them by surrounding your entire garden with a 6 inch wide by 12 inch deep gap. When a vole approaches, either under or over ground, they will notice this gap and turn around.
This is a very easy and free method to deploy and will thwart most of the voles that want to munch on your garden. It is best developed with the use of a narrow tiller and shovel, but could be done with a trowel or shovel alone. This design tends to bring about an area that welcomes ankles to get twisted. It’s important to be careful when entering your garden and working around the edges with this method.
The second method we use employs an ingenious design we learned right here in Fairbanks. For plants that the voles find most attractive, you transplant into a plastic solo cup with the bottom cut out. The cup sticks up an inch or three from the ground, surrounding the stock. This will not interfere with the plant’s growth at all. It also helps water to funnel towards the plants roots, a beneficial side effect.
This will primarily defeat the vole that is scurrying above ground looking for its next meal. The vole will effectively approach a “wall” (the Solo cup) and will turn around. They’re not very smart animals, you won’t see behavior of them constantly trying to thwart your protections. They survive primarily on easy meals and will go elsewhere with a little suggestion.
You can see that we plant most of our broccoli, cabbage, kale and other plants in a Solo cup with the bottom cut out. This is a very effective vole deterrent.
It is not necessary to use this treatment for every plant, but it’s beneficial for some more than others. Plants such as cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, kale and collard greens will highly benefit from vole prevention. Peas are also recommended, but we haven’t had much trouble without using solo cups on ours. Squashes are also quite easy to provide this treatment for.
Another good preventive measure is to eliminate potential ground cover. Voles are vulnerable when exposed and they know it. Keeping your garden clear of long grass and other ground cover will make it more risky for them to enter your garden. Keeping up on your weeding and trimming nearby grasses will help reduce the attractiveness of your garden to the common vole.
We’ve seen great success in our gardens by employing these techniques. This is in an area where voles are known to be problematic and in high population. And we’re quite happy not having to lug vole bodies everywhere.
That’s All We Wrote!
Having a good time? We have an ever growing list of insightful and helpful subarctic & cold climate gardening articles, waiting out there for you!
- Cold Climate Gardening Basics →
- Growing Your Garden From Seed Indoors →
- Advanced Cold Climate Gardening Techniques →
- Plant Specific Cold Climate Growing Guides →
- Subarctic Perennial Food Forests & Foraging →
- Indoor Garden Lighting & Grow Rooms →
- Greenhouses & Temperature Control →
- Harvesting & Food Preservation →
- Solving Cold Climate Garden Problems →
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