Episode 2608

- [Narrator] Troy Marden knows firsthand the destructive nature of voles, moles, and other critters in the yard. He shares what he has found to be the most effective in keeping damage down to a minimum. Annette Schrader has a plant-based solution to pesky bugs with a mosquito repellent container. And, Julie Beriglia visits with a gardener who is a good steward of natural resources. It's a good show. First, annoyances that make you want to scream.

- Well there's nothing more disheartening than to work so hard on your garden all spring and early summer getting it just perfect and then to have some kind of animal or insect pest come in and begin eating, and or digging and tearing things up. So I thought I would talk today just a little bit about some easy ways to help control some of these pests in your garden. We've talked about Diatomaceous Earth before and basically what this is is plankton from the ocean that has been dried out. And its dry form it's actually like a tiny little particle of glass. So what happens is, when a slug or an insect crawls through the Diatomaceous Earth it embeds into its abdomen. For in the case of insects, it kind of clogs up its breathing holes which are in it's abdomen. And eventually that insect, or slug, or snail perishes from that. It is non-toxic. It is safe for use around children and animals. I would say that when I use this in my garden I don't apply it on a windy day. We've got a pretty good little breeze blowing today. And I would not do that just because it is very fine and it is kind of dusty, so I go out and use it early in the morning. I use gloves when I put it on. Not because it's poisonous, but because it can be just kind of irritating. Another problem that I have had personally, and I think a lot of us do, up in the eaves, up in the rafters, carpenter bees. And these little traps work really well. You can see that there are are baked holes, basically drilled right into the the front face, and actually on each side of this little unit. And what happens is the bee crawls into that hole, can't get out. Looking for light, comes down into this jar and is trapped in there. And one tidbit that I have for you about using these traps effectively this just screws off, you can empty it and then it screws right back on. But actually, the buzzing of the bees that are trapped in here will attract more bees to the trap. So, you don't want to empty this until the jar actually gets fairly full. And then you can go out and and empty the jar and wait 'til it gets full again. A couple of pests that we all have trouble with that are really difficult to trap. One, because if it's size. And another, just because it's not attracted to bait, are deer, and rabbits. So, I have found that the best way to work with deer and rabbits is with a good repellent of some kind, like Liquid Fence. I personally use really only Liquid Fence. The Liquid Fence has a really good stick to it. It will last through three or four rains. And it's very very bitter. So once they get a taste of it they will pretty much leave things alone. I use this on flocks in the garden, particularly. I use it on hostas, if if the deer are coming after my hostas, which they do occasionally. And I also use it on the day lilies. Now, let's talk a little bit about trappable animals. There are some things that are pretty easy to trap. Other things you may not want to trap. But if you have a problem with, let's say, raccoons digging. And raccoons are really tough because they are one of the only mammals that has opposable thumbs and they're incredibly smart. So they can grip things, they can dig, they can really do a lot of damage in the garden in a hurry. Most of the time, they don't do it on purpose, they're digging for bugs, for slugs, for grub worms, those kinds of things. And your plants get damaged sort of, as a by product of that. And basically what you want to do to get something into a live trap is use a can of tuna. Or a can of cat food of some kind. And the smellier it is, the better. The important thing is, with these live traps if you're just opening this door at the front it has a little latch just over here. And you're going to hook that latch and that door stays open. There's a plate back here, toward the back of the trap. And when something comes in and steps on that plate enough body weight will flip this little switch. The door slams shut, and your animal is trapped. So obviously, your bait has to be inside the trap. And when you do that, you want to be sure that your bait is all the way at the very back. So you're gonna set that bait in there first. Then latch your latch. Set this out in the garden. And I try to just barely have it latched so that any amount of good pressure on this plate in the back will make this latch flip down and your door slam shut. One of the animals that has become very prevalent in our area in the last 10 years are armadillos. And there are a couple of things that you can use for armadillos. There are some products, some repellent products out there like this Armadillo Scram. It has a very unpleasant odor to the armadillo. If you have areas where they are digging and burrowing you can spread this around and it will help to repel them. Armadillos really do an incredible amount of damage. They are looking for insects in the garden, and in the lawn. If you have skunks or raccoons digging, you will notice small holes about the size of a golf ball every foot, every two or three feet. If you have an armadillo, and I know from personal experience, you will think somebody has played a horrible joke on you and just gone through your garden or your lawn with a rototiller. Because they can do, they're incredibly strong. And they can do a tremendous amount of damage in a very short period of time. If the armadillo repellent doesn't work there is another option. And there are these great armadillo traps. These are scent-baited. Armadillos are not attracted to fruit or vegetables, or live baits, really, of any kind. But they are attracted to the scent of another armadillo. So there's a scent bait that fits inside of this wooden box. And basically all you do is pull down on this wooden piece. Hook this little hook under the eye. And it opens these trap doors on either end. Armadillos tend to take the same path every night so if you can figure out where they're burrowing and where their path is they will take that same path almost every night. So you set the trap in their path that they run regularly. They come in one end of the box. They hit this little wooden lever. The box, the doors drop shut on each end. And your armadillo is trapped inside the box. You can then carry it off. Finally, I think a problem that every one of us has dealt with as a gardener at some point or another are moles. And most often, when you have moles you also have voles, with a V. And they are two entirely different animals. The mole burrows underground. And we all know what a mole tunnel looks like in our yard, I think. The voles will use those mole tunnels as super highways. And they will use the mole tunnels to get to places in your garden, and then they will build their own little tunnels just under the mulch. And the voles will come in and eat the roots off of your hostas. They will eat the roots off of your hydrangeas. I had a client call me one time and say, my seven-year-old bush near the front door is dead. And when I went over we could take the top of the plant and just lift it straight up out of the ground it had no roots on it at all. And that was vole damage. A vole is about the size of a field mouse. But it has big buck teeth, like a beaver. And, so the moles then which we're all familiar again with mole tunnels, there are a number of repellents that you can use. Most of the repellents for moles are castor oil-based. This one, this small bag, only 10 pounds will cover up to 5,000 square feet of lawn. You use it in a fertilizer spreader. And it's 20% castor oil. And moles hate castor oil. A lot of times people will plant caster beans in their garden. Caster beans are very poisonous. The castor oil doesn't cause any harm to humans, or to pets, or anything like that. So these granulated products are really good. If you get to the point, like me, where you just can't take it anymore this archaic looking device is a mole, one of several varieties of mole traps. And this is basically a pair of scissor blades. For lack of a better description. On a very very strong spring. So the way you're going to use this is you're going to look at the direction of the mole tunnel. And, if your mole tunnel, say, is running in the direction of my arm, you're going to push this down into the ground perpendicular to the direction that the mole is running. So that when you step on this the top of this, and set these springs these blades are going to open up underground. And I'll show you real quickly how this actually works. You're going to push this down into the mole tunnel. And then you step on the top of it. And down in there those, when you push it down as far as you can And those blades have opened up underground. So when, there it goes. When the mole tunnels through it pops. It hits this trigger and it pops back up. And in theory if there's a live mole running down there you have just eliminated that mole from your yard. There are also some mole traps that stand up above the ground and have a long kind of spear-like blade. I actually prefer this, for a couple of reasons. That blade has to come down with enough force that it goes through the ground to get to the mole. And while it is set, that blade is above ground. So if a small child or a pet gets a hand, or a paw, or anything under there and it happens to trip that trigger it can injure somebody. Or, it can injure a pet. So, a lot of critters out there this time of year. It's high summer, the deer are browsing, the rabbits are browsing. We've got slugs, and moles, and all these things and it sounds like a whole lot of trouble to go to but really, in actuality, it's not. If you have a few of these things onhand you can pretty easily take care of just about anything that might be doing damage in your garden.

- You know, the mosquito is just a nuisance in our gardens. And we can spray a product that might contain DEET but it's not really good for us so I'm gonna highlight some plants here that are actually recommended for mosquito repellent. I'm gonna start out with lantana. It is a natural deterrent to mosquitoes. And one thing interesting when you go to pick out a lantana what's a bud, and what is past and already bloomed? Here is an example, right here. This is already bloomed, that's a little hard seed pod. So when you're looking at one and it's full of this and you know that can happen right now, they've had their first flush of blooms. So you want to pick out one that has a lot of see, all these nice buds on the top of the head. Then, as a complimentary color to that this is lavender. And very fragrant, but again, the mosquitoes don't like that. And this is called Sweet Romance. And oh, it is very fragrant. Another nice plant and it's one of the things that we don't want to turn loose in our garden. We probably don't want to turn it loose in our container if we're gonna make this into a container. You decide where you want to put your plants. This is spearmint. And this has other uses in our home, but it is very invasive. So you can see, it's already has a root coming out of its container there. Now this plant right here is not necessarily on the list. But I put together some things that have color complimentary. We want this to be aesthetically pleasing and beneficial to us for being able to repel our insects, our mosquitoes in right now. This is Bronze fennel, and it will have some height to it so when you're going on the same premise that you would if you were putting a container together of flowers, we want our thriller, and we want our spiller. and we want our filler. So, this is part of maybe perhaps one of our thriller plants because it will grow tall. And then this plant right here could work as a spiller. This is lemon thyme. And this has a very nice lemony fragrance it. And it would be pretty over the sides. And then moving on, it's basil is recommended also. And basil comes in more than one color so I thought perhaps the purple basil and then here is the green basil. But either, either of these will work for you, as far as the repellent qualities. Then, let's move over here. Theses are marigolds. Of course, marigold is beneficial in our gardens too because it does repel insects and rabbits and things and lots of people like to plant these in among their green beans, or their cabbage, or a lot of those. Now this is rosemary. Rosemary can grow different heights. Rosemary can also be winter hardy. This one is the arp which is supposed to be winter hardy in our area. So I'll just plant set that right there. Then this centerpiece, the focal point that most people are being sold is the citronella plant. The citronella plant is actually a scented geranium. And I, for years grew these and for their bloom before they started talking about the other attributes about it being a repellent for mosquitoes. So, you can see this one has the rose-colored blossoms on it. When we get ready to go to our favorite go-to spot and sit down for the tea, or read the newspaper, or whatever it's just fun to think about, let's run our fingers through our plants. And then let's run our fingers through our hair so that we deposit the fragrances of all of these plants that will repel insects.

- [Woman] When you have a wonderful hillside opportunity and the potential for lots of water, you need a good plan. And Caroll Marerro has just that plan. Caroll, this is amazing.

- Thank you, thank you. It's been an exciting adventure, I call it my outdoor laboratory. Because I've learned so much in the last three years.

- Well, I cannot imagine what it looked like during the flood of 2010.

- It was difficult for me to believe because the day before that flood I had seven yards of top soil delivered because I was going to take care of my erosion problem. And the day of that flood I realized it wasn't how much soil I brought in, it was what I needed to do with my stewardship, my environmental stewardship to control, or manage. I guess you can't control water, but you can manage it. And what I needed to do in my stewardship to do just that, so I could protect the wetlands across from our property. And Apple Creek that feeds into Mill Creek. What was my responsibility?

- [Julie] Well Mill Creek has the endangered national crayfish issue.

- [Carroll] You know, I learned that the year prior to the 2010 flood. I decided that I needed to learn about more about my environment here in Tennessee. So I was fortunate enough to go through the Master Gardening Program. But after the flood, I scrapped all plans that I had for bringing in soil and plants and I knew that it was water that I needed to face. So I partnered with two, two wonderful groups here in Davidson County. One Cumberland River Compact. And then Tennessee Yards and Neighbors. In fact, you taught that class for two different weekends on storm water. And what we, as individual homeowners have the responsibility of protecting our ground water, our runoff, our streams. So, I didn't do it by myself. I did it with a team. With the volume of storm water I knew that just a rain garden wasn't going to work for me. How could I utilize that? So I put in what I call my water management, or my water harvesting. I wanted to use that. And so I put in nearly 200 feet of perforated pipe in multiple areas. And, about storm water, or about delusion water you want to slow that deluge down. And so I, before I even buried it I put my drain pipes out on the surface. I stabilized them with rebar. And then even at night I would run out in my jammies and my umbrella with a flashlight looking to see if I was slowing that deluge down. And when I did, how far out was it irrigating my plants? And once I felt really good about that then I went to my neighbors. And you know, that's important because they have runoff on their driveways on their hillsides. And I'm very fortunate, my husband and I are very fortunate to have neighbors that were so willing and eager for me to do this. So we have a drain pipe on our neighbor's side that drains half of their roof and their driveway. We have our roof and driveway covered. And then what I did, I still had extra water coming out those pipes. So I built a rain basin. And the first one I built was without a lot of rock, I mean, without mortar. It was my first phase. And it kept filling with silt. So just a year ago I had an 18 inch deep or high, basin made. And of course, checked my filtration rates and that basin will fill a couple of times a year. But the filtration rate is so good Julie, that within less than an hour it's drained. And so my goal was not to lose a cup of water, or a teaspoon of soil from our hillside. And I've been able to achieve it.

- [Julie] Carroll, the rock that you have here is absolutely incredible. And I can't imagine what it would have taken to have gotten it here, and where it would have come from.

- [Carroll] Well, that's one thing Julie, I didn't have to worry about because this hillside, except for the under story trees, I planted everything. And I will tell you, is, I've worn out many pairs of pants crawling around on my knees with a pick ax. And I say a pick ax because under every little teaspoon of soil there appeared to be rocks. Rocks of all sizes. And so what I would do, of course, I started at the top and I worked from south to north. Just because that is where I had my biggest water issue. But I would pile these rocks up in different sizes and I made a commitment that nothing was leaving this hillside, nothing. That I would utilize, in my stewardship, everything that was here. The good fortune for me is with this hillside I call it my vertical garden, I was able to use everything. For example, around all the trees so that the soil wouldn't wash down. And then bury that trunk, you know how susceptible trees are. They're big, they're humongous, and so we think they're hearty. But they're just as prone to disease and insects if they're weakened. So I wanted to make sure I protected them. So I took the rocks and I utilized those around all the trees. And then to keep the erosion, I started with this hill and I, then I realized I still had an erosion problem. And I didn't have a problem with what I was going to do with rocks. So in studying a runoff the water, the next thing I studied was the light patterns. And, then I chose native plants, predominantly. I would say that out of the 250 different types of plants that I have and again, that's diversity. That's sustainability. But I chose things that were held back water. Well natives have a strong deep root system. For example, in my basin, I have black eyed Susans. They're very drop tolerant but they can enjoy a little wet feed from time to time. Many many different ways of planting and choosing what you do, but native, for me, is the only way that I go, the sustainability of them. And the exciting thing about this and of course, I learn every day. And, that's why I call it my laboratory is not only does it feed the plants but this leaf mulch actually holds the water. And that helps from having the water just run off quickly. So, I have not had, knock on wood, with my planning and doing the right applying the right principles and disciplines I haven't had any runoff for the last two years. What I did with that basin just to make sure that I didn't lose water and have yet another runoff problem, is I put a secondary flow at the end of this, and you see the perforated pipe here. And I protect my water a little bit by coming out into this area and that happens a couple of times a year. But just by a few inches. The other thing that I've done I call it my three-way plan to make sure that I can still boast to myself about not losing water and soil is you'll see the additional, I call it a fence of rocks. And then my So that's my last two defenses against losing anything into the wetlands. You know, we have seven springs along this HOA walking trail. And, I just don't want to injure that or impair it for going to Apple Creek. Gee, I hate to admit this but years ago, I didn't think anything about a storm water drain. Not at all. And then during that flood and our streets were just running rivers and I saw those storm water drains filling up with debris. Not just mine, but everybodys. And then I saw the deluge of water coming down the driveway, it was frightening. And I saw the deluge of water coming down this walking trail. So much so, that there were four of us watching this and we were all fearful of stepping into it that we'd be washed away. And the power of water and then being able to say, okay, I can't control it. But there has to be a way to manage to it.

- [Julie] Well this is such a wonderful property and it is so inspiring to see what you've done out here Carroll.

- [Carroll] Thank you.

- [Julie] Thank you so much for sharing it with us. And, it's especially impressive to think about the amount of work that can be done once you start planning and once you start observing. And especially taking advantage of all these resources. So, whenever you're looking at your property take a little tip here from Carroll observe, plan, and take a look at all of your resources that you have to deal with what's happening. Because it might be your property but it's all leading to something that belongs to all of us, our water. Thank you Carroll.

- [Carroll] Thank you Julie.

- [Narrator] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips, and garden projects visit our website at volunteergardener.org. Or on YouTube at the Volunteer Gardener channel. And like us on Facebook.