The Battle Rages On

The epic battle of human and hosta versus vole continued this morning with my waking to find two more hosta destroyed.  I think I am losing about one or two a week at this point.  I can’t protect them fast enough and the voles are now walking right through the repellant to get to the hosta.  Maybe that’s a good sign?  Maybe they are desperate? 

Or maybe they are mutant voles for which there is no defense!!!

Today’s destruction includes a Dream Weaver – oh the horror.  Do you know how slow this hosta is?  Let me tell you, it’s a S  L  O  W  W  W grower and the voles knocked it back several seasons.  The second victim was one of three Diamond Tiara.  Come to think of it, I can only remember two of them so maybe the third was actually a winter victim??  I have to see if I can remember where I put that third one.  Hmmm.

Dream Weaver sans roots:

Diamond Tiara:

Interestingly I also dug up a hosta right next to this one because I found a vole hole right at its crown.  The crown was still there and several big fat roots came out from it BUT there was virtually no smaller, capillary/feeder root system!  I think that winter vole feeding reduced the roots dramatically and it was only able to grow new roots once spring began.  It explains why many of my hosta did not increase in size from last year.

Mini Garden Added

Here’s the new bed I added this weekend.  I put many of the surviving minis here from the concrete garden.  My theory with miniature or dwarf hosta is to plant them in groups or drifts.  One single mini is gorgeous but completely lost when your garden is of any size. 

I’ll try to label all of these guys.  Starting at the top left (just below the fragment of a leaf peeking into the pic):

Praying Hands (not a long term solution for this one but with the concrete garden gone, I had to get it into the ground somewhere)

Then there’s two Blue Mouse Ears, a Diamond Tiara and another BME

Heading down the right are Green Eyes, Tiny Tears, Cracker Crumbs and three clumps of Lemon Lime.

The burnt up shell of a hosta at the bottom is a Hadspen Blue – yep, eaten by voles.  Above that to the left is a more normal looking Hadspen Blue and above that is a vole and sun destroyed Sherborne Swift.  Right above that is a little Teaspoon.

That one Hadspen Blue will have to move in the future but it has a few years to recover.  

Doesn’t seem like much, does it??

 

Hosta and Frog

Frog enjoying a nice day by the pond with So Sweet and Marilyn in the background.  Sorry for the blurry photos lately.  It’s been a little late at night by the time I’ve gotten home to take photos.  Forgive me!

Hosta Makes a Bad Day Better

Today was just awful.  I had to travel to North Jersey for a meeting and I left the house without my phone.  Ugh.  Since the car isn’t the most up to date model, I turned around and wasted about 45 minutes getting my phone.  Better safe than sorry.  I wasn’t going to be early but I would still be on time… until … wasting an hour and a half in traffic making my less than two hour drive a three and a half hour drive!  Add to that a two and a half hour drive home (I stopped for food) and today was a ridiculous waste of time.

So when I got home – earlier than usual on a weekday – I really needed to get my hands in the dirt.  I worked on a brand new garden that we’ll call the Cherry Garden because of the two American Cherry weeds, I mean trees.  I moved several plants over including a larger sized Regal Splendor and a few that need help like my Jewel of the Nile that shrunk down to nothing since last year.  It’s literally down to one small eye.  Sad.

Clockwise from the Big Regal Splendor: Regal Splendor, Elivis Lives (hiding behind), Titanic (looking more like a rowboat even after two years), Gold Regal, Darwin’s Standard, Deja Blu, Stetson (has almost shrunk to nothing) and Jewel of the Nile (JOTN was a two foot wide superstar last year who has shrunk to a single eye, I’m praying she returns to her JEWEL of the garden status).

 

Speaking of shrinking down to nothing, I can’t figure out whether it was drought or little creatures.  I’ve found a few mole holes directly under the crowns of hosta that have shrunk.  But others just seem to have rotted away or disappeared.  If I could get rid of the moles … I’d give anything to get rid of these guys.  I was about to cry today as I stuck my fingers completely inside and under the crown of a Gold Standard that last year was more than two feet wide and this year is only one eye.

Garden Update Early May 08

Well, I’ve got a lot of unaccounted for hosta this year which is pretty depressing.  I’m still not giving up complete hope but some like H. ‘Frosted Jade’ and H. ‘Marbled Cream’ are complete no-shows so far.  H. clausa poked up a few leaves in April only to be slapped down by a light frost and H. ‘Ice Age Trail’ either suffered from the same frost or an attack of pip nibbling creatures.  I know… it’s early.  I shouldn’t obsess about it until later on in the month but that’s what I’m doing.

In happier news I’ve removed the weedy dogwood shrub/tree and expanded the garden by the pond to extend up the creek.  I rebuilt the edges of the creek to stop water leaks that had developed last fall.  It’s pretty much leak proof now I figure.  Filled in the edges with some drought tolerant perennials that will forgive my dedicating all of my watering time to hostas when the summer hits full force.  I was really excited to find Nepeta ‘Kit Kat’ which was introduced in 06 but I could not find in 07.  Lucky me it was at my favorite nursery.  They are awesome.  I also picked up some Achillea, Echinacea, Veronica and Centaurea for the spot.  I also moved in a Bela Lugosi day lilly and some Rudbeckia.  Oh, and a sprig of Butterfly Weed for good measure. 

We’ll see what shakes out after the hot, humid summer hits the sand pit of a yard I have!