Yay and ugh! What are you planting this spring in your beds?You're in good company. (raised beds, chickens, and unfortunately... the bad company of voles)
I now see the need more than ever for cats and dogs on our suburban homestead”. They really do work!My dogs have assured me that voles are very tasty. Athena will forcibly take them from the cats.
We have townsend voles. They are cute, slow, and dumb as rocks. They get themselves caught in the plastic hardware cloth and strangle because they wont back out.
Little bastards...My voles move pretty fast. Faster than I can.
All sounds very good.I have perennial beds for rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, raspberries. Also, sorrel is a perennial crop = first greens! Putting in a herb garden to get them gathered into a more central location.
I use radish as row markers. Favorite variety: French Breakfast. It's very mild, and great sliced and served with peanutbutter. Then, there's onion, garlic, bush and pole beans, sugar snaps, tomatoes, peppers, summer and winter squash, potatoes. Carrots, chard, spinach, lots of varied greens, brassicas... Some years, I grow corn. And, there's always flowers in my veggie garden. Scattered around the yard are various herbs and aromatics that I can use for teas, and toss in the chicken coop. I also wild harvest some herbs/plants to make a healing salve.