Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Cultivation => Composts => Topic started by: james willis on February 23, 2010, 10:43:06 AM
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I have read several times that the soil from mole hills can be made good use of in compost mixes. Could anybody please tell me if this is true or if it is one of those old tales that gets repeated without any serious evaluation? Plenty of mole hills to go at here.
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It has certainly been well riddled! :D
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James, many of the expert Auricula growers of 'yesteryear' would use nothing else. They added plenty of sand and a dollop of dried cow manure and the Auriculas grew like cabbages.
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I always understood that soil from mole hills was some of the best you can get. On the other hand, I am grateful not to have the moles in the first place!
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I would imagine it's good for adding to composts because the soil where moles are active is sure to be rich but well drained, full of worms (which enrich the soil) churned up from below long-undisturbed grassland so with few weed seeds, nicely worked into a fine tilth by the moles' claws.
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I use our mole hills; on our heavy clay I'm very grateful to have a source of finely worked soil. I usually mix it with equal quantities of compost.
There are rarely worms in it though Martin - the moles eat those!
Some people really hate moles and I can see that if you are a tidy gardener they would be frustrating but several years ago I was out checking my seed pots early in the morning and a mole scuttled behind me and I followed him round the back of the house. An absolutely enchanting creature and that viewing was really one of my garden highlights here.
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I like moles a lot too Gail, but then I don't have lawns and our soil is so stony and shallow they would need drilling gear to get anywhere! Susan's folks have used molehills too - for the same reason as you I think, as they are on heavy clay.
Susan herself sees moles as her little archaeological helpers and if she is near a potential site (McHadrians wall for instance - the one built by the Scots to keep the Romans from pinching the whisky) she can often be seen kicking through molehills and rabbit burrows in search of bits of pottery, flint tools etc.
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Eeek! >:(
Mole tunneling can be fast, furious, and devastating. Moles, voles, and shrews (we have all 3) will use each others tunnels opportunistically. Studies done on the diet of all of these, and the various species of each, belies the belief some are purely insectivores, when in fact the so-called insectivores will eat vegetation as well (root, bulbs, tubers). I remain vigilant on my war on these creatures (chipmunks too).
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I have never seen moles so active as they are this year,I have collected several bags from the side of our lane and river banks,The question is sterilize or not sterilize ?(I have a microwave in the garage)
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I have never seen moles so active as they are this year, I have collected several bags from the side of our lane and river banks,The question is sterilize or not sterilize ?(I have a microwave in the garage)
That depends on whether you collected bags of soil or bags of moles. ;D
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The moles have been very active around the village this year, and taking a friend's Jack Russell for a walk last week I reckon he excavated over a hundred mounds within an hour: he returned home triumphant but filthy. We haven't had a mole on its mating search within our garden for about five years now but when it did call it left total destruction in our rough pasture from which we are still trying to recover. I think I shall try some of the soil but I shall not attempt to steralise it - no spare microwave and my wife, gardening enthusiast though she is would be mob-handed on my case. Now to try some auriculas sounds good.
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Oh, the dear, furry little creatures. I'm SO sorry we have none at all to add to rabbits, stoats and other European delights that live in our fair land.
James, many of the expert Auricula growers of 'yesteryear' would use nothing else. They added plenty of sand and a dollop of dried cow manure and the Auriculas grew like cabbages.
I don't suppose the dried cow manure had anything to do with it? ;D BTW How does one dry a cow? Dry OFF, is one thing, but dry? Oh well, a very large bath towel I suppose. ::)
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Mark, I'm very sorry to see that you have fallen over. Do you need a hand up? No broken ankles I hope. ???
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Mark, I'm very sorry to see that you have fallen over. Do you need a hand up? No broken ankles I hope. ???
No Lesley, I'm fine. Just trying to understand the perspective of folks such as yourself living in the opposite hemisphere. I think the blood is starting to rush to my head ;D ;D I see that your arborescent croci are still doing well.
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The moles have been very active around the village this year, and taking a friend's Jack Russell for a walk last week I reckon he excavated over a hundred mounds within an hour: he returned home triumphant but filthy. We haven't had a mole on its mating search within our garden for about five years now but when it did call it left total destruction in our rough pasture from which we are still trying to recover. I think I shall try some of the soil but I shall not attempt to steralise it - no spare microwave and my wife, gardening enthusiast though she is would be mob-handed on my case. Now to try some auriculas sounds good.
James, with all that mole activity, you can probably make a mountain out of a mole hill, and thereby grow your auriculas in a mountain habitat! :D ;D
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Very droll Mark!
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To get back to the original point of the thread, Brian swears by molehill soil and we regularly travel with a placcy bag and a trowel. In fact our microwave is only used for warming milk and sterilising the compost made from their finely textured soil.
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...And knowing Brian he will probably have a range of matching moleskin waistcoats, trousers and ties in SRGC colours!
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I bet snowdrop seedlings would love it.
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I think that it is used in the north as i is possible to cut it off the ground even when the rest is frozen and then thawed inside to have access to soil when it is otherwise frozen. Sometimes at spring the sun can worm the mole hills so that they are not frozen while the rest is, so they can be used directly as soil for whatever I need it to. That is why I use it. This is from my own garden so the soil is probably similar to the rest of the soil.
We do hunt them (with traps) but more so since the voles are here to. I hope the cats will take the latter since they are truly a pest.
Kind regards
Joakim
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I can see why you would use it Joakim. What I have been hoping to unravel is just what the soil from a mole hill brings to the party. When available does it make for a quality ingredient in your compost mix and for free too via a trowel and a plastic carrier bag? (I can relate to the carrier bag as I collect gravel from the roadside from time to time.) In a compost does it retain the fine textural quality given it by the mole's front paws or does it quickly revert to its natural state?
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No moles in Ireland
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The soil gets to the normal structure after being mixed in a compost at least the one we use but is more easily mixed than others.
Since many gardens have a better top soil than the underling soil the mole hill is generally from a better fraction so is a bit better than the worst. Getting it from pastures might be a good source of good garden soil since it is good soil there. If one is allowed to take it I do not know.
I am far from a soil expert so this is just how is see it.
Kind regards
Joakim
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No moles in Ireland
I did not know that. Mind you, plenty of MI5 moles during the Troubles.
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No moles in Ireland
The luck of the Irish again. We can happily export some to Ireland for you.
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We can happily export some to Ireland for you.
NO THANKS ;D Accidental or deliberate introduction of bank voles a few decades ago is now causing problems.
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Our soil is heavy clay so even the mole hills in the lawn areas do not produce very good soil. But they do improve the drainage with their tunnels so we have learned to live with them in the grass.
Moles in the rock garden are another story. Our rock garden is on a bank and the moles find it very convenient to dispose of their tunnel tailings on a slope. It is very frustrating when they excavate from below through carefully placed stone mulch. Mole traps are hopeless in the rock garden and I have tried smoke bombs and all the other paraphernalia. The only thing that seems to work is to drive rocks deep into the tunnel outlet. That prevents them using that portal and they seem to then move elsewhere (hopefully the neighbours) rather than drive a new tunnel outlet.
So no moles in Ireland. I guess St Patrick was more diligent than we thought.
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My thanks to everyone who replied even to those who gave the mole in all its manifestations, nul points.
I shall certainly try soil from mole hills with auriculas and the few snowdrops I have in pots.
More immediately I am raising the level of a small bed in which I want to place some fritillaries and to the mix I am using to do this I am adding material excavated by moles.
Jim Willis
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I think you are very wise to do this Jim, if the compost you are using is otherwise soil-less. In my experience some soil in the compost for frits and other liliaceous species, prevents botrytis with which I have a problem in soil-less composts. Not in the compost with soil as an addition though.
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We can happily export some to Ireland for you.
NO THANKS ;D Accidental or deliberate introduction of bank voles a few decades ago is now causing problems.
Do you mean Arvicola terrestis? This is the most obnoxious rodent i have to cope with (Beavers are strong competitors) Strangly enough they seem to be protected in England. ???
I explained how to get at them in an earlier posting.
Cheers
Göte
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No Göte, Clethrionomys glareolus. Curiously DNA studies showed that they are of German rather than British origin, so it's been suggested (e.g. see here (http://www.biology.ie/article-single.php?a=76)) that they were imported with soil-moving equipment in the 1920s when Siemens built a hydroelectric plant on the Shannon, Ireland's largest river.
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No Göte, Clethrionomys glareolus. Curiously DNA studies showed that they are of German rather than British origin, so it's been suggested (e.g. see here (http://www.biology.ie/article-single.php?a=76)) that they were imported with soil-moving equipment in the 1920s when Siemens built a hydroelectric plant on the Shannon, Ireland's largest river.
I have got them too but they are a much smaller problem than the Arvicola is. I think I have no problem with them at all. I believe that those trying to get at my crocus and corydalis corms are mice rather than voles. However, I am not out hunting in the nights ;D so I am not sure.
Tallyho
Göte