I want to hear more about winter sowing. The internet seems to think it involves planting in containers covered by plastic milk jugs and was invented in the 20th century by Trudi Davidoff.
Sowing seed in its final location in fall or winter like you do with these peas seems like the next logical step after direct sowing for a temperate climate. Then the seeds have all winter to get acquainted with their neighbors. You’re also allowing nature to plan in a much more detailed way for the growing season, rather than “Surprise! Crops!”.
Challenge accepted! Critters definitely appear to have gotten into the winter rye I scattered and composted over more than I hoped. I planted pretty late so I’ll know more in the spring
Also put some three sisters in with seed I can afford to experiment with. I plan to do a lot more sowing this season. To the best of my knowledge we’ve got voles, and we definite get snow cover. I say voles because of the little tunnels cris-crossing the yard and garden, obvious signs of activity, presence of animals that eat voles, and the fact that we have never once seen them. Previous places I’ve lived with chipmunks (my next best tunneling rodent guess) we always see them.
Are your tunnels under the soil, or under the snow? In the spring here, when the snow melts, all the tunnels on top of the grass and below the snow become visible. It’s very impressive! One year I left some wheat out and they stashed it in all sorts of places, many of which never got revisited and it just grew there. I don’t really experience them as an issue in the summer, though that might be a cat thing.
My biggest complaint about voles is that they’ll girdle any apple tree or berry bush under twenty years old or so.
Interesting! They’re under the soil . We had four persimmon saplings and an onion vanish into the ground last season, the onion very obviously down a tunnel. Something has repeatedly dug up my Aronia sapling, but that I think is a squirrel
I wonder if that’s voles behaving differently because you have shorter snow cover, voles behaving differently because my soil is heavy clay (and honestly I’d sacrifice a bunch of grain to get them to dig it for me!) or not-voles?
My little red squirrel is adorable and mostly just eats my chicken feed and apples, he doesn’t seem to dig. The chickens, on the other hand…
I always plant mold plant if I have a problem with tunneling rodents in the past I found that it works against balls groundhogs and Even rats thank you all
. We had four persimmon saplings and an onion vanish into the ground last season, the onion very obviously down a tunnel. Something has repeatedly dug up my Aronia sapling, but that I think is a squirrel