Making Mountains Out Of Moles

So...your lawn is looking amazing.  The grass has just been manicured...it looks like an immaculate green carpet out there. You couldn't be more proud of the kingdom you survey. Suddenly, you start to notice little piles of earth being pushed up around your pristine lawn. The ground becomes soft and uneven in places. Where there was once perfection, little brown piles now punctuate your sea of green, taunting your obsessive compulsive side. This means war! How can I get rid of these damn moles!

But before you begin, its important that - in the words of Sun Tzu - you know your enemy.

The first thing you should know is that (if you live in South Africa) there are no moles in your garden.

"But wait!" I hear you say, "I'm definitely not imagining this mess in my garden." Thats true, but moles are not native to Africa. They are a resident of North America, Asia and Europe. What you are actually seeing in your garden is one of either two groups of mole-like creatures that are found in Southern Africa - Golden Moles, or Mole Rats.

Take a look at this cute little Golden Mole (picture credit)

Golden Moles are a distant relative of the hedgehog, and are mainly insectivores, with a predilection for termites. They range in size from 8-20cm, and are covered in a moisture and dirt repellant, black/grey/yellow fur. Their eyes are non-functional, and their ears are just tiny holes, so their sense of touch is highly developed to the point where they can feel termites and other insects nearby. Golden Moles are generally solitary creatures, and can travel great distances (up to as much as 6km in the case of the Grant's Golden Mole) in search of food.  Sadly, 11 of the 21 species of Golden Moles are now threatened with extinction.

Mole Rat caught pink handed (picture credit)

The name Mole Rat is a misleading title, as it is neither a mole, nor a rat.  It is possibly a closer relative to a porcupine. They're herbivores, and enjoy munching on bulbs and grass stolons. Very often eating but not destroying the bulbs that they feed on. They tend to live in family units of up to 14 individuals. Their tunnels are quite extensive, and can go down as much as a 80cm below the surface. Tunnels have been found to be as much as a kilometre in length. They can be quite grumpy little creatures if they are cornered, so take care when handling them.

The second thing you should know about these 2 groups of creatures that we have up till now been mis-calling moles, is that they also perform an important function of aerating the soil, improving drainage, and essentially tilling the soil from underneath.

Thirdly, and most importantly, based on my experience, it is very difficult to get rid of mole rats in particular. I have employed most of them - sonic devices, spinning plastic coke bottles, garlic solutions, urination (not me personally), Jack Russells, and I'm sad to say that when I was younger I even used pesticides. None of these solutions have worked for more than a couple of months, and most didn't work at all. Pesticides seemed to work the best, but you have to weigh up the long term damage that you are doing to the environment. The chemicals are highly toxic, heavier than air and will poison the groundwater, all the surrounding soil, and in the process killing off all the life in the soil. In the long term your grass and plants will end up suffering, as the symbiotic relationship they have with the myriad organisms in the soil will be destroyed.

There are 2 solutions that I have as yet not tried. The first is the use of wire mesh. This involves, essentially spreading galvanised wire mesh over the entire area about 15cm below the surface. The problems with this option are that the wire mesh would have to have a tiny aperture to prevent the moles from squeezing through, it would be quite an expensive option especially for larger areas, and there would be nothing stopping the mole from walking along the surface, and burrowing into the newly fenced off area. But it still may be a good option worth exploring. I would imagine the key would be finding the right depth for the layer of wire to be spread out at.

The second solution is in my opinion the best. At one point I heard about someone who traps moles/mole rats/golden moles alive, and then releases the animals back into the wild far away.  I was never able to get hold of his details. I would have been happy to send him lots of work.

At the moment, the advice that I most often give my clients is more of a remedial one. Prior to regular mowing, any mole hills, and and any surface tunnelling, should be stamped down.
Then during your annual top-dressing, the loose soil can be stamped back down, rolled and then top-dressed to deal with any minor unevenness.
This essentially gives the lawn a fresh start, but the moles will still be there and will eventually work your lawn back to its previous bumpy self.

As with most garden problems that come about from our attempts to control our environment, I believe the best mindset is to work with nature and not against it. The Japanese have a way of thinking called Wabi-sabi, which essentially means embracing imperfection. Something we obsessive compulsive westerners would do well to learn.

Embracing the unevenness, the weeds, the creatures, the yellowing leaves, the non-linear and the imperfect is so hard for us to do, but says so much about our need for control of the world around us. I wonder if it is an outward sign of an impossibility that we expect of ourselves and others around us.

The Problem is the Solution

Gardening is for old people.

That sounds like an absurd over-simplification, and besides, why should you care? What difference does it make if young people aren't interested in gardens and nature? We live in a hi-tech world, where all the worlds problems will be solved by computers, and where science will be our saviour.

A group of young people preparing a food garden at Summerhill Children's Home in Salt Rock

That's an attractive thought for today's youth, that live in an instant world with its resulting short-term thinking.

So how does digging in the dirt, or mixing manure compete in this internet age, and why should it?

In South Africa, the latest statistics show that 1 in every 4 people are unemployed.

Education stats are even scarier. Out of 100 children that start school, only 28 will pass matric, 4 will enter university and only 1 out of those 4 will graduate.
Of the staff that I have employed over the last 2 decades, I have noticed an alarming trend over the last 5 years, that school leavers seem to have completely unrealistic expectations. The common perception seems to be that it will be fairly easy to find a job, that job will be well paying, with very little effort or commitment involved. The difference between dreams and reality in South Africa are quite stark.

In the words of the wise Gogo "Qho" Mthethwa - young people don't want work they want jobs. As a country, we seem to be content to foster an attitude of dependence rather than an entrepreneurial mindset.

Realistically speaking, looking to technology to solve our problems, may well be fine in the long term, but we need solutions now. We need to feed people now. Science and technology alone can't give us that. So what can?

If you plant a food garden from seed, you can begin eating the food from your garden within a matter of weeks.
Growing food or plants doesn't need a huge injection of cash. Seeds can very often be harvested from existing crops, providing the next seasons crops for free.
Gardeners are almost to a fault, overly generous in offering their time, information or even seed/plants when they see enthusiasm and willingness to learn.
There are several amazing initiatives around the country with the sole aim of passing on the skills to grow food gardens in our particular climate.

I agree with guerilla gardener Ron Finley that as with many problems in life, the solution is inside the challenge.

With our ridiculously high unemployment rates, we have 1 out of every 4 people who have the capacity to tend a garden, which could if properly managed, feed themselves and even provide an income as they feed their community. As solutions go, its not sexy, and it may not have the mirage-like appeal that science and technology offers, but it is immediately attainable and realistic.

So how can YOU go about doing this? Here's some inspiration:

Ifu Lobuntu is an inspiring South African idea that is looking at ways to harness technology to connect small scale food growers directly with customers. By using simple cloud-based apps and economies of scale, they hope to make it possible for subsistence farmers to sell directly to the public. The idea is still in its formation stage, but hopefully it will grow into its full potential.

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA — in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys." Check out his Ted-Talk.

Why Gardening Is Not Sustainable

Sustainability. What does it mean really?

Its a very broad term which at its essence describes the ability of a complex web of inter-relationships to endure. More specifically for us humans, it refers to the healthy inter-relationship between the environment, healthy society and the economy.

The beautiful spiral of Ctenium grass

Seldom has a word meant so much and yet so little at the same time. Its used as a clarion call by environmentalists and other greenies as they try to enthuse an apathetic populace. But its also peppered throughout the speech of politicians, economists and developers, as they attempt to greenwash their (often anything but sustainable) activities.

Let me put it another way - I'm not great at budgets, but even I know that its not sustainable (there's that word again) to spend more than I earn. If I do, I'll be soon be homeless, my health will suffer from the stress, and/or I'll have to take shortcuts (which will soon catch up with me) as I make my finances suit my lifestyle, and not the other way around.

Gardening (and I'm just picking on gardening here, but this applies to most if not all professions) for the last several decades has been built around the mistaken decision to decide on a lifestyle that we want, and make it happen - be damned the consequences.

So we look at the glossy magazines showing gardens that are photographed at their cornucopial prime, that in reality only look like that for maybe 2 months of the year. And we expect our garden to look like that all year round. So we plant unrealistically, we fertilize to death, we water until there is nothing left in the taps - and finally we get our perfect garden.

When is this going to change?

The problem, I think speaks to an underlying human condition called greed that sadly, is not easily remedied. But if anybody should understand the importance of living sustainably, it should be us gardeners. If anybody should be leading the way in the sustainable lifestyle, it should be we who live close to the ground. It should be those of us who see the cyclical and seasonal nature of things, and know first hand that what you sow, you will reap.

When are we going to wake up, and take stock of our lifestyle, and make the kind of fundamental changes that we absolutely have to?

Gardening On A Vertical

Plants love a good challenge... I admire the way they seem to survive thrive in the most death defying situations. You find plants growing in such diverse conditions - from Polar Bear hangouts right through to Desert furnaces. I've seen plants surviving on nothing but air, just clinging to rock faces. In the plethora of conditions that our amazing planet seems to dish out, plants seem to love to rise to any challenge.

Terramesh Wall Halfway Up

Cities pose their fair share of challenges to plants. Green Walls and Vertical Gardens have become 'the new thing' as people try to invite nature back into our inhospitable cities. They are an elegant solution to the stark walls and inert atmosphere of the places that we humans seem to flock to.

Several years ago, I built a green wall on a south-east facing, windswept balcony. Its been interesting to watch the evolutionary growth of the green wall, and I've used it as a proving ground for different plants to see which of them were best suited to this type of environment.

Some plants - particularly ferns seem to reproduce to the point of trying to suffocate everything else. Others, like a small aloe, and several different types of orchids have grown quietly and unassumingly before bursting into surprising flower. You can watch a video of how I built it here.

Green Terramesh being installed

An ongoing project (Romead Business Park) that we have been working on for quite some time, has posed several challenging situations which I hope to elaborate on in the future. One of the challenges, was the lack of space at the main entrance to the Park. We had some large banks that were held in place by a beautifully designed concrete curved wall. But the wall could only be so big before it would start compromising the design of the main entrance.

The final solution was to use a product called Terramesh from Maccaferri. This is woven wire mesh which is back filled and compacted with soil. Plants are then planted into the face, which in time forms a dense groundcover, and should prevent any long term erosion.

Just after planting

We planted up the wall, using a succulent called Crassula multicava. Its a plant with a happy disposition - content to grow on a South facing wall (no sun), and it seeds itself quite readily, and will even survive dry periods and still look very good. It has a pretty pink flower all through the year.

Before

After

Food For Thought

I'm reading a book by Barbara Kingsolver at the moment called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It begins with an honest look at the divorce in the United States between humans and nature (especially their food), and the resulting social, economic and environmental catastrophe that we humans are hurtling towards.

 A tinker reed frog I found the day after planting this Aloe

Here in South Africa, we have the fortunate ability to be able to see into the future. We are like the furthest island from an earthquakes epicentre - we are able to receive the early warning, long before the tsunami hits. We could be likened to the late adopters in trend forecasting - there is often a lag of as little as a few months to as many as a few years in our adopting of certain fashions or trends.

So you'd think we would see the consequences of another nation's life in the fast-food lane, and make the changes necessary to steer clear of the mess to follow? The sad reality is that we are so distracted by the present problems that we have little capacity or will to take advantage of this advantage and plan for the future. The result is that the warning signals go un-heeded.

There has long been an inevitable shift in allegiance from rural farm life and a dependance and understanding of nature to urban living with its attendant ills. But urbanisation, doesn't have to spell out the death of communion with nature.
 It does require a certain amount of commitment on our part though. We need to take steps every day to notice nature, and welcome, and encourage it:

In South Africa, we have a term - Local is Lekker - which means buying locally made/grown/produced, is always better. Choose food that is locally grown as opposed to buying food which needs exponential amounts of energy just to get it to your door.

Encourage nature back into your garden by planting indigenous, or better yet, endemic plants. This gives animals a natural place to eat or rest - you'd be amazed at how quickly you will see all kinds of birds and wildlife returning to your garden.

Resist the urge to throw chemicals at your problems. Pesticides and herbicides are no solution - they just delay the inevitable. In extreme cases you may have no alternative, but most times all thats needed is a little patience. Nature's own balances, will kick in soon enough.

We need to take advantage of our prophetic viewpoint in SA, and begin learning from the mistakes made by other countries.

I do believe that every little action makes a difference - if we wait for governments or politicians to pass laws or push policies to protect and improve the environment, we'll be waiting till there are no longer cows to come home. We need to resolve to take a step now, no matter how small.

The Consequences of a Life Disconnected

I noticed today that the Jacarandas are flowering again. Here in South Africa, the purple portent was a signal to students to start studying for end of year exams. If you waited until they layed their purple carpet below the tree you were already in big trouble. How many of these natural signs do we pay attention to these days?
In the past, our ability to survive depended on our intimate knowledge, and connection with nature. We'd be watching for the migration of birds, or the lengthening of shadows to guide our decision making in everything from when to plant vegetables, to when to propose marriage.

In our modern day lifestyle, we live our lives very disconnected from nature. Seasons come and go, and we hardly notice the changes, cocooned in our temperature regulated environments. Food no longer comes from last seasons planned planting, but is neatly packaged at the local supermarket for our last-minute convenience.
Both are perfect examples of our great sophistication, our triumph over the capriciousness of life, and our ability to design our landscape to suit us. But what happened to working with nature? Good design has to be more than imposing our will on our environment, surely its got to include a harmonious relationship with the landscape.

I'm far from being ready to return to an agrarian existence, and finding ways to keep chickens in my 3rd floor apartment - as much as my cat would argue for the perfect logic of that decision. Nor do I plan on basing my decisions on the changing seasons, when science can give such exact information. But I just wonder if the repercussions of this basic disconnection are more insidious and far-reaching than we imagine.