More !@#$% Voles in another !@#$% Garden Bed!

I couldn't believe my eyes. Yesterday morning, I went out to get the back flower bed cleared out and cleaned up. In the interest of full disclosure, it's been overrun with violets, and seriously dry weather in August and September meant that I hadn't been out to try weeding until now (the ground was literally like poured concrete, as I may have mentioned in the previous vole posting). All was well until I got to the middle of the bed, around a lilac. As I pulled away violet leaves, I found tunnels and excavated dirt piles all over the bloody place. Voles!!! Some iris rhizomes were only being held up by the fact that their roots were so intertwined- unbelievable! Unfortunately, rain drove me in for the remainder of the day around 1:30, so tomorrow, it's once more into the breach, granules in hand, to try to get the upper hand in this war. And it isn't just me; at lunchtime, the phone company knocked on the door (we'd had land line problems the day before), and the repairman was also grousing about the havoc the little bastards are wreaking on the pillars that house the phone lines. He said he's been running all over creation the last couple of weeks, clearing out nests and replacing chewed wires. A pox on voles!!!!