I know it’s the holidays and that gardening technically should be over for the year, but it’s not, especially if you have issues with rodents in your landscape.

One of the most common problems that I see in landscapes at this time is piles of soil mounded up in lawns. These piles have not been placed here intentionally by humans, however; it’s those darn moles.

Moles have two main types of runs underground. One type is a shallow tunnel that is just below the surface. These are used as the hunting grounds as moles scavenge about for food. These are the ones that you discover when you walk through a lawn and come across a soft spot that sinks a bit.

The deeper runs are connected to the moles’ living quarters. Their dens are usually 12-18 inches below the surface. As a mole tunnels deeper to create the den, the soil is pushed out behind and results in the hills that are quite evident in lawns at this time.

The resulting runs and hills sometimes make it difficult to mowing. In my perennial bed, they have tendency to hunt for food right around the base of my perennial plants. The roots in the area of disturbed soil sometimes dry out.

And on top of that, my dog loves to dig for moles and isn’t really conscientious of where he might be digging.

Trapping of the moles is the most successful and practical method of controlling moles. The recent introduction of new bait that contains the active ingredient talprid is good news. This product is very effective, but I don’t use it because of my dog.

Be careful of using homemade remedies, as these don’t work. You may get the feeling that they do work because you don’t see the critter, but you may have simply run him off to another location.

But as long as you have earthworms and other good soil insects, they’ll be back.

The other rodent to be preparing for now is rabbits. Consider using chicken wire or some other type of fencing around trees and shrubs they might feed on.

They love Japanese maples and other thin-barked trees. If we have good snow cover for a period of time and they can’t find any food source naturally, then they’ll start chewing on the bark of these trees.

This type of damage can result in complete girdling of the trunk and will kill the portion above the girdled area.

The chicken wire should be around 2 feet tall around the base of the plant. Do it now before the weather gets bad and you can’t get it done.

We don’t take a chance any more in the Gateway Learning Gardens. Three years ago we lost quite a few plants to the rabbits when the show was 2 feet or more for four weeks. We protect them every year now after we learned the hard way.