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Have you noticed the tell-tale signs of rats, mice, or rodents in your garden (dark droppings the size of a grain of rice, holes, fresh mounds of dirt, and nibbled or disappearing plants)? If so, it’s time to take action, using barriers, traps, and plants that keep rats away from your hard-earned garden space.
Rodents are smart and curious creatures, happy to make a home in or near regular food and water sources – like a garden. The more you do to make your garden and yard spaces un-inviting, the less likely rats and mice are to stick around – and that requires a holistic approach to garden design.
Peter Rabbit gets all the sympathy in Beatrix Potter’s childhood classics, but grown-up gardeners are more likely to sympathize with Mr. MacGregor’s plight. The following tips and recommendations make gardens less hospitable to rodents, increasing your yield, diminishing the risks of rodent-borne pathogens, and making it less likely for rats and mice to infiltrate your home.
Particular plants have scents that act as natural repellants. By incorporating them into your garden plan – as borders or interspersing them through your edible and flowering plants, neighborhood rodents will be more inclined to forage elsewhere.
The flavors and scents of these plants (and their roots) are repellents to many rodents and insects, so they help to keep them away. You can also sprinkle crushed flowers from these plants around the garden, create solutions of water and the offending herbs or crushed garlic to spray around the borders and on plants being targeted by rats and other rodents, to further discourage attention. Since many of the herbs listed above are used regularly by cooks, they’re a win-win for your garden.
The ultimate goal is to keep rats and rodents out of the garden without using harmful chemicals, poisons, and pesticides that post a threat to your pets or your children. In addition to integrating plants that keep rats away, the following tips can also keep rodents at bay:
Your compost pile provides a wealth of nutrients to the garden. However, until it’s fully composted, it also serves as a rich feeding trough for a myriad of animals, insects, and bugs – rats and other rodents love to scavenge the fresh scraps. Turning your compost regularly, burying new scrap additions right away, and spraying it with water makes it more difficult for rodents to access the food.
Woodpiles are a perfect nesting ground for rodents. Moving them around makes it harder for rodents to set up a permanent home. This frustrates them, and they’ll eventually migrate somewhere else.
Those brush and leaf piles are another nest-friendly place for rodents to live and take shelter. Once the leaves are raked and the clippings are piled up – get them into your compost, or bagged up and into a yard waste bin, so they don’t attract rats and mice.
Rats and mice can squeeze through spaces the size of a dime! Speak to your landscape company or garden supply store about installing rodent-proof wire mesh on the bottoms and along the sides of raised garden beds. While rats and mice do enjoy nibbling leaves and fresh fruits/veggies, they’re just as likely to access plants and their roots from below ground (they tunnel and burrow just like gophers and moles).
Bay Area Landscapes is dedicated to designing and maintaining beautiful landscapes, integrating eco-friendly pest and rodent solutions. Contact us to learn more about how we can design a garden you’ll love – but that keeps the rats away!