adn.com | Talk Dirt To Me : Try pinwheels for moose defense

Talk Dirt To Me

Do you love to make mud pies, grow a houseplant, eat veggies, or stop to smell the bouquet on your co-workers desk? Everyone enjoys a bit of green growing around him or her and then there are those that are passionate and needy when it comes to dabbling in the dirt. With this blog, we'll try to satisfy those needs and tell you about what's going on with the Anchorage gardening scene. You know, as I finally learned, it's all about the dirt.

Photographer and gardener Fran Durner (fdurner@adn.com) writes the blog.

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2008 Anchorage garden tour

Take an interactive tour of the gardens showing in Anchorage's garden tour, with photos and audio commentary from each gardener.

Try pinwheels for moose defense

Posted by talkdirt

Posted: November 18, 2008 - 3:38 pm

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Pinwheels may be a good moose deterrent. Photo by Fran DurnerI wonder if I was the only person who rushed out during lunch hour today to buy some pinwheels for the garden. I can just hear you muttering, "What? Is she crazy?" under your breath.

Last night, Jane Baldwin gave a presentation to the Anchorage Master Gardeners on Moose vs. Man or, as I call it, the lengths people will go to (including me) to save their gardens from moose!

Jane drove around town and took photos of yards with plants, shrubs and trees wrapped in all colors of netting, all kinds of wire, ingenious methods of caging and even plants covered with collapsible lawn chairs. Whatever it takes...

She talked about different kinds of repellents such as the popular Plantskydd, (expensive, has a short shelf life and must be applied several times a year), soap bars (again, must be replaced often), predator urine (yuk, who wants to hang bottles of urine around their yard!) and salmon fish oil (may work but would attract bears, as may the Plantskydd).

But the thing that caught my attention was her use of pinwheels mounted to tall bamboo stakes and pushed into the ground at strategic spots around her garden. Jane discovered that her neighborhood moose don't seem to like the shiny, moving things and steer clear of them.

The moose pawed down the barrier to get to the cotoneasters. Fran Durner/ADNNow we all have learned that moose are smart. Don't tell me otherwise. Behind those big soft brown eyes exists a cunning brain. I've watched as my neighborhood moose nosed his way through the layers of plastic netting barrier I had draped over my cotoneaster hedge last year. I watched as he deliberately and determinedly pawed down another section.

Banging pots didn't stop him and Plantskydd didn't deter (though it may have outlived it's shelf life when I applied, something I didn't know then).

The daughter helps to set up the new moose fence. Pinwheels will go atop the metal posts. Photo by Fran DurnerThis year I'm trying a different netting and attaching it to metal stakes to form a fence. But it isn't quite the 8' to 10' tall that Jane recommended. So I'm going to add the pinwheels to every stake and in a few other strategic places and cross my fingers.

Moose do seem to be creatures of habit, and mine have shown up every year in December. This time, hopefully, they will take one look and decide it's time to leave my hedge alone.

If you have a method that works for you - PLEASE let us know!

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