A couple of years ago a generous nafexer sent me a sack of many labeled
varieties of nuts - pecans, hickories, etc to trial in this climate. I
planted them 2" deep in our garden / nursery bed. I noticed something (I
guessed a chipmunk) had dug up a couple of these precious seeds. So I
covered the area with plywood. Wrong idea, the animal then happily burrrowed
under, and in safety finished off the entire patch. Not a happy day.
The next year I stratified a batch of nuts over winter 6" deep in a 'sack' I
made of 1/4" galvanized mesh 'hardware cloth'. I then dug it up this spring
and planted it 2" down. No more problem with the voles. What I had not
accounted for was the way nuts send down relatively huge taproots before
anything shows on the surface above ground. I had quite a time doing
delicate surgery, with a pair of side cutters, to snip the mesh from around
all these tender tap roots.
Gotta be a better way, I'm listening. Thanks, Del