Pea gravel has edges that are too round to be an effective barrier for much of anything, you need something with sharp edges such as maybe crushed limestone.

many east coast hosta peeps.. build hardware cloth cages.. bury them.. and plant inside ...

i have never heard of ringing a bed.. with any success ..

population control is the solution.. you cant really play nice with rodents .... it sounds like your population is out of control .. i figure you dont want to hear this.. but it has to be said ... hire professionals.. and save the backbreaking labor of moving stone/rock ...

a great place to start is with a FULL AND COMPLETE ID of your vermin in particular.. i suspect you are guessing ...and you are going to have to trap one.. or find a dead one .... and either take it to your extension office .. or post a pic ....

speaking of which.. your COUNTY extension office.. may be fully aware of this plague in your area.. contact them ...

good luck

ken

Thank you, kimmsr. I will check into limestone.

Ken: I have both moles and voles here but the moles are not a problem (being carnivorous), the voles are plant and bulb eaters and they are the problem. My cats catch one or the other from time to time and bring it to us-they just don't catch enough to run them out of my yard. But you're probably right, I need to take enough time from my work day to call the extension office. Thanks, Brandy

I have used snap traps with peanut butter. Find a trail and put it crosswise in it. Then I cover it with a flower pot or bucket-something that will stop other animals from getting to the trap.

Here is a remedy I just came across in an antique gardening book: It says to bury empty wine bottles around the edges of the garden.Use the long, tapered kind of bottles. Leave the top third sticking out at an angle, with the opening facing in the direction the wind usually comes from ( That would be west, here). The wind blowing into the bottles supposedly make a weird noise that voles and other under ground pest can't stand.
It seems to have worked for great-grandma.
I think I'll try it next year. We just cleaned off some of the garden beds and they were riddled with tunnels.

Various sonic devices are out there, along with wine or soda bottles, and research by respected universities says they do not work.

well,those expensive granules from the feed store did not work, neither did the battery operated sonic thingies, nor the castor oil,the ammonia-soaked rags or the foggers you put in the runs,the poison,or the traps. Over the past couple of years I have lost most of my rose bushes,my hostas and clematis,my Dahlia bulbs and the bigger part of a sweet potato crop. When we pulled up the garden this year, there were holes and tunnels everywhere. At least I can enjoy creating empty wine bottles,

I do not have them outside anymore since the traffic has picked up on our once bucolic country road, but my voles were kept under control many years by barn cats. I feel your pain.

I have several cats, however, they are pets and quite spoiled. They have brought up a vole once in a while-but not enough to keep the population under control. I watched a very healthy peony (Festiva Maxima) begin to droop, droop more, and then absolutely wither down into a brown clump this summer-voles? I suspect so. I have 2 replacement bulbs to plant- maybe if I bury them in a wire cage? Thinking about it anyway.

Snap traps as described above, by Kimpa, work for me. I can catch one or more a day in each trap till the population is gone. Use tiny mouse traps.