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Gardening Blog - thebroadroom.net: More on gophers!
More on gophers!
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
at 9:05 PM (Pacific)
I realize I haven't posted anything here since last year.
The nutshell version about the gophers, is that nothing works on them--except trapping. And trapping is time-consuming. You have to buy several traps...the real way of doing it, is to find their main tunnel, dig a small section into it, set up two traps...one on either side of where you dug, so they'll get zapped whichever side of the tunnel they come from. You are to cover this rig with a bucket or something similar, to block out the light (so they don't know you dug into their tunnel in the first place). You are to wear gloves for this...you can "clean" the gloves with dirt first to erase any human scent. And if you don't catch any gophers after a few days, you are to do the whole thing over again, finding a more active tunnel.
I think the only way to make this work is to set up several of these rigs at a time.
If it's an obsession of yours, I can see how it would work. But I don't have the time or skill to do all that.
Plan B is a physical barrier and that also works. We have successfully planted trees and so forth by lining the hole with a double layer of chicken wire. Over the long run though, don't know how healthy that is for the trees.
A third idea would be to dose the whole yard with chemicals. I really have not wanted to do that, and haven't, but I have often speculated how, for example, golf courses manage to keep gophers out of their greens. Unless they've surrounded the course with a ginormous underground barrier...I read somewhere that gophers can dig five feet into the ground...which, granted, for a golf course would be worth the expense...somehow I suspect they're using chemicals to keep them away.
Oh well. As a result, there isn't that much gardening to report. I got really fed up with the gophers. I have some stuff in pots now...some roses (the gophers have never touched any of our roses, so I'd guess one solution would be to have a lot of roses)...
They've also never touched our nightshade plant. I think it's nightshade. It's a large plant, it grows as big as a tree, it starts out bushy, and has nice purple flowers. I googled around, the one pictured here is close: Flowers of California.
I got the idea for nightshade from a neighbor, since his nightshade seems to be doing well. He also has a huge heather plant so I'll guess that's fairly gopher-proof as well.
They haven't eaten my lavender, or my geraniums--isn't that odd? I'll guess they don't like some strong-smelling plants. They have destroyed my sage, chives, basil, mint, etc.--but they haven't touched my lemon verbena.
You're fairly safe with bulbs...they ate my alliums, but not my irises, lilies, or daffodils.
I have two camellias that are growing so slowly...I don't know if it's that or if the gophers are nibbling on them. I suspect the former.
All in all...I would say it's highly possible to have a nice garden even if you're in a gopher-infested area. It's more that you would have to plan a "gopher garden."
Honestly you're better off with a concrete garden and put everything in pots...or construct special raised beds with a physical barrier on the bottom and sides.
Or...if you're super wealthy, heck, have 'em dig a five- or six-foot-deep trench around your yard and plant a physical barrier there. What a fabulous thought, not to have to deal with gophers ever again!
Otherwise I've found it's a balance between putting stuff in pots, and tinkering around finding the limited selection of plants they don't like.Labels: pocket gophers
 
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