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Gardening Blog - thebroadroom.net
Pocket gophers, saga continues
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
Sunday, June 03, 2007
at 6:56 PM (Pacific)
So...did some gardening today. It's next to impossible to have a garden with the pocket gophers; yet, year by year, there are plants they don't eat. If the plants survive another year, they get bigger and better. Eventually you do have a garden, even if it can't be the garden you envisioned before you found out about the pocket gophers.
Here is a list of what's there, that the gophers have never eaten, in the past ten years or so:
- Roses...regular roses and carpet roses. The pocket gophers have never eaten a rose plant, even a small one. I planted a carpet rose sucker that was four inches tall, now it's about a yard high; no gophers.
- Irises...the regular kind, and something called "butterfly iris."
- Lilies...calla lilies and a plain white trumpet-shaped lily. We also have some of those "magic lilies," the kind that do nothing most of the year, then suddenly shoot up and flower, really nice pink trumpet-shaped lilies.
- Geraniums. I've had some scarlet ones in the ground for years.
- Jasmine. I have a jasmine vine they don't seem to eat. It's not growing vigorously though, so I don't know if they're gnawing at it.
- Lemon verbena.
- Lavender. They seem to really hate this. My lavender plant has created three new lavender plants and they haven't eaten any of them.
That's about it. I have some camellias, the gophers haven't killed them, but they hardly seem to grow at all. I don't know if that's gopher-related or the plants themselves aren't good.
I have a nightshade plant they don't seem to want to eat, it's leggy though.
As you can see, I haven't tried introducing anything new in a long time. It just got to be expensive, and frustrating, having "them" destroy seemingly everything you put into the ground.
I may think in terms of planting more lavender, more geraniums, maybe some rosemary? I can't see them liking rosemary. They do eat mint and sage though, and other herbs you don't think they would like.
Anyway--so there is life after gophers. Unless you're an intrepid trapper, you can't kill them. None of the other methods they sell you work...the gopher gasser, the poison pellets, the noise machines. All in my experience, a waste of money and time. You have to either trap them, or else find a way to physically block them.
As far as physically blocking them, the best and most obvious way is to get hold of a lot of large pots. The bigger the better, because you have to plant stuff in them that would normally go in the ground.
Another thought...expensive...would be to cover at least part of the ground with concrete. Preferably going several feet inside the perimeter of your property. Not sure if it is actually necessary to cover the entire garden with concrete (or some other barrier they can't dig through).
I'll post back here if I try the lavender and geraniums...might look at other "stinky perennials" and try some out as well.Labels: pocket 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
Pocket gophers, cont.
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
Friday, July 08, 2005
at 2:59 PM (Pacific)
Me: 2
Cats: 1
That's grossly unfair of course since the cats eat the gophers. i.e. I have no real way of knowing how many they've caught.
My second score this season was also from the Black Hole trap...it's not the best trap on the market but it's the only one I can set. The McAbee style trap is too hard for me to set, and the Victor one as well (that's the one that sits on top of the tunnel).
It sounds like a small catch but every time you remove one gopher, there are that many fewer holes and mounds in the yard. Definitely worth the patience and effort.Labels: pocket gophers
More on gophers
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
Monday, June 27, 2005
at 2:07 PM (Pacific)
Well, that one gopher was the last one I trapped. Since the other one I managed to trap was also trapped in the beginning of the season, I'm left to wonder if it's a.) that I caught the dumbest one each time or b.) the trap still smells like dead gopher.
I haven't given up by any means but it's a tiring process. I suppose I'll surf around and see if anyone has tips on cleaning out gopher traps.Labels: pocket gophers
Pocket Gophers: saga continues
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
Friday, June 17, 2005
at 1:28 PM (Pacific)
Well. I feel very good today.
We caught two pocket gophers, aka "rats." I caught one, using the same Black Hole trap I used successfully probably a couple of years ago. And the cat caught the other one.
Here's my method: you're looking for, not a fresh hole, but a hole the pocket gopher is still digging. i.e. you can actually see the gopher popping in and out of the hole.
You get your work gloves on (you can "clean" them by rubbing them in the dirt) and get your Black Hole trap set. If need be, you can enlarge the hole slightly using a trowel. Set the Black Hole trap outside the hole, making sure there's no gap between the trap and the hole.
That's it. Don't check the trap until you see it sprung.
I did this yesterday and was pleasantly rewarded this morning with a sprung trap with a gopher inside it.
I cleaned out the gopher, hosed out the trap, and set it again--the same area, because there was another visible gopher digging there.
Now the cat. We don't have pet cats exactly, but our yard, being a gopher magnet, is also a cat magnet. I've seen at least three collarless cats in our yard, and they are good. I saw a dead field mouse earlier this season and I have seen dead rodents before.
This guy parked himself near my trap and I thought he was just sitting there, until he sprang forward and pulled the gopher (presumably the same one I was trapping) out of a different hole, and ate it.
So. That rules out ever poisoning the gophers. Not only does it not work, you stand a chance of poisoning your best allies--the cats.
Pockets gophers do have a natural enemy (besides me), apparently. Cats are good.
And, the Black Hole has worked for me twice now. I didn't do much trapping last year; I just got depressed. Now I think it's well to go ahead and have it always set somewhere.Labels: pocket gophers
Exam gloves for gardening
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
at 9:36 AM (Pacific)
I use these--those ubiquitous nitrile exam gloves--for transplanting stuff. You can slip a pair of leather gardening gloves over these if you're working with thorns...but the exam gloves alone are great for transplanting.
You don't have to throw them away right away; you can use them several times.
Oh yeah, I checked OSH. They didn't have codling moth traps at all...just a rather intriguing generic moth trap with two batteries and two cartridges. I checked their moth list but codling wasn't on it, so I passed.
As far as the pocket gophers...all they had were the usual traps and poisons, neither of which has worked for me consistently. They did however have a Grants castor oil spray, so I got that ($16).
The idea is to soak your yard with the spray (it attaches to your garden hose). The castor oil supposedly soaks into the ground and coats everything that the gophers eat. The gophers get indigestion and bugger off i.e. leave your yard.
shrugs It's definitely not as good as something that would kill the gophers, but I don't care. It's impossible to kill the number of gophers we have around here anyway. I'll be happy to get them out of here without poisoning the entire yard.Labels: pocket gophers
Pitchfork method doesn't work
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
Monday, May 30, 2005
at 10:22 AM (Pacific)
I tried out the pitchfork method on the pocket gophers yesterday. It doesn't work, if only because the gophers tend to dig under stationary objects, and their tunnels are never dug straight. If you ever dig up one of their tunnels, you'll see it's largely hairpin curves.
I have more ideas though...I'll be trying out some more things this season.
At least for the past couple of years, I haven't bothered planting anything in the ground. It's not worth it, unless it's something you know they won't eat (like roses) or unless you can dig a huge hole and put a double layer of chicken wire inside it--which is not guaranteed to work anyway.
Whatever I planted before that's still there, great. I'm just out of the phase of trying to figure out what they eat and what they don't.
They eat almost everything, particularly when you've just put it in the ground. i.e., if a plant can establish itself for a few years and get big, it's less tempting to the gophers.
Not that they won't ignore a plant for two years and then take it out. That has happened to me. In general though, size matters.
And, gophers tend to favor the edible...your herbs, vegetables, fruits, nasturtiums, alliums, etc. They don't seem to eat "stinky," tough herbs such as lavender, rosemary, or lemon verbena...I have huge versions of all of these, that have been dug around many times but left untouched.
They do eat chives, basil, parsley, mint and so forth, so you have to put these in containers or otherwise finagle a physical barrier.
Bulbs (except alliums) can go into the ground, so I have lots of irises, lilies and so forth. Roses and camellias...and jasmine, I think...can go into the ground, so I have plenty of these.
Our "nightshade" (one of those ubiquitous plants with purple flowers; it gets as big as a small tree if you let it) has also survived.
They don't seem to eat geraniums. Not 100% sure about it; I have some in the ground over the past few years that are still there.
Any kind of pretty flower...dahlias, snapdragons, petunias, pansies, alyssum, etc., they eat all that. Don't put any of those in the ground.
I've got a shade garden and a sun garden this year. The truly shady area has boxes of impatiens in it. I have an impatiens plant from last year; I'm doing some experimentation to see which plants come back every year, so I got a larger impatiens plant last year and it did come back.
I also mixed in some smaller impatiens, the 4" container size. I don't bother with the really small ones anymore. Since I can't plant them directly into the ground, they don't grow as well as they would have, so I start with larger plants.
In the part sun area, I have some perennials I'm trying out (in a pot of course): a carnation plant (which smells really good) and something called "bacopa" (a low, spreading plant with tiny purple flowers). I've got alliums in pots that have done well in part sun over the past few years.
In the sun garden, a few survivors of the gophers (jasmine, lavender, geraniums, "ruby slippers," a lone dianthus that somehow got missed, plus irises, calla lilies, chinese lilies, roses)--the rest in pots. So I've got lobelia, dahlias, zinnias, a mini petunia plant (perennial), a pink geranium, all in pots.
The time release fertilizers have worked well; I highly recommend these. Can't believe I used to hassle with liquid fertilizers.
I'm going to check out OSH soon. The codling moth traps were $10 a pop at Ace (and it says to replace them every 4 weeks). Too expensive.
I do have my Grants for Ants Stakes up in several places in the yard (these are highly effective in my experience), and I bought a new Victor non-toxic ant spray.
I had one of these last year and used it up; that one contained mint oil, this one has cedar oil. These are not effective in the "Raid" sense, in that they'll kill whatever ants you spray directly, but won't keep killing them. Since I use this spray outdoors, that's what I want anyway. I want to kill whatever ants are all over the place, but use the Grants stakes to control future infestations.Labels: pocket gophers
Spring 2005 in the San Francisco Bay Area
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
at 5:49 PM (Pacific)
So...another year in the land of pocket gophers and deer.
I've yet to see a pocket gopher this year (I see plenty of their holes, of course). Before, you'd actually see them digging. grumble... I was so looking forward to trying out the pitchfork thing. Nothing else has worked more than once.
We planted some of our trees...inside a double layer of chicken wire. Knock wood. So far, so good. We have the persimmon, fig, and orange trees in, plus some regular trees that are supposed to drink an enormous amount of water (we live in a slide zone).
The plum tree is hanging in there. It's not producing a massive amount of plums yet but I figure, it's a relatively new tree. And even our established pear trees don't produce the same number of fruit each year.
The carpet roses are growing rapidly. If you want a rose-type bush that grows fast, by all means... I found a carpet rose shoot about four inches high a couple of years ago, and planted it in a corner of the yard. That same plant is now a yard high...while my camellias grew only a few inches during the same period.
All in all...I've rather accepted that we can't have a pretty front yard. Deer eat every flower, except daffodils. And once you plant anything, the gophers come and dig under it. People have rock gardens around here.
The back yard can be pretty. I am determined to cap at least one of the gophers this season...and a single gopher can destroy the entire yard. i.e. all that destruction you see is usually caused by only a few gophers. I did cap the big fat guy last year (using the Black Hole trap) and that's already put a noticeable dent in the digging.
Most of the flowers have to go in pots. A few plants, the gophers don't seem to like...I've listed them in previous posts. I haven't discovered anything new that they don't like (naturally enough since I've been putting new plants in pots around here).Labels: pocket gophers
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