Success!

I am happy to report that after battling gophers for almost an entire year, we have successfully trapped and gotten rid of 2. One of them was particularly chunky, as she/he had been living off of our hearty winter garden. As you can see, the onions escaped unscathed. We harvested and dried them last month.

Sadly, our 2 foot trench and three days of back breaking work did NOT stop the rodents. Our Ag Assistant, Isaiah, believed there was an underground labyrinth of computer technology and smarts created by evil gopher underlords. At one point I was inclined to believe him.

Having gophers in one's garden, I have found, can be an unbelievably discouraging experience. Not only do they create unsightly holes and mounds, but they snatch garden goodies before they are ready for harvest, which upsets even the kindliest of gardeners.

So how did we do it? A brand new trap called "the Gophinator" did the trick. Within a 24 hour period, we caught both perpetrators. Now I can look forward to adding additional crops to the garden. We still have a few tomatoes, peppers and eggplants that escaped unscathed. And a few short vine cantaloupes. I'm going to add some pumpkins next.

The Battle Goes On...

We have harvested and eaten some beautiful, colorful salads. The above photo was taken last month. The salads are fresh and flavorful. And harvesting the vegetables is a fun activity.

In other news, the gopher is still eluding us. The rodent mind must be far more clever than I give it credit for. My mistake! I have fired our Ag Assistant several times now. But I keep re-hiring him back.

The latest attempt will be to surround the garden bed with a 1 1/2 foot trench, then sink in chicken wire. Gophers dig their feeding tunnels about 6-12 inches below the surface, but we are going to take the precaution of going deeper. For more information about gophers, see the UCCE Pest Note below. Their burrows may be almost 6 feet deep, so my hope is we will either exclude or trap him inside.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7433.html

The project has been about half eaten so far, with complete annihilation of the broccoli, green cabbage, cauliflower and half of the Brussels sprouts and purple cabbage. So far the lettuce and carrots are safe, (excuse me while I go knock on wood) and only a few spinach and Swiss chard are missing. Hopefully there will be some colorful carrots to harvest, as I did plant yellow, purple, red and white.

This has definitely been a good exercise in how to deal with pests in a garden setting. I feel I will have plenty of advice for home and school gardeners that deal with sparrows and gophers!

Another Nemesis?

Photo by Jack Kelly Clark

Just when I thought the garden was doing well, happy the bird situation seemed under control...that was when tragedy struck. Sure, I had noticed a few gopher mounds back in June. But when he/she seemed to be ignoring the garden, I didn't see the need for a pre-emptive strike. I figured the gopher had snooped around, decided it didn't like cruciferous vegetables and left the area. Big mistake!

After 2 weeks of vacation, I came back to discover 2 cauliflower, 3 broccoli and 1 spinach were missing. As they are all covered in cages, the evidence points to the gopher. Steam began coming out of my ears. "I trusted you!" I shouted.

Then, I marched over to have a chat with our Ag Assistant. I informed him that if he did not capture the gopher by Friday he would be fired. He has three traps in position and we are waiting on the results. The saddest thing is the new gopher mounds plowed right through where I planted my colored carrots.