Gopher Proof Your Plants

For plants that come in plastic pots: 

The most important step to take to save your plants from the gopher buffet

 is to use wire gopher proof baskets to protect everything you put in the ground. 

After the loss of so many beautiful plants, we learned the hard way. 

We order Digger's brand in bulk.....1 gallon, 3 gallon, 5 gallon, and 15 gallon baskets and use them whenever we put in a new plant. 

(PS We are not compensated in any way for this recommendation. It comes from experience.)

These are easy to use. You just slip the plant out of the plastic container it came in and slip it into the wire basket before placing into the growing hole. 

https://gopherbasket.com/

You can also find the baskets by searching  on Amazon...but not all sizes are available.

These wire baskets save the lives of all our rose bushes, fruit trees, and  ornamental plantings.

Chicken wire does not work. It quickly rusts and deteriorates. Also, many of the smaller gophers fit right through.

 

For Raised Beds:

Your next best friend (after gopher baskets) is galvanized hardware cloth.

It works wonders to keep the gophers out of raised beds where wire baskets wouldn't be useful.

We don't just line the bottom of the beds.....we line the entire area where the beds will be placed which creates an effective barrier and keeps gophers from digging under the beds (which they are prone to do).

In the past we nailed chicken wire to the bottom of the beds to protect the plants. That was not enough. The gophers just dug under the beds and ate away any roots that grew below the beds....and then the wire deteriorated after a year or two and it was a free for all.

Now we lay four foot wide strips of galvanized hardware cloth over the entire area where the raised beds will be placed. 

We buy it in 48" rolls and lay it out in overlapping rows.....covering as much area as possible attaching it to the ground with landscape staples. The raised beds are placed on top of these rows  and then they get a separate layer of hardware cloth lining that goes along the bottom of the beds  and up the sides for extra protection. 

It may be overkill....but it works like a charm.

spinach

This role is only 25" wide....but comes in handy if you need to make gopher baskets at home.

Carrots. You can see where the rolls overlap in this picture.

 onions

Here you see rectangular hardware cloth fit that is bent  to fit into a round keyhole garden that the gophers used to ravage. I took out all the soil and lined the bed with the hardware cloth before replacing the soil. It worked! That is a baby musa banana tree along with some volunteer fever few plants. They sprout everywhere but gophers don't touch them.

Another keyhole garden lined with the cloth.These are volunteer tomato plants.

I also made movable covers out of hardware cloth to put over the top of the raised beds to protect tender young plants that appeal to the cotton-tail rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and other critters that visit the garden looking for food.

You won't find any gophers digging in between the beds when the space is covered in hardware cloth.

Here the hardware cloth is wrapped around the pole beans to keep the hungry rabbits from eating all the leaves like they used to do.



Attach the hardware cloth to the ground with landscape staples. They come up easily if you end up moving the raised beds around.
Available on Amazon.

Also see this list of gopher resistant plants:

http://gopherproofgarden.blogspot.com/2018/05/gopher-resistant-plants.html