When Gophers Attack (Your Garden)!

This is an update on my efforts towards gopher abatement. My backyard has been a favorite place of gophers. I’ve been asked, “Where do these gophers come from?” One pest control company told me that home construction projects can disturb the ground enough to prompt these critters to relocate to more peaceful surroundings. On my [...]

Tomato Container Garden

This weekend, I’m heading to a home improvement store to get a few bags of potting soil. From previous experience, each 2-cubic foot bag provides enough soil to fill six 5-gallon containers, a few more if I filled the containers less abundantly. I saved up several of these containers over the years, but may need [...]

Autumn Garden Clean-Up and Preparation

I’m almost finished with my seasonal ritual of cleaning up my garden, to make way for autumn plants. This includes trimming back my lantana with garden shears, removing withered tomato plants and dwarf snapdragons, and deadheading my still-productive roses. Clean-up requires time, and large green-waste containers, but it’s such a peaceful, de-stressing activity for me that [...]

Golden Celebration English Rose

I removed my three damaged trumpeter roses today, with heavy heart, as their roots were damaged by gophers, resulting in stunted growth and abnormal leaves. I’ve been the lucky caretaker of these roses for two years.  I thought that perhaps with enough water, rose food, and tender loving care, they’d return to normal, but this [...]

Gopher Management Revisited

This week, gophers have seemed inactive in my flower garden. No new holes to report. My current strategy has been to place heavy objects, such as large rocks or bricks atop new holes (filled in with soil beforehand). I’m hoping that the inability to easily break through the soil will sufficiently frustrate the gophers and spur [...]

Gophers and Consumer Alert

The biggest time-consumer for me has been gopher control. I thought that once I’d finished planting, it would be a routine matter of watering, feeding, pruning, and removing or replacing spent plant material. However, I hadn’t figured that pest abatement would be part of the equation. Gophers apparently love to eat the roots of plants [...]