Gophers and Chipmunks and Squirrels, oh my!

Adaptation Projects
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Well, after reading Joseph’s Landrace book, I was dreaming on growing gopher resilient crops :sweat_smile: … but the more I read, I realize that it may be dreaming too far. Hoping for impossibles. Gophers seem to be the worst pest so far.

My husband thinks the more realistic and practical thing to do is to dig a trench around our garden and place some kind of metal mesh to stop them from coming in. It seems like a lot of work and expense but he says it would be more wasted money and hours of work to leave the free entrance to the little critters… It sounds definitely right.

If you were to do this, or if you’ve done it, what kind of mesh would be the most effective and affordable?

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I wonder if something like Sepp Holzer’s “bone sauce” would work as a deterrent.

Or maybe planting onions/garlic around the perimeter?

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I don’t know if it would work for anyone else, but I used horseradish. Slurried the whole plant, poured it on their holes and around anything I specifically wanted to protect. It usually took about a week for them to vacate for the season.

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I gathered pee in buckets and poured it…strategically. They moved.

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Planting alliums helped with voles any cheap garlic will sprout doesn’t matter when you plant it, it just makes it unpleasant for them so I’ll plant it in rings around fruit trees. Deer were mowing down my hazels every year until this year when we got comfrey established in between them. It disguised them i think. I’m not familiar with gophers tho.

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I have gophers too. the only safe beds are the raised ones I put hardwire under. The rest I have to trap, and fluffy beds don’t hold the tunnel system very well so they are hard to get.

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I’ll look up the bone sauce you mention for sure, never heard of it. Was reading here that a gopher wiped out somebody’s garlic crop! In my case they only tried one garlic and left the rest alone, so I should try.

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Thanks! That’s excellent to know. Any brand, recipe or preference you have?

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Really! That’s simple enough will definitely try it.

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Thank you! I am going to use the garlic, I had a good crop last year. Did the deer eat the comfrey? Is it something they like? I have some Russian comfrey doing pretty well, may find good use for it. Our dogs have kept the deer away so far.

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I just got the Gopher Hawk traps. Haven’t caught any yet… I don’t want them to win the battle, I want freedom to plant wherever I want!… they’re laughing at me…

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My dog lives to dig up the voles too. I have to warn people to watch their step because we pretty much allow it anywhere we haven’t planted anything.

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I just used extra plants in the spring. Put them in the grinder and dilluted it enough to be pourable.

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