Gardens and Gophers Oh My!
- July 13, 2008 by Fox | Comments: 16
My tomatoes are looking tasty. My snow peas are a little pathetic. It seems my attempts to protect my first ever frugally organic garden from deer and wildlife has proven partially successful! Yay!
Last month I planted several varieties of tomatoes (Lemon Boy, Early Girl, and Beefsteak), some basil, and several sweet snow peas in a little country garden by my home. The deer ravenously ripped into my peas. I was a little late in employing deer-friendly strategies to protect the peas. I’ll know better for next year. Thank you to everyone who emailed and commented on organic and friendly ways to protect a garden! Love you! Owe you!
Unlike the poor peas, my tomatoes are doing rather well. Since tomato plant leaves are slightly toxic, I suppose the deer had sense enough to leave these plants be. The biggest tomato predator seems to be the pesky pocket gopher! The area where I live is overrun by these havoc reeking rodents. I don’t think they eat my plants, they just seem to bite the poor plant stalk in half leaving it for dead. It’s sad.
So to combat this earth digging, plant chomping rodent I decided to go for dead and lay a few traps. Yes, I’ve drawn the line and decided to nuke the rodents in a quick way. Sigh. Sorry of you’re a rodent lover but I’ve lost my love over the mountains of holey hills all over my yard. I only needed to twist my ankle once to know theses pocket digging gophers had to go.
So to beat this underground dweller, my “better half” devised a plan. He buries these little neck snapping traps along the gopher channels underground. Kinda sneaky.
My “better half” then places a little wooden house over the trap to keep the trap dark, since the gophers prefer the darkness. Every morning, afternoon, and evening we check the trap for gopher guts. So far, we’ve found success!
The best pocket gopher hunter though seems to be my Australian cattle dog, Tivo. She’s a super skilled pocket gopher digger and catcher. She didn’t start dirt digging for these critters until she saw how determined we have been in eradicating the rodent. So far she’s winning the gopher getting race.
Here are our gopher stats:
- Tivo: 10 gophers
- Traps: 4 gophers
My dog is awesome.
Carnivals
I didn’t participate in any carnivals this week but I did play host to the fantastically fun Festival of Frugality! If you missed the Bare Essentials Edition, be sure to to give it a read. I bared my brassieres and knocked my knickers. Lots of frugal fantastic fun!
Personal Finance Network
Here’s a little tour around my neighborhood network of personal finance friends:
- Clever Dude questions if he NEEDS a truck in Buy a Truck for Towing… Or a Small Car? I sent this article to my brother-in-law who is lusting over a gas-guzzling truck. Great article Dude!
- Canadian Capitalist writes on iShares Index Funds in Indexing Canadian Equities through XIU and XIC. If you’re a Canadian looking to add Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to your portfolio, then this post is well worth the read!
- Money Ning gets the junk out of his trunk in Write to HSBC and other Companies to Keep Junk Mail Away. Finally, a solution to unwanted mail! Money Ning includes a list of addresses to contact.
- Blunt Money writes about her IRA investments in Mutual Fund Frustations. Blunt mentions a few valuable lessons learned, including, “don’t invest in something you don’t understand.”
- Mr. Cheap at Quest for Four Pillars writes a valuable tale in When Store Credit Expires. Mr. Cheap believes customers are often worse off for accepting reward points and shopping with loyalty programs.
Got any pocket gophers gobbling your garden? How’s your garden growing?
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Comments:
Okay, I know this isn’t the point of the piece, but sweet cracker sandwich, your dog is adorable! And considering she has what appears to be a dead gopher in her mouth, that’s no small feat.
@Sara My dog is a star. She is featured in 10 Financial Lessons I Learned from My Dog
Thanks for the link Squawkfox. Our tomatoes are just flowering but the zucchinis are looking good.
So sad you have to snap the gopher’s little necks.
I used to have a lot of moles, but the feral cats seem to have taken care of them. Every time I think of trapping them and taking them to the shelter, I think of the moles and just go feed them.
Here’s a site with deer resistant plants. I had to plant my deer favorites LITERALLY in a cage of wire to keep the deers out. Not even the fox urine helped, but it sure kept me out of the garden! Weeding is no fun when you’re smelling fox urine, believe me.
http://gardening.about.com/od/gardenproblems/a/DeerResistant.htm
Thanks for the link - cute pic of the dog. I should post one of my cat after he’s got a bird…
Mike
@Frugal Wench My dog is better at catching the gophers than I…so I don’t feel soooo bad.
Next year we’re building a bunch of wire cages. Where the heck do you find fox urine? Do I want to know? 
@Four Pillars Does your cat have wings? OR do the birdies fall from their nest?
Fox,
You can find Fox or Coyote Urine at garden centers. I found some once at Lowe’s garden center, but they are usually at the local ones.
It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Stinky! You can smell it a hundred feet away! They say deer won’t come near it, but my deer somehow knew a fox was of no consequence to them, and just ignored it.
Way to go, Tivo
Just wanted to recommend a tomato variety…
HUGE! Sweet orange
an heirloom called Oxheart Orange. Mine is growing into
the Tomato Plant that ate Tillamook
tomatoes, says up to a pound apiece, but mine have been more golf ball size. However, they are very very sweet and to have tomatoes this early in Tillamook is no small feat, especially this year!
Surprising me, the broccoli and cauliflower are growing great! I just put 6 quarts into the freezer yesterday, plus eating it and giving it away for the past two weeks!
Enjoy that garden! And get someextra dog biscuits for that mighty hunter
Fox - my cat gets them on the ground. He is lightning fast when he wants to be.
Mike
I couldn’t believe that I was reading and seeing photos about how proud you are that you are snapping the necks of gophers. How would you feel if you found Tivo’s neck in a trap? Yikes, I’m taking you off my RSS lady..
You’re going to laugh, but I have found a super easy way to catch gophers. When you see a gopher pop out of a hole, take a milk jug filled with water out to the hole. Dump the water in the hole and then wait a couple minutes. The gopher will run out of its hole and into your milk jug. We have caught hundreds of gophers this way.
@Frugal Wench I seriously have a lot to learn about gardening. Fox urine…wow! LOL
@Marci My “better half” just laughed LOUDLY over “the Tomato Plant that ate Tillamook.” We also would love a tomato plant to rival Tillamook. LOL I will look into Oxheart Orange FOR SURE. So far our best plants are the Early Girls.
@Melissa Your comment seriously just gave me the best visual EVER. You must have as many gophers as we do. My question is…what do you do with the gopher once it’s in your milk jug? I really hate offing the buggers…but their holes are a hazard to the horses and cattle. Thank you so much for your sense of humor as well. I needed a laugh!
We feed them to our cats after we catch them. It’s not the most humane action, but what else do you do? Release the buggers only to catch them again tomorrow? I always suppose you could deposit the little bundles of joy in the neighbors ditch…
@Melissa Your solution is a natural one. No chemicals, no poison. Plus, cats like rodents. It’s a fact.
The truth is my dog is more successful at catching the pocket gophers than my trap. I may just try your milk jug and water trick. Ohh, if I happen to be your neighbor…PLEASE don’t deposit them in my ditch. 
@Julie So sorry to see you go. But I totally understand Squawkfox isn’t for everyone.