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Gopher Free Gardening

Gophers only need two things from your property and plants, food and shelter. Generally, it is simple for them to get both because of the work you put into growing their food and giving them perfect shelter. GopherOut eliminates the shelter and they move out. many other techniques can help you get rid of gophers.

Food: We work hard building gardens and growing food for ourselves and along the way, many other of mother natures creatures take advantage of that. Gophers require nourishment and moisture in their food and our living environment gives them both. Lawn grass is very high in what gophers require each day as are most of the things in our garden. They have some very favorite foods though. Artichokes are a real favorite food and the root is especially tempting for them. A drooping artichoke plant can be the first sign of gophers in your garden.

Grow the real gopher treats in containers. I have found half barrels and plastic garbage cans to be the best deterrent. Cut the garbage cans in half for easier use and better visual appeal. Gophers also have an easier time with buried chicken wire than they do with buried plastic sheets so use that in small garden areas to prevent their ground movements. Just poke a few small holes for drainage.

For small commercial enterprises, 30 gallon garbage bags filled with soil will prevent gophers and still supply plenty of production. Remember that gophers also come above ground during the day and night seeking food so raised beds offer little protection unless they are built at least 30 inches high and are not climbable.

Rocks, especially smooth river rock, make a good raised bed bottom when they are laid with no space between them. Gophers don�t like to burrow through rocky places.

Shelter:  Gophers need a soft moist soil but can live in less desirable soils too. As mentioned earlier, use lots of rocks in your garden where you can. It is almost guaranteed that you will never see a gopher mound next to a rock bigger than 6 inches across.

Another thing gophers don�t like in their burrows is litter. Put lots of leaves and small branches in your soil. Newspaper is a good source of material that gophers can�t deal with. It is also a good mulch that gophers won�t dig through and that gives them nowhere to push out soil as they excavate.

Another great mulch is black plastic sheet. To prevent gophers, you should cover large areas with black plastic. At least 800 sq. ft. at a time. Gophers will not come up through the plastic but may be able to live around the perimeter so the larger the area, the more room you have to plant.

The yearly use of GopherOut will allow you to have a gopher free garden while still enjoying your own methods of growing plants and food. I hope these techniques help you rid you garden of gophers, moles, and voles.