Befriending gophers

My daughter and I have decided to try to make an area for gophers in our yard instead of fighting with them. While I know that this will not assure them staying out of the rest of our young food forest we have come to the conviction that they,  like every other creature on the planet need a place to live and if everyone in our suburban area tries to get rid of them.. where exactly will they go?

I tip my hat with a big smile to you. Commendable.

I wish you good luck.
I lost around 15 fruit trees to gophers. Now I plant everything in 0.5" wire cages. My cats love to eat them. Horrible pests, much more than ground squirrels.

Thanks Will,

We fought them for about three years before coming to this … they’re actually fellow gardeners, aerating the soil for us so why not let them reap the rewards as well?

I couldn't help myself...I immediately flashed back to the scene in Caddyshack where Bill Murray's character makes a squirrel out of plastic explosive and sends it down the gopher hole.

Kimberly Agnese wrote:Thanks Will,

We fought them for about three years before coming to this … they’re actually fellow gardeners, aerating the soil for us so why not let them reap the rewards as well?

I agree, but make a note of what Mr Cristo says there. I would hate for both you and the gophers to incur a severe loss. They sound like they may be destructive and have to move in the wild for a food source. Which would explain why they are choosing to fight for resources with humans. I just hope you can co-exist without issue and the cost is not too great.

To establish a tree in my climate I have to water it with my irrigation system . On the slope of a sun scorched field gophers will be attracted to places where there is moisture and moisture is ONLY by the roots of my trees. If the tree is in the ground the third year, then it's strong enough for the underground attack. By this time the galvanized wire cage will be half corroded. At the beginning I was not using planting cages and highest survivability was among pistachios. Gopher destroyed figs, apples, persimmons, native blue elderberry, Risking a loss of a fruit tree that is costly, grows slowly is not a good option. I buy rolls of 0.5" wire mesh with square openings and make cylindrical cages 20cm diameter for smaller trees and 30cm for bigger ones. Before I was using 1" chicken wire and it was just too big so gopher were still going to the roots.

Cristobal Cristo wrote:To establish a tree in my climate I have to water it with my irrigation system . On the slope of a sun scorched field gophers will be attracted to places where there is moisture and moisture is ONLY by the roots of my trees. If the tree is in the ground the third year, then it's strong enough for the underground attack. By this time the galvanized wire cage will be half corroded. At the beginning I was not using planting cages and highest survivability was among pistachios. Gopher destroyed figs, apples, persimmons, native blue elderberry, Risking a loss of a fruit tree that is costly, grows slowly is not a good option. I buy rolls of 0.5" wire mesh with square openings and make cylindrical cages 20cm diameter for smaller trees and 30cm for bigger ones. Before I was using 1" chicken wire and it was just too big so gopher were still going to the roots.

Good to know pistachios did better. Sorry about your losses. I know my way of thinking isn’t traditional and am not trying to convince anyone otherwise. Actually put this post out there to see if anyone else was attempting the same.

Kimberley,

I'm not writing this to deter you, just to share my experience that could be useful for other people.
Also in Fresno you will have less rodents and wildlife than I do in the foothills.

I cannot stop smiling about your idea...

Gophers eat roots so they will tunnel your area in no time and with 1-2 litter of five they will quickly expand their "kitchen" throughout the whole garden..

There is a reason that the damages made by Gophers are measured in Metric Tons...

No, no friends since their natural predators are anyway outnumbered by them...