Hugel beet beware.

I'm not warning anyone against hugel beet It's my favorite way to garden. All my raised beds are hugel beets.
I have a major gopher problem. So bad I can't even plant a tree without a protective cage.  
Several years ago I started to convert my raised beds into hugel beet style. I can't remember if it was the first year or second, It was the best garden ever. Then one by one plants started to die. It took a bit, but I finally realized it was a gopher.
It was too much work to remove everything, and way to much money to line the hole with hardwire cloth. I removed all the soil from the ground level up. Laid hardwire cloth along the bottom, and put the cement blocks on top. I filled it up and was back in business.  This solution worked for several years.
Though I couldn't believe it, a gopher got into the first hugel beet I made. How??? I removed about 2/3 of the soil and sure enough there was the gopher hole.  I never thought about it, but as the wood composted the bed sunk making the hardwire cloth slip out from under the cement blocks, exposing one side.
The easiest solution I could think of was to add a piece of hardwire cloth to the one on the bottom.  I sew them together with stainless steel wire.  My son suggested pulling the wire up the first block, and under the second.  Just to give it a little extra security. It has an added benefit of being able to see the wire in the hole in the cement blocks.
This was a pain. But it's done, and I'm ready to replant. I removed all the plants and put them in pots. The tomato looks terrible, and the nasturtiums look ok, but sprisingly the yard long beans, basil, Malabar spinach, perpetual spinach, and zinnias all look great. We will see how they handle being replanted again. It's still early enough to restart everything except the tomato, and I have lots of other, so it will be fine if it doesn't survive.
I just wanted to share this little bump in the garden. It just never occurred to me the hardwire cloth would slip out from under the cement blocks. Who knew? Fixing it was frustrating, hot, hard work, but it's done now, and shouldn't fail for many years. Now I hope the other don't follow suit.

That sounds like a real hastle.

It was a total pain in the butt, but it's done now. I also learned the week point, and if I have issues in the future I will check the  borders before removing all the plants and soil. I know all creatures have a place and purpose on this earth, but I really hate gophers.