Raised death bed

I have always had gophers plague my yard, but never had a problem in the garden. I just realized why.  When I started to use raised beds I lined the ground with a high quality weed cloth.  I just hit me the beds the gopher has left alone are the ones that haven't been converted to hugel beets.  For what ever the reason they don't seem to go through it.  So without knowing it I was keeping out the good stuff like worm, and the bad gophers.  I have 4 hugel beets. One is used mostly for onions and garlic, no real surprise they left that one alone.  The next one I was thinking about gophers. I lined the perimeter with vertical standing sticks. So far this one has been left alone.  The two newest ones are straight hugel beets, and both of these are under attack.  From now on I will bare the expense and line them with hard cloth.  It will be to hard to line the hole hugel beet, but I think I will remove all the soil level with the ground, run hard cloth along the ground and put the cement blocks back around the perimeter, and refill.  This will give the veggies about 14" to 15" of soil the gopher can't get to.  I would hope even if the roots go beyond the hard wire the plant will still survive a little munching.  It's the best plan I can come up with.  I hate to redo brand new beds, but I hate going out and finding a new dead plant even more.  I seem to be able to chase it away for a few weeks, only to have it return.  Luckily I just got 3 rolls of 1/2 inch 3' X 25' of hard cloth on clearance for 8.00 and 2 1/2 inch 3' X 10' hard cloth for 3.00.  Now I just have to decide when to do it.  I will probably try to wait a bit longer to get as much out of my summer garden as I can. I will do it before I plant my fall garden.  I lost my jalapeno pepper plant today, so I know I have to do something so I don't go through this every season.

Chris I'm so glad you told me about pruning zucchini.  August brought back the gopher and aphids.  Keeping the zucchini pruned made it much easier to eliminate the aphids, and it frees up space to grow something else.  Thanks.

It seems like several weeks go by with no problem, then something new will die, or just disappear.  I'm now at the transition time when I would normally start making room for the fall veggies.  I can't do that this year with my two new beds.
I built three new raised beds out of corrugated steel, reclaimed redwood fence boards, and hard wire cloth on the bottom.  Two are in the garden. They are 2/3 full. (Hugel beet style).  Now I am removing the cement blocks and putting the soil into the new beds. Once I remove enough soil to get me even with the ground ( it goes 2' underground) I will put hard wire cloth down, put the cement blocks back so the wire is under the blocks. Then I will repeat the process but putting the soil into the empty one.  It's going to be a lot of work, and I'm bummed because there are things that are still producing that normally I would leave.  I'm going to try to put some of them into large pots. Some to stay, and a few to be replanted.  I don't want to do it, but if I don't get it done soon, I won't get fall peas.  Most important is I don't want to have that dread of wondering what destruction the gopher will cause next.  I can't protect everything, but I can keep my veggies relatively safe.  If the roots grow deeper than 15" the gopher will be able to get them.  I don't think most veggies grow that deep, and if they do hopefully will still have enough root to survive.  Anyway that's the plan.  From now on I will always put hard wire cloth down when I build new beds.  

Ok maybe I have been unfair to cats.  Yesterday my husband took the dog out back. He noticed something in her mouth. He told her to drop it. It was a gopher head.  She didn't kill it, he figures the stray cat that lives in our yard killed it, and eat all but the head. I guess he can stay.  I wouldn't say cats are the best way to eliminate gophers, but maybe they can be helpful.