Gophers in my hugle bed.....

I am over the first shock now so I can be calm and deal with it. Last fall I put a layer of chicken wire on the ground. Put logs on top of it, sticks, chips, compost, soil and planting mix. Then pulled the wire up about 10 inches all the way around. I then added the same wire around the bed and anchored it to 36 inch wood garden stakes on the outside. I would say that the sides are about 18-23 inches tall. This was to be my safe bed! No gophers or moles to eat and kill the plants. Since I did not tell the gophers of my plans they have gotten in and eaten everything. What I want to know is what would you do? Take it apart? I have caught one mole and one gopher in the bed. I have raked it smooth and waited for them to leave me some sign but there are no mounds. There is still a couple of plants left.

In my experience, standard chicken wire is not sufficient. I have had better luck with double dipped gopher wire. My current yard is small, standard 1/10 acre suburban plot. So, for battling gophers, every morning I would look for mounds, if I found any I would boil a large pot of water, add to it garlic, chile peppers, and black peppercorns. When it cooled sufficiently, I would add a couple tablespoons of castor oil and grey water safe dish soap (I use Oasis). Whisk it together. Try to open up the hole and mound and pour it in. After a couple of weeks, no more mounds. I doubt this would be feasible on a large scale, but it worked for me.

So.. would you take it apart? I just checked it again and nothing in the traps and the 2 remaining plants are still there. I guess I caught the gopher and mole that were in there but....