Gardening Report April 2, 2022

FINAL SCORE

• Gopher:  Two dozen or more plants 

• Buzz & Soon-ok:  One dead gopher

We appear to have resolved the gopher issue.  We tried flushing it out with water, setting traps, I even took a swing at it with a shovel, but in the end it appears Soon-ok unintentionally poisoned it.

She planted marigolds, a flower that put nutrients back in the soil that tomato plants can use as well as repels some species of insect pests.

The gopher, apparently trapped inside our enclosure when we dug down and added more chicken wire to block the tunnels it dug in from the outside, binged on all the freshly planted flowers in a single day.

Two days later when we came back to the garden. We found the little %#@& dead, apparently trying to get out through one of the tunnels we had now blocked.

You had ample opportunities to leave, pal.

I disposed of it by using a shovel to fling it into a nearby drainage area where ravens could enjoy it…provided the coyotes and bobcats didn’t get it first.

Oh, yes, we’ve got a family of bobcats living in a nearby culvert; they come out and roam the garden at night after all the humans have gone.  Well, they used to come out at night; recently some gardeners saw one inside the garden in the late afternoon right after it killed one of the chickens, so the “girls” aren’t be allowed to run free during the day anymore.  Last week I found ¼ of a jack rabbit in the garden parking lot, and as mentioned earlier we’ve seen evidence of them killing local pets.

Anyway, after disposing of the dead gopher, we’ve seen no signs of gopher activity; previously we’d find 4-6 new holes a day.  We’re hoping this has taken care of the problem once and for all as we’re setting up out Texas tomato towers in anticipation of spring planting (in the event we see further gopher activity between now and the actual planting, we’ll use some wire baskets buried in the soil to ground level to plant the tomatoes in which should thwart ‘em).

The Texas towers are expensive but rugged / reliable / reusable and best of all, fold flat for easy storage in off seasons.

I also put up the large wire A-frame cage for zucchini and squash as well as a section of heavy wire fence for other plants.

We’re debating switching the watering emitters from the drip system we now use to burblers, but since that’s a fairly easy swapping out, we’ll wait until after we’ve planted the spring crops to decide that.

Last but not least, I attached two iridescent tin geckos to the exterior of the enclosure.  I always wanted to add a little decor to the wire and since the local nursery had them on sale for $1.50 off, I got two.

That’s probably the last little artistic flourish I’ll add’ I don’t want the place to look too cluttered.

© Buzz Dixon