Another late start to the day as I just finished having lunch. Got out to the garden about an hour ago but had wanted to go earlier, the devastation I saw was the stuff of nightmares. I was a bit hungry when Igot there so it did not improve my mood much.
Bastard... not bothering the peas for some reason, didn't do anything to the tomatoes next to mine and I think the onion was incidental damage in that bed. If it's following the wall then it will be in the corner and the jade plant. Go eat the weeds and work the compost pile ya nasty varmint!
I first got the shovel and started digging where the tunnels were, collapsing them but also loosening the dirt unfortunately. That bed is really nice and loose now at least, no wonder the carrots are doing so well. So dug around and avoided the lettuces as much as possible then got the hose...watered then ... the big gun came out. 'Hydro blasting' with the strong jet and flooded the area.
One thing that gophers don't like is muddy soil. Remember that one lettuce sprout that was so big in the front? It's gone as well but no sign of it being pulled down, just gone so most likely a surface muncher with that one. I waited for the water to recede then started transplanting the rest of the lettuce and bean seedlings to the other beds. The one larger lettuce that I tried to put in the bed wouldn't have made it, the soil came away from the root and it had been chomped. Drat it! I moved the other two to the potatoes and another bean to the tomato bed.
As a finale, I got one of the spare cages and plopped it on top of the pea cage. Didn't tie it down, will do that in a bit, not too windy so far but it won't stay on it's own and will use the green wire to secure it.
The shovel stayed in that bed, I moved it to kind of shield the carrots but it stayed. I have nothing like a barrier to put in the bed and telling the manager won't result in anything because....this is a bonus garden area and the gardeners can't do anything about it that won't poison the ground and ruin the beds. Will see what it looks like in the morning.
Now, if you don't know the life cycle of gophers here's the story. Pocket gophers are primarily solitary animals, tunneling for food and making small dens on the way to sleep. They only look for other gophers during mating season in the spring. Tadaaaa! It's interesting because I haven't seen any signs of gopher activity in the lawns or along the wall until now. Anyway, the male goes in search of a female tunneling along so when he does find one they are both making tunnels to ready for a den to have her kits. He then goes on his merry way and leaves her to her business.
Gophers do not come above ground very far or very often. They most definitely will not come out of the ground to cross the street to a neighbors yard. You don't know they're there until the tell tale mound appears and then it's too late. That mound is an air tunnel, not an escape tunnel, they dig up from about ten to twelve inches below the surface and then make an angled tunnel to the surface, take a look around, leave it open for a little air then close it back up with dirt. An open hole means no one is home or it's a snake hole.
Pocket gophers are no bigger than the palm of your hand, have a short tail and big front teeth as we have seen in cartoons and movies. They can move a lot of dirt in 24 hours and I can only hope that with all the flooding I did it will deter it from going any further. Even if it goes across the garden to the woodpile is okay. Go eat the tomato roots and knock that down for me will ya! Leave the potatoes alone by all means!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher
"Gophers eat plant roots, shrubs, and other vegetables such as carrots, lettuce, radishes, and any other vegetables with juice."
Yah yah... Obviously the gopher in Winnie the Pooh had plenty of forest to dig around in and wasn't inclined to visit Rabbits garden.
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