Gophers

farmersgranddaughter 1/15/2018, 5:38 pm

Greetings from Arkansas! I've been an SFG fan since I first read Mel's book years ago. We had a successful SFG at our previous home. We're in a new location now and are building a new garden. This time, however, we have gophers to contend with. Will an underlayment of bird netting deter them or should we install a metal screen instead? Netting would be easier to work with but I'm not sure if it's strong enough. I welcome your advice.

**sanderson** 1/16/2018, 3:57 am

Hi, Welcome to the Forum from California! $glad you\'re here$ All of my SFG beds are elevated off the ground with plywood bottoms (table tops), so I don't have any personal experience with gophers in the beds. However, I think most folks lay down 1/4-1/2" hardware screen under the beds when they have a gopher problem.

Would you mind adding at least your State in your Location. No one knows what climate and geographical location except for me. Wink

**AtlantaMarie** 1/16/2018, 7:18 am

Hi farmersgrandaughter. Welcome from Atlanta, GA! Glad you're here!!

I don't have any issues with gophers (that I'm aware of), so I can't address it either... But I know someone will jump in with some advice!

Or did you happen to check in the archives (Search area in the left upper corner)? Lots of great info there...

farmersgranddaughter 1/16/2018, 10:09 am

Thanks! Profile has been updated to reflect Arkansas residence and correct to 6b. We're in the extreme northern part of the state.

Yardslave 1/16/2018, 12:01 pm

I had to line the bottoms of my boxes with 1/4' galvanized hardware cloth. My first attempt at lining the beds was a failure- gophers found that they could pull down on the wire where it wasn't nailed down close enough or tight enough. They shoved rocks in to keep the wire open and crawled into the box and helped themselves to a snack. They also learned that they could push on the two seams where two pieces were overlapped and packed rocks in and climbed in! What I learned was to nail the wire at close intervals with U shaped nails- not staples- and to fold and wire together any mends or overlaps.

countrynaturals 1/16/2018, 12:32 pm

Yardslave wrote:I had to line the bottoms of my boxes with 1/4' galvanized hardware cloth. My first attempt at lining the beds was a failure- gophers found that they could pull down on the wire where it wasn't nailed down close enough or tight enough. They shoved rocks in to keep the wire open and crawled into the box and helped themselves to a snack. They also learned that they could push on the two seams where two pieces were overlapped and packed rocks in and climbed in! What I learned was to nail the wire at close intervals with U shaped nails- not staples- and to fold and wire together any mends or overlaps.

I knew they were stinkers, but I had no idea they were so smart. Evil or Very Mad

We don't have the problem -- too many cats. Rolling Eyes

farmersgranddaughter 1/29/2018, 10:20 pm

Thank you for your comments. Yardslave, thanks for sharing your experience. This is my first experience with gophers. I didn't know that they were so smart!

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