I hate gophers. You can maybe build some gopher-proof beds, also. Attach half-inch hardware cloth to the bottom of the bed (with no gaps). That will keep gophers out.

How big are your pots?

--McKenzie

People think I'm nuts, but I've been using those battery operated chattering things you stick in the ground and have only had gophers in the area when the batteries go dead.
Most of my garden is in raised beds with hardware cloth lining the bottom, the gophers still smelled (or whatever they do to find veges) but we planted a bunch of squash up on our septic mound and the gophers went nuts! We put in one of the chattering things, and have had NO problems since!
We got our first one at HD ($24!), then found 3 more at yard sales. 3 years using them and I'm very happy with them!
Next year I'm going to try planting some stuff right in the ground and see how we do. I'll be searching the flea marts, etc for more of them! We have gophers galore everywhere else on the property! Nancy

terry: I deal with gophers every year. This year they got 2 of my tomatoes and 2 peppers. And pretty much my whole insectary(beneficial flowers).

But, I knew it right away. And that's when to strike! Traps and poison.

With one of the tomatoes, they left enough root ball that I simply dug a hole 2 feet to the right and placed it in the hole -- within 2 weeks, it was recovered. With one of the pepper plants, they left enough that I took the plant, put it in some well draining soil mix in a container and in a month or so, re-transplanted it in the ground. So, overall, just one pepper and 1 tomato plant lost.

You can tell right away... when they're fine one evening and the next morning, they're wilted...gophers! At that point, get into action. They're sneaky with traps -- they'll come and spring them with dirt. When the traps aren't working, poison comes out. After a couple weeks of working on them, the family(for the time being) is usually wiped out.

Good luck next year.

Kevin

Not everyone knows that gophers travel up to 1/4 mile per night up on the surface. So, putting hardware cloth under the beds is futile if they can just enter from above. If trapping, you have to dig down to the main tunnel and place two traps (one in each direction) or you are very likely to fail in catching them. Once a gopher is educated in the way of traps, you will never get a second chance to trap him. The following link has useful information based on the practices of famous horticulturist, Alan Chadwick, who made a demonstration garden at UC Santa Cruz back in the 60's and 70's. Click on "Techniques", then on "gophers".

Alan Chadwick

Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick

Thanks for all your advice, We been dealing with them for over 20 yrs. But so far this years they really haven't done much damage to my yard. They would always come up on the same spot in my front yard but so far they haven't. they been busy out on the sideswalk area.
My side yard also they haven't bother too much so far, just getting that area back to normal meaning keeping it water so that the grass is finally coming back. Have tried the trap caught some, use the motion thing but didn't work. Planted solice garlic plants around borders of my front yard n so far no activity there. Last year I was growing a type of squash in a pot in my side yard they came up n bite thru the vine. That why I mostly plant in pots.
Thanks again for your advice.
Terry

Hey, Carlo, I couldn't find the gopher information in that Chadwick link. But if you make sure your bed has vertical sides at least two inches above grade, the gophers will not try to climb over it. Climbing is not their thing. They are blind or nearly so, and highly specialized for digging. In their tunnels they are very difficult to get, but crawling along on the surface, they are sitting ducks for any predator that comes along. So they try to minimize time above ground, and the last thing they want to do is climb over a piece of wood. I have never seen a gopher inside a gopher-proof bed build the way I describe, but there are some things that can go wrong. For example, sometimes there could be a tall gopher mound right up against the edge of the bed. That mound, if you don't kick it down or flatten it somehow, could become a ramp for a gopher to get over the edge of your bed and thus gain access inside. Also, if you use poultry netting instead of hardware cloth, the holes are too big and the gopher can dig right in.

I don't use poison, but Kevin is on the right track (based on my experience, anyway). Also, if you dig down around the wilted plant as soon as you discover it, you can find the tunnel the gopher used to get to the roots. In this tunnel, you can set a single trap (because you know which way it will be coming from), and often catch the gopher within 24 hours.

I don't think gophers are smart enough to deliberately spring the traps with dirt. I just think that when they are digging new tunnels, they push large columns of dirt in front of them, and so they sometimes spring the trap without getting caught.

I don't think nancy is nuts at all. But I do want to know the exact model of noisemaker she uses to deter the gophers, because I have seen several models that were not effective (either for me or for other people).

Garlic does not deter gophers. They like garlic.

I have had them bite through pumpkin vines. Very frustrating. They eat just a little, and kill the whole plant downstream from that point.

I think gardening would be a lot easier and more fun without gophers.

--McKenzie