Saddened by the loss of some smaller dahlias which are becoming one of my very favorite companions to my roses, I went out and bought 4 biggy dahlias. No clue of names, one all dark red (about 7" diameter), one dark maroon with white edges (a little smaller), one white with purple edges, and an outrageous yellow inside, red outside, which of course I have in the same bed as Ketchup & Mustard.

I found some chicken wire on the ranch, and lined the holes for the dahlias with it. It felt SOOO good. At least these 4 plants will be protected from those nasty gophers.

Not quite ready to start digging up all the roses and replanting, but certainly everything new going into the garden will have such protection.

I was so empowering, and only a few extra minutes in the planting process.

Tammy

I realized something, at each major "feeding" hole excavation cluster, there was a large Alaska Shasta Daisy plant close by. With little chew marks too.

I looked around the yard and noticed almost all the worst gopher damage was close to a shasta daisy, three guesses where all the shasta daisies are now. Good thing we were not happy with how much water they wanted or how big they got.

The gophers also did a number to the roots of our unknown old rose suckers, so those were dug up (not bareroot time here but what can ya do) and moved them. I think they were just in the gopher highway zone were they come from the neighbors brick pile.

I have a few traps set, I sure hope I have less gopher activity tomorrow.

Oh and we put baskets over the poor lavenders the skunks dig up every night.

Wildlife...not the kind I love