New Raised Vegetable bed - pocket gophers, moles and voles

I will be building my raised beds this week and have a terrible problem with these underground creatures. The pocket gophers go especially deep and I know will eat everything from underground. Last year I watched my hosta shrink in front of my eyes! My question is this - is there something I can put down - hardware cloth, etc. and attach to my wood before filling with my compost that is safe to use under my vegetables. I was not sure on the hardware cloth/chicken wire if it would rust underground and cause issues with my vegies. Any advice or help would be so appreciated. My kids can barely wait to get started on this garden but I am not going to that much work to watch it all disappear.

mn_garden:


Maybe you've already read advice like this, but the following quote was cut and pasted from the website www.eartheasy.com. They have a whole section on building raised beds.

"Burrowing pests? If your garden has burrowing pests such as moles, a layer of 1" poultry netting (chicken wire) can be laid across the bottom, before soil is added. The mesh should continue at least 3" up along the edges and be stapled to the inside of the bed."

I have read elsewhere instructions for using metal underground--chicken wire fence around the garden with several inches buried, curving outward underground to ward off other animals. Also, people make tomato cages from concrete reinforcing wire, sticking the prongs into the soil, and stake the cages with rebar--and both of those are very rusty. So my point is that maybe rust isn't considered a problem for veggies? Isn't it just .... iron (?)


Edited to add: check out advice given in another thread in this forum, "Voles in Vegetable Garden, Revisited Once Again."

NisiNJ

This message was edited May 20, 2008 11:13 PM

This message was edited May 20, 2008 11:15 PM

Rust is just iron. It's in the soil (and well water). I was reading on another thread about using tires for potatoes; that would worry me. I would worry about leaching from the rubber and God only knows what else they use in tires. But good old fashioned chicken wire should be fine.

Thank you so much. I will check out that thread and try it. I have to do something or I will just be feeding them at free will because they are all over our yard! I really appreciate your help and it looks like it is off to Lowe's I go....

Make sure you make the sides high enough. I had gophers last year that climbed over a 12" wide board to get to my plants.

Try planting Caster Beans. I am doing that this year since I got a box of Mole out or whatever they call it from Gardens Alive and the ingredients were 10% or a small amount of Caster Bean oil and 90% or the rest, was inert ingredients.

The moles left immediately. The same day I scattered the stuff and were gone all summer. The other side of my house looked like a mine field tho. That is apparently where they went to. Which was fine with me because it wasn't planted in anything and that is where my dog liked to hunt them.

So when I posted this finding, someone suggested I plant caster beans. I am going to do that this year but remember all parts are poisonous.

Jeanette

This message was edited May 22, 2008 10:35 PM

My husband and I have had great success with Castor Bean plants. If you get them in the ground early enough in the year, they make seed. It is a large tropical looking plant though. Ours last year were 8 feet tall and about 5-6 feet wide. My husband planted one at each corner of our garden. I would say the moles stay a good 75-100 feet away from the plants. They have a massive root system though, and we had to pull them up with the truck. Pretty, unique plants, but keep away from all livestock, and remind the children not to play with the leaves or pick the seedpods.

Instead of pulling them out with the truck wouldn't a couple drops of Roundup have worked? Or did you try it?

Didn't try roundup. My husband was anxious to get them up so we could plant again. He just pulled them up after he tried to dig them at first. That was a funny site. I saved the seed and started them in our greenhouse this year, and all 45 came up.

You mean after all that and having to pull them out with the truck you are going to plant them again???? They must have made a believer out of you. LOL

Jeanette

I wish I could do caster beans but with three kids and a new puppy I am a bit overprotective. Perhaps I will plant them in the vacant lot next door where no one goes. That is the holding ground for the gophers and moles anyway! The last two traps have produced gopher arms...don't even want to think about that.

Stelapathic...I was only worried about underground, I can't believe the gopher climbed the 12" sides. I knew I would have to fence it but was hoping for one season before I added that.

mn-garden, in a couple of posts above Brr 92 said they stay 75 to 100 feet away. With mine, they went to the other side of the house where I didn't have any sign of Caster beans and that is fine because that is where the dog hunts them. Therefore, I am wondering if you put them in your neighboring vacant lot will that send even more of them to you???? That would be terrible.

Jeanette

Isn't there any place, maybe in a pot up high, or outside of a fenced area that you could put them?

This message was edited May 25, 2008 4:35 PM

Jnette, you are right but it may be OK. My lot is a corner lot of 1 1/2 acres. So all the gophers and friends seem to come from that vacant lot. My garden will be near the lot line and if I put the caster beans just on the other side of the lot line that would send them farther into the vacant lot - one could only hope. I am a little leary of them taking cover further inside my lot. We have no fences so that doesn't help. I may just have to skip the caster beans for fear of an even worse situation and use the chicken wire and fencing to get by. But they are not only a problem in the garden but everywhere!

Someone else recommended moth balls to me so I think that may be a cheap try. I guess that is what the sod farmers up here use. It is worth a shot! Thanks everyone....today I am worried about damage control as we had golf ball size hail last night and there are holes in my hostas, my peonies are not happy and that is only the beginning.

I forgot to mention that I use coarse grade steel wool to wrap around smaller root balls and bulbs that I think the gophers might like. The first year I tried this I put it around half of a six pack of whatever plant that they had disappeared down a hole the year before. Exactly half the plants survived. It works and doesn't harm the plants. And steel wool is relatively inexpensive. Now when I see it on sale (fine or coarse, I don't worry about it anymore) I grab it up. It makes sense to me that they wouldn't want to chew through it to get to the roots, nor cut up their feet digging for that matter. Might want to try it; again for smaller plants and maybe bulbs.

What a neat idea. In all my years of gardening I have never heard of it. Great!! You need to send that in to some magazine or something. Must be some kind of contest for that.

Jeanette

Stella, that's a grand idea! I bought a roll of hardware cloth last year to make cages for my lilies and now I'm thinking about how I'll protect tomatoes this year. Last year I watched two disappear before my eyes, as well as three fat lily bulbs-in a raised bed. I'm surprised they don't go through the chicken wire. Seems fat enough for a critter to fit through, but if not, chicken wire ist surely much easier to work with! (cheaper, too)

The coarse grade steel wool definitely works for lily bulbs, mine have survived using it. I find chicken wire really cumbersome to work with (I keep poking holes in my skin with the cut-off ends) but I think it's pretty much necessary for any root ball bigger than 4-6" I've been looking for some type of steel wool that comes in bigger sheets (say something that would fit on a floor sander) but haven't found anything yet. I have to wear rubber gloves working with steel wool because those little metal particles get stuck under my fingernails and stuff....imagine how a gopher feels about it. Works for me!

Last year I laid down chicken wire over my entire perennial bed. I started out with 2" holes and saw a mole come right up thru it. Changed to 1" holes, laid down newspapers and then several inches of mulch on top of that.

Problem is, now I want to plant some things and have to cut holes in the chicken wire and yes, it is not fun to work with. I haven't lost any plants. I think if they can't come up out of the soil then they don't come in there. However I am going to plant the caster beans.

Jeanette

No, none of that stuff is fun to work with; very pokey. I'll start looking for bigger steel wool, too. Making the cages from hardware cloth was probably over kill and it was sure hard on my hands.