Flowers and gophers
How to deter gophers? How to get rid of gophers? What flowers repel gophers? I feel like this is in the minds of so many gardeners when they realize that they have a gopher problem.
Oh gophers, you troublesome and fearless creatures. I have a love hate relationship with gophers. Well, maybe mostly hate. I love that they aerated our yard and broke down the soil for us, but that’s about it.
Most of the time I am swearing at them. Imagine me in my front yard, fist raised in the air, yelling “You’ve struck again!” like some kind of c-level comic book character. But, while they are extremely persistent, they can be managed.
I will share with you some things that I learned and a solution that has been the best gopher repelling method that I have ever used, which is completely safe for you, the environment, and the gophers.
Last summer and fall I lost a lot of our vegetable crops and flowers to gophers. Here is an example of some damage. While I was inside sick with a bad cold, the gopher had a party in the yard and destroyed a lot of herbs, lettuce, flowers, and a few other plants in this area.
I had to figure out how to deal with them. Poison is never an option, not only because I have a toddler and a dog, but because I live in an area with a lot of wildlife. Not far from where I live there have been several mountain lions that have died from ingesting an animal that died via poison. So please don’t use it, putting poison out impacts everyone, not just you and your garden.
I did notice that there was one area of my yard that the gophers didn’t frequent, and that was where the elderberries were located. I soon found out that elder root is poisonous to gophers along with the narcissus family and castor bean plant. I also learned that certain smells such as lavender, peppermint, rosemary, alliums, and camphor can repel gophers.
These solutions were a bit of a mixed bag. The lavender didn’t seem to do anything against them. I have had several lavender bushes chewed up by gophers from the ground level with sections even pulled in to their holes. Garlic was at least somewhat successful. I have garlic at the base of my apple trees and only one of the eight plants was eaten. So that one is a toss up. I had the best luck with the mint and rosemary. They won’t bother the plants, though it doesn’t mean that they won’t go around them to eat the goodies you’re trying to keep them away from. I don’t even bother to put gopher cages around my sage, rosemary, or mint (includes catnip in this) because they have always ignored those plants and don’t go near them.
Ranunculus corms planted in gopher baskets.
So all of this is fine and dandy, but what if you want a cut flower garden and you don’t want other plants mixed in? Do you cage everything? You most definitely can. I did this for every other ranunculus corm that I planted in a couple of areas. I can’t say I’d recommend this. It’s a lot of work. After planting nearly 100 corms I gave this up because the price of baskets adds up fast even if not every single corm is using a basket.
The last strategy is using castor bean oil (castor oil) diluted in water. This is a really effective method and safe for you, the plants, the environment, and the gophers (or whatever tunneling creature you have).
Gopher Repellent Solution
I combine a couple of tablespoons of castor oil and about 30 drops of camphor essential oil in a 1 to 2 gallons watering can or sprayer. Make sure to shake it up some or use the pressure from the water as you fill the watering can to mix up the oil otherwise it will settle all at the bottom.
You don’t have to use camphor essential oil, but I use it as an extra preventative measure because the smell keeps them away. Just don’t add too much of it or your eyes will water when you use it because it’s seriously strong stuff.
Once you have your solution, spray around the plants. I will get it as close to the ground as possible and make a circle or really water the plants in if there are too many of them. This is by no means is a one and done solution. Depending on your amount of rainfall you may have to repeat the process a few times. Once a month works well for me.
This method has been the best one that I have ever used to keep gophers from destroying plants. So far I haven’t had any gopher activity in the areas of my yard where I have sprayed this. It’s not perfect, of course. Unless you’re putting everything in raised beds with hardware cloth/wire beneath it, it’s impossible to be 100% effective at deterring those cunning, ruthless, vegetation-destroying little monsters.
What’s the most natural way to deter gophers?
Animals that prey on gophers will always be the most sure fire way to deal with gophers. If you have the space, building an ecosystem in the garden will save you lots of headaches.
Snakes and weasels go into gopher tunnels. Above ground hawks and owls will get them. On occasion, dogs, cats, badgers, coyotes, skunks, and a few other animals will dig after them if they catch the scent.
Loss happens in the garden and as my grandpa would say, “You didn’t fail, you learned something!” A garden is always teaching and sometimes you will go to great lengths to cage an apple tree, nurture it for a few years, and just when it starts to reliably produce a gopher will chew it down. Ask me how I know that this is possible? But all that is left to do is to get a new tree. If you are comfortable with traps Gopher Hawk traps work well.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Until next time,
