Today Tom and I moved the gopher ridden backyard garden bed. I’ve put this off for days because I know I will probably lose plants from shock. BUT, after finding another plant, my zucchini, being sucked down another hole this morning I was convinced that it had to be done.
I’ve never wanted to kill an animal more than at that moment. One time I had to kill a quail to feed Tom’s falcon and I cried when I did it. I was supposed to kill two, but couldn’t do it and passed the job off to our friend. When I saw what this gopher was doing to my zucchini plant I didn’t hesitate to angrily stab the ground by the hole a few times with a stake in the hopes that I would skewer the little bastard. Unfortunately, I missed.
Later in the afternoon I enlisted Tom’s help and we picked the whole bed up and turned it 90 degrees. We lined the bottom of the bed with gopher wire and then one by one I dug up each plant and transferred them and the dirt as carefully as I could. I heard lots of snapping roots so who knows how well I did, but what choice did I have? The gopher would have gotten them eventually.
Tomorrow I plan on planting a pretty new crookneck squash transplant and then distracting myself with fixing up the rest of the backyard while I wait to see if any of the other plants die of shock. Wish us luck!
Shoots and Roots 