Re: CULT - Pesky gophers

Nancy Silverberg wrote of the destruction of their beardless iris by 
gophers.  I saw the Silverbergs' garden in its former location (on 
the edge of Mt. Angel, if I remember correctly) 4 years ago, just as 
the Siberians were coming into bloom.  If you moved all those 
beauties and now had them eaten, that's a MAJOR loss, because there 
were a lot of wonderful plants there.  That was the year before the 
national convention so maybe what I saw weren't all things you lost, 
but even so, what a shame.  When I was a boy growing up in the Yakima 
Valley of Washington, I trapped gophers regularly in the orchards & 
alfalfa fields.  Farmers hired kids for that to avoid having their 
irrigation water run away down the gopher holes.  I've never heard of 
a more effective way than trapping, though just having the cats 
around might help.  I know a good hunter will catch (and eat) gophers 
as well as smaller rodents.  I've also seen seed/nursery catalogs 
advertise euphorbia as a plant which drives away gophers.  They give 
it the nickname of "gopher purge", so perhaps several plants of that 
around the garden would at least help do the job.  The trapping 
really isn't that hard, though, so maybe you'll have to try that old 
stand-by solution again.

Arnold Koekkoek
NW Iowa  Zone 4








Arnold Koekkoek                         Home Ph. (712) 722-0724
Assoc. Prof. of History                 Off. Ph. (712) 722-6326
Dordt College                           e-mail koekkoek@dordt.edu
Sioux Center, IA 51250
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