Re: CULT - Pesky gophers
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: CULT - Pesky gophers
- From: D* S* <s*@molalla.net>
- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 14:07:43 -0700 (MST)
Arnold Koekkoek wrote:
>
> 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
Dear Arnold;
Yes, we moved every last one of those clumps from MT. Angel to Molalla
after the '94 Convention, where we had room to grow. (Five acres instead
of one) We divided the large clumps and lined out hundreds of plants. On
completion, we had planted approximately 3 of the 5 acres when disaster
struck in two ways. The gophers came first, then the diagnosis of
Cancer. Between the two, things have been sorely neglected for over a
year, and the gophers have been running rampant. The cancer is not!! You
are correct, the losses have been major, mainly in the beardless. But we
are doing our best to simply get our personal gardens back into some
enjoyable semblance of order to enjoy the bloom season since I missed it
totally last year, so we shall persevere. Perhaps we shall get another
training on traps and try again if the furry mouse traps don't do the
job.
Nancy
