The Gophers Are Back

The gophers I had last year in my back yard are back. Over the last month I have seen a family of four eating all the clover in the grass lawn. My wife thought they were so cute, as they foraged for greens and rolled and played. We would watch them with curiosity as they ran across the lawns in neighbor yards.
But now the tide has changed. The rascals have started to eat all my flowers. They have even eaten the flowers on the deck in pots. My neighbors and I are exasperated with the devastation they have caused to the landscape. I know they have to eat, but why not just the crab grass or weeds.

I am now fed up with the gopher’s eating habits and decided to get out all the guns. I started with the old myths to keep out varmints. That’s what Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny use to call them. The old myths advocated putting moth balls around the garden or using fox urine.

I sprinkled a whole box of moth balls around the bushes, the foundation and under the garden shed. Now I can smell the odor as I come in the driveway 30 feet away. I bet no moths will come within ten feet of the house. After leaving the balls scattered around I saw the gophers actually sniffing them. That sure didn’t work and now I have a hazardous waste site with (naphthalene) scattered around. I guess I am going to have to pickup all those balls.

Next I tried fox urine. This was advocated as the crème de la crème of animal deterrents. It comes in a spray bottle and stinks to high heaven. I sprayed it everywhere around the house foundation and under the shed where the little varmints are living. It smells like a bar room in the in the city or a back street alley. Now I have stray alley cats frequenting the area.

My last thought was to get a Haveahart Trap. I looked online and found out that this works pretty good but you need to be careful not to catch other animals or to get bitten by one or sprayed by a wayward skunk. I looked at Home Depot and Aubuchon Hardware online and found the best price at Aubuchon. You can see the web link below…. http://lawn-and-garden.hardwarestore.com/79-504-animal-traps.aspx

I needed a larger size for the gopher and got the 32x10x12 inch one, ($54.95).  It comes in a flat box and is supposed to quickly spring out into a box shape, but not for me. Is anything ever easy? I had to read the directions several times to see how it unfolded and how to set all the clips and wires so it was functional. In addition, I had to bend the latch slightly that holds open the trap door.

I loaded the trap with some fresh lettuce and cucumbers but no luck after one day. I then loaded it with a cut up apple and left it overnight on the side of the shed near the gopher den. The next morning there it was, my first critter. I told my wife and she said to release the poor critter and worried that the family of four were going to be separated from each other. I then released it for several reasons. One was to make the wife happy, next to see that I could open the cage without getting bitten and lastly to see if I would catch another one on a second try.

I was worried that the gopher would run back at me and up my leg when I opened the cage door. So I braced my self for the attack of “GODZILLA” and opened the trap door. To my delight, the gopher scurried off running quickly under the shed. A few minutes later I imagined hearing some animal snickering and the whole gopher family laughing. “I’ll get you varmints next time, said Elmer Fudd”.

The next morning I set the trap again with fresh apple pieces and I caught the mommy gopher. I covered the cage with a sheet to quite the animal and put it in the back of the SUV. I then drove to the town park which is next to the town forest and released the “cute” critter. As she scurried off into the woods, I thought I heard animal swearing but it was probably just my active imagination.

I set the cage again over several more nights and have caught the rest of the gopher family. They are now all living together in a larger woodland area with plenty of food to forage. I wish them well but don’t expect any post cards.

You can see some photos at the following web link ….. https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/Gopher62411#

Comments are always welcome…. markryan82@comcast.net

Multiple Rain Barrel Drip System (Part 2)

Last month I built a (one barrel) Rain Barrel Water System for my garden. Unfortunately, one barrel full of rain water will only last a couple of days to feed all the plants, if there is no additional rain. Consequently, I added two more barrels (total of three), so that I would have garden water for a least a week without a refill. If there is no rain I have to supplement the water in the barrels with a garden hose.

In order to have the rain barrels provide water to the garden automatically I also bought a water timer that comes on at a set time each day and allows the water to run out of the rain barrel through a main half inch hose. The main half inch hose is then connected to a network of smaller quarter inch hoses ending in drip emitters at each of about 50 plants. The emitters are preset for one gallon of water per hour for a garden hose pressure system. In the rain barrel gravity feed system with very little pressure, the water drips at about a quart of water per hour. I have the water timer adjusted for 30 minutes per day in the early morning to provide each plant with about a half quart of water.

The barrels are set on top of building blocks (8x8x16 inches) to give adequate support for a barrel full of water. The blocks are piled two wide and six high for a total height of 48 inches. This height provides enough water pressure for the water to run out of the barrel by gravity only with no need for a pump. It is also important to level the blocks so that each barrel is exactly level with the next barrel. I found for my set up that the two block sets had to be 26 inches apart on center so that the manifold pieces would be level and fit together.

The rain barrels are connected together with a PVC pipe manifold. As rain runs off my garden shed roof into a rain gutter, it is piped into the first rain barrel. Since the barrels are all connect at the bottom with a manifold, the rain water fills all three barrels simultaneously. Excess water runs out a top hole in each barrel. Make sure you have a good seal on all the PVC connections with PVC cement. In addition, put some silicone tub sealer around the connection where the PVC comes out of the bottom of the barrel. Once it gets wet with water, the seals are hard to fix.

I selected ¾ inch PVC so that all the connecting pieces could eventually connect to a regular garden hose with a simple pipe adapter. The total cost was about $200 for a three barrel system or less for a one barrel system. The approximate individual cost is as follows: Three trash barrels ($30), One Water Timer ($30), PVC Manifold for 3 barrels ($20), Drip Hose ($20), Drip Emitters and Hose Connectors ($30), Drip Irrigation Starter Kit ($25), and Thirty building blocks ($45). Although the cost may be a large investment, the system will last for years and save a lot of time with the automatic watering.

Most of the parts can be purchased at Home Depot (drip hose and kits). Additional parts can be purchased online from DropWorks.Com or DripDepot.Com or Amazon.Com. DripWorks.Com has an interactive catalog where you can flip pages and look at all the garden accessories.

I tried several water timers from Home Depot but they all had a diaphragm-valve and needed water pressure from a garden hose to work. I did some research online and found that a water timer with a simple ball-valve did not need any water pressure to have it open and close and could work with a rain-barrel gravity feed and almost zero water pressure system. Looking online I found the Gilmour Water Timer to work the best. I ordered one from Amazon.com and got it in a few days. It has been working great now for a few weeks.

You can see some photos of the three barrel system and its construction at the Picasa link below…
https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/GardenRainBarrelSystemPart2#

You can see a YouTube video at the link below…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4XLihRNbfE

You can see my previous Blog on one rain barrel at the link……
http://opennutshell.blogspot.com/2011/05/garden-plants-and-rain-barrel-drip.html

Comments always welcome…. markryan82@comcast.net