by Mary Vance

Created on: May 28, 2008   Last Updated: August 17, 2009

My gardening endeavors over the years have brought me a

great deal of pleasure and also some big frustrations.

I have battled many pests during my gardening years.

There have been the rosebush ravaging deer, ravenous raccoons,

nibbling rabbits, greedy squirrels, digging armadillo, a bevy of birds,

and a large assortment of insects to share my fruits and vegetables.

One pest above all others has stolen or destroyed my vegetable crops,

"The horrid Gopher"!

The gophers always seem to know when the garden has put out its

spring growth. It is very disheartening to find your crop of pole beans

hanging limp on their poles with their roots chewed away. They don't

bother the tomato plants, and only occasionally the corn, but

everything else is on their menu. In the fall they move on to other areas

on the property. I have tried every means possible to get the gophers

to move elsewhere. They enjoyed the snack of poisoned peanuts that

I cleverly buried. My sandy soil makes using traps nearly impossible.

I spent $26.95 for 12 ounces of bobcat urine. The advertisement stated,

"Guaranteed to repel deer, squirrel, rabbits, and gophers". None of

these animals seemed impressed.

My mother-in-law suggested planting castor bean plants around my

garden to discourage the gophers digging. The gophers actually

toppled some of the castor bean plants as they dug around the roots.

One season I managed to hide a beautiful cantalope patch from

the gophers. The vines were lush and loaded with nearly ripe melons.

I went out each morning to inspect my garden. The pleasant aroma of

ripe cantalope greeted me as I neared the melon patch. To my dismay

two of the melons were missing their ends. I had a few choice words

to yell at the raccoon community in the nearby woods. I made several

trips to the garden that night, shining the flashlight over the melon patch

searching for a flash of eyes from the poaching raccoon.

The next morning, I again went to inspect the garden. Again the smell

of ripe cantalope wafted on the breeze. Another beautiful melon was

missing its end, but this time there was something different! I hurried

home to get my husband. Two critter legs were sticking out of the melon.

On closer inspection we were shocked to find a box turtle completely

inside the cantalope. After we stopped laughing at the sight, we carried

the turtle and his melon a few acres away from the garden leaving him

to enjoy his feast.

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