NoNoNo! #1 gophers will chew right through CW if not squeeze through! #2Voles will just saunter through like it was a hallway to the vege palace! #3 They will rot out in a couple of years. Do you want to dig out ALL of that dirt just to do it all again? Do it right the first time and use hardware (or gopher) cloth! It is worth the extra $! Our origional 4 beds have not failed in13 and 10 years. We had a shovel go through accidentally in one bed, but were able to dig down and repair the tear in the wire. All those tiny rhodents can squeeze themselves down to about the size of a fat thumb.Sorry I was so adament! LOL I hate gophers! LOL Nancy

I see this is an old thread, but in answer to the original question, yes the wire will girdle the roots and kill the trees; I have first hand experience in Central CA and about 16" annual rainfall. Galvanized wire does not readily rot out...not for years and after 15 years at my place it's still there. Plain steel wire in the necessary thin gauge is hard to find as poultry mesh. Note there may be some species that can create new tissue around the wire but I have never seen a list and don't have the time to experiment. I have seen trees grow around barbed wire fences but I have never cut one in-section to see if the tree's phloem actually healed over the wire or if it just looks that way and since the wire was straight it did not ring-bark the tree. For sure we lost our apricots and walnuts. I have one large sycamore (no basket) next to three stunted sycamores (with baskets). When we realized this was happening to the fruit trees, we carefully dug around 1/2 the tree to the wire basket and carefully cut the wire around the roots. Then we waited for a season for healing the disturbed 1/2 and then cut the other side. All in all it seems a day late and a dollar short because the orchard growth stalled. We now plant new trees in oversized holes lined with thin, 1" concrete pavers, extending a couple inches above the top of the soil while being careful to make sure no holes larger than 1/2-3/4" exist between the pavers. It seems to be working extremely well. We have not had any issues with gophers jumping over the top but if we do we will simply place something on top of the soil around the tree. Our theory is this: Once a paver is buried in the ground, it's very difficult or impossible to move without a large enough hole created by the gopher to allow it to shift. We surmise gophers can't think the mechanics through and are not generally that lucky to stumble upon the solution. I suppose if the gopher chose to make it's primary burrow right next to the pavers, one could fall out of place. The tree root, however, can get through the holes between the pavers and slowly push the paver out of the way as it grows without being ring-barked/girdled. I think of roots growing under and buckling a sidewalk to visualize the power of a root. To date, we have had great luck and no girdled trees. So, what about cost? Well, the argument that a hundred dollar hole might make a thousand dollar tree and a 10 dollar hole might kill it is a good one. I happen to have a ready-supply of paver off-cuts and rejects to keep my cost down. We have speculated about what to do to keep the costs down and have thought of many alternate ways while keeping the original concept intact: a lined hole where roots can grow through the liner but gophers cannot get at the young tree to do their damage When the day comes for me to make a hole and line it with something different than pavers to save money, I plan to try this one first as a cost-saver: Dig an oversize hole with sloped walls. Mix up some inexpensive fence-post mix, or stucco, or a home made mix (add some extra sand to make it go farther –it can be a weak mix). Make it a stiff-mix and line the hole with the mud, making an in-ground bowl, more or less. Then cut or score deep lines in the firm mud in a large grid (6"?) so as to allow the bowl to break to bits once dry. Now poke holes through the mix where the lines cross; it's these holes that will serve as drainage and for the roots to grow out of so be sure they go all the way through. We thought of pounding in wood stakes while the bowl set up for awhile and removing prior to back-filling the hole. We speculate, too, that if it were a really weak mix ( 1 part cement to 10 or 12 parts sand) that poking a bunch of holes in the mud is all that would be needed (no scoring lines) and the tree would win the day at time of breaking. None of what is done in making the lined hole needs to be pretty, it just needs to confound the gophers and allow the tree to bust-its-way out. It's labor intensive, like the pavers, but no too costly on materials. The hole can be filled with soil when wet, and the tree thus planted, too, so it should be fairly fast. Again, you can cap the buried bowl with wire if your gophers like to travel over-land. One component I would like to add would be sprinkling something on the fresh mortar to counter the change in PH while the bowl cures underground; perhaps acidic Redwood mulch? What other ideas are out there? How about up-cycling flattened tin cans from the recycling bin and lining the hole and letting them compost? If anyone has an idea on how to make a lined hole where roots can grow through the liner but gophers cannot get at the young tree to do their damage, I'd love to hear it!

Ah, milkmen....now there's a tradition lost on most of America. I really need a milkman. My son drinks nothing but milk and is capable of going through a gallon a day if left unchecked. Unfortunately, city code says I can't have my own cow in the backyard. On a side note, we watched "Up" last night with the kids, and it's priceless for the dog humor alone. I think our pup may be mellowing in her old age. This past week we left her unattended inside the house because of bad storms rolling through, and I'm happy to report that all curtains, carpet, pillows, and garbage cans were intact and undisturbed. When we first moved to our house 2 years ago, we had problems with puppy digging holes in the yard. She would take her morning cookie (milk bone biscuit) outside, and promptly bury it. We curbed the bad habit by only allowing cookies after she came back inside at night. Disturbingly, the dig holes didn't stop. We couldn't figure out what was causing her to continue to dig. One day when I was on vacation & working outside, I paused to chat to the passing mail carrier, whom Midnight loved to terrorize with her "go away" bark. I told the mail carrier our puppy's name and explained that she's truly harmless. The mail carrier said, "No worries---she's my best friend now that I toss her a Milk Bone every day!"

Measure your area for the bed and decide how to most economically cover that area with hardware cloth. HC comes in 2, 3, 4, 5 foot widths. You probably want HC with 1/4 inch squares. Or 1/2 inch. You can join pieces of HC with wire. I would think just putting the cinder blocks over the ends of the HC would be okay. To avoid damage to your hands from cut HC, you can bend an inch of the end over on itself to make a smooth edge. A 2x4 or other piece of straight wood sometimes helps with bending. Otherwise, any cut ends may snag you but good.