First of all I am glad to find a forum on this subject with CURRENT (spring/summer 2016) posts! I am in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles and have a likely gopher (although it could be a vole aka field mouse). From all I have read, moles do NOT eat plants, just grubs and insects; so since vegetation is disappearing from my garden in whole or in part, I am assuming gopher and maybe vole. They are the plant eaters. I recently planted my first "edibles garden" (I avoid the term "vegetable garden" since most "vegetables" are fruits - they have seeds -they're fruits), in years in my parched, drought affected yard. Our current water restrictions had me hesitant, but I figured, why not? Growing your own food is better than just facial stuff like watering the lawn. I did not realize though, that I had a critter underground until a couple hundred dollars later, and much, much, much, tilling, amending, and planting, all with a spade, and a rake, and my arms and legs - no machinery or help from others. As of now, I have had 2 whole chile pepper plants disappear underground entirely - poof, gone! A branch of a larger tomato plant also disappeared underground right before my eyes! I have enclosed my garden with garden fencing, but my spaniel-mix dog is doing more damage to get to the gopher than the gopher itself is doing! Between the two, I am going nuts. Replacement plants are expensive, when you have not resolved the underlying (literally!) issue! I am on the verge of wanting to kill this creature, yet I really rather not. I have read many, many weblinks on how to 'repel' these animals (everything from moth balls to radios to wind chimes....which had me laughing hysterically, actually). I noticed that the critter is most active between noon and 2 p.m. give or take. I came up with an idea that I am experimenting with, that does not eliminate the gopher but potentially prohibits the disappearance of whole plants being pulled under the soil line. Here it is: Take an old CD you no longer need, and cut half way through it to the center hole. Then carefully pry it open where the cut is and wrap it around the stalk of your young plants. This may only work on plants that are not too big or mature (with fat stalks) or too young and small like seedlings. My theory is when Mr. Gopher drills that 1.5 inch hole around the plant base and goes to pull that plant down, the plant's limbs and leaves will bunch up and get stuck at the top of the CD's hole and not be able to be pulled through. If this critter is Ironman, then it might not work. But if there is some resistance, it hopefully will not get away with the entire plant! I used an old Microsoft software CD that I no longer need and snipped it with a sharp scissor and put it on my plant yesterday (my last remaining chile). I also put two other chiles in those chicken wire baskets made specifically to deter gophers ($5.00 for two at Home Depot). They look terrible but seem to work. I just want to get to the point where my tomatoes and chiles are not costing $99.95 each with time, labor, materials, water, and replacement plants! I also placed sriracha sauce, hot indian curry powder, red pepper ground, red pepper flakes, onion flakes, and garlic down the hatch with water. Time will tell!

Diane 9 I'll bet it's packrats that have eaten your engine wiring - we had over $1200 in damage done to our FJ by the little buggers - thank goodness we had rat damage coverage in our insurance (who knew??!) For THAT particular problem, the only thing that has worked to keep them out is to hang lights over the engine compartment at night. Or put the lights under the engine block at night. Also, don't park near pack-rat hot spots like areas with a lot of bushes or debris. Other than that, I've been battling all the cute little rats, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels and gophers around here for a decade. I don't intend to eliminate every single one - I DO understand I live in the desert - but I also want to grow cacti, mesquite, agave, etc. All of which are super yummy to the little beasts when they are young and tender. Lots and lots of chicken wire cages, and then occasionally rat traps, a gopher bomb every once in a while (they have a freakin' condominium complex dug under our shed) and a judicious application of pellet shot when my husband needs target practice. I still lose a number of new plants, and we haven't put a dent in the population by any means (nor do we intend to) I try to be more defensive than offensive, but since they've clearly declared jihad on my desert rehabilitation efforts, it does get ugly sometimes.

Heidi, sometimes I think that standing on my head might be the answer! I'm already planning what I'm going to do this year, in my gardens. I'm looking forward to seeing what the plants I bought from Prairie Moon will do in their second year. They looked rather weevily this year, but that's to be expected. On the other hand, the Silene Regia sure attracted the hummers, they looked like they were fighting over the few blooms there were. I'm not buying any plants (oh sure), l want to work on my containers, hanging baskets and planters - seeds for the annuals. I need to do a heavy mulching again this year too. Can't wait to see the Iris! Well, I am watching the second game of the night - the Dubs are winning - nothing unexpected about that. I am also composing a letter to the Pistons coach, which starts: "Dear Mr. VanGundy, why do you bring your team high scorer in off the bench? And in case you haven't noticed, KCP can't hit for S--t. Just saying" I am too old for this. Shirley!

Amy, Same thing here with current prom pictures. No one back in our day (I was a senior in 1977) would have been allowed in the door with the exposed flesh I see nowadays. Sometimes I wonder what the parents are thinking, letting their daughters dress in such skimpy prom dresses. Waves of nostalgia can be fun. When I am visiting my mom at our childhood home, I am nostalgic for certain things....the roses Daddy used to grow along the backyard fence, the big mimosa tree we played beneath while hummingbirds and butterflies visited its flowers, the roses, peonies, zinnias, cosmos and cockscombs that mom and I (okay, mostly I) grew in my mom's flowerbed by the porch, the fruit trees in teh back yard and the veggie garden. All of those are gone, but I can close my ends and practically see them, and all of us out and about and near them, when I am at mom's house. Then I walk into the house and wonder how in the world my parents raised 4 kids in a small 3-bedroom house with only 1 bathroom and a tiny galley kitchen. The miracle is that no one died in the perpetual fight to get into the bathroom at peak periods. The house always seems smaller than I remember it being, but I guess that's the difference in looking at things as an adult versus how you thought they were when you were a kid. Melissa, The more I eat hot peppers, the more heat I can handle but I am mostly careful to avoid overdoing it. There's plenty of time to plant habaneros. They really thrive in warm soil and hot air so I never put them in the ground as early as the rest of the hot peppers. Bon, The only thing I don't like about potatoes is digging them, but the digging is a necessary evil that makes eating them possible. Jay, It is about time the snow is gone! I am glad you're getting to plant. We only had really good rainfall here in January, so it is long gone. Otherwise, our rain has been sporadic. It keeps missing us (uh oh, had summers like that before, haven't we, and you as well), going around us, just flat out not falling, etc. Our forecast highs also have consistently run 4 to 6 degrees above whatever the forecast says. Yesterday the forecast high was 80 and we hit 86. I'm starting to dread the summer weather since we are trending hotter and drier than forecast. Our back garden in the sandier soil does drain too quickly, but our front garden drains too slowly......if only I could take a gigantic mixing bowl and mix together the clay from the front with the sand from the back. Dawn