I've been out doing the usual morning surveillance, looking up through the branches of a mulberry tree, thinking I'll thin out some branches to let more light in and I hear a rustling in the dried avo leaves on the ground behind me....at first I thought he was a rat, but no...a pudgy gopher, shuffling along through the leaves, on his way to somewhere. He was just totally oblivious to me, got to just below my feet and looked up at me, then shuffled on. I've decided that I'd much rather plant in wire than kill the gophers...
He blends in with the leaves, but you can spot his beady, bright little eye...lol...
Well, with planting in wire I'm assured that the gophers don't get the plants, so I don't have to fight them and then the gophers get to go on with their lives also....do a good job of aerating the soil....
A change of perspective for me. Before it was just to keep the criiters from eating my plants, now I can see it from the perspective that I don't have to kill anything either. I feel better about it...
Oh yea. PLEASE eat the weeds. If the basket has a very large diameter, or wire is used under a large area (not for individual plants, as in veggie garden) the little devils can dig in from the top...
Sherry, I find that I follow the same philosophy more and more. When the racoons or skunks starting digging in my front bed, last month, I decided to look at it as a shallow "rototilling", which would allow the compost I put down this month to integrate more easily. I did fence the backyard off from the deer, but when they wander into the front yard, I know they're really hungry (especially during the past few drought years) & enjoy seeing them.
