Four days ago, I had to transplant four roses because a gopher had invaded their bed and I've been watering the poor plants like crazy since then. The absolute worst time of year to plant a rose! I probably should have immersed them in a barrel of water until the heat wave broke instead. There are eight more rose bushes to move out of that bed someday soon. I can't replant them in cages in the same bed because this particular bed isn't deep enough to accommodate cages.
Years ago, the back of my driveway was converted into a group of flower beds. I have no car, so the driveway was useless to me, and It seemed to be the ideal spot for gopher-proof planting. Five beds were created by dumping large mounds of dirt onto the concrete driveway and surrounding them with concrete blocks. Absolutely gopher proof, right? Theoretically, one of the beds should have been doubly safe because it's adjacent to the house, so there's no way to dig a tunnel anywhere near it. Well, this particular gopher obviously traveled overland across the driveway and then dove in, and now he's wreaking havoc in the "doubly safe" bed.
