I have done the same thing with hardware cloth for making a planting box cover to prevent attack from above. The cutting does produce many sharp edges, filing these off can help when handling the material.

Hopefully the gophers will not nudge your wire boxes upwards.

Try this:
Fill a 5 gallon bucket half way c water.
Float some black sunflower seed on top, about an inch or so.
The little buggers will jump in after the seed and drown.
A safe, chem-free alternative to cutting gopher/chipmunk populations to manageable levels.

Leafhead, do you sink the 5 gallon bucket in the ground? My gophers live in tunnels and only rarely surface. They have an intricate network through the yard and garden. I also have moles, but no chipmunks.

Larry, will keep a look out for "rising" cages!

I left the sharp edges on the cages so if the gophers do surface and try to get to the plants, they will be snagged. Don't mean to offend any PETA people, but these dudes choose to eat the most expensive and rarest plants.

I have more of a chipmunk problem, esp c my potted plants. I just set the bucket on a level surface and their little noses do the rest. I don't know about gophers. Do they jump like ground squirrels? I guess you could bury your bucket for gophers and moles.
For potted plants and nosy squirrels/chips, a layer of egg rock on the soil surface seems to deter unwanted diggers. Egg rock is round river rock, which is pH neutral and difficult to get a grip on and lift.

Bless you all! I thought I was having a problem with slugs this year, but those gophers and chipmunks are unreal!

You've really gone to a lot of trouble to protect those milkweeds, Sandy - I sure hope the hardware cloth does the job! And the monarchs thank you!!

Sherry

Hmmm...I wonder what is eating all my chipmunks. We had a lot last year but no major damage. I have only seen a few this year. Something must be eating them all. What eats gophers? Can you encourage them in your yard? Ha, I just saw a video of a great blue heron eating a gopher and one eating a chipmunk. How do you attract one of those? Now if they would just eat the groundhog that is eating my vegetables.....

Elisabeth

Hi Sandy, do you have a pic of your contraption? And this may sound silly but what species is a gopher? Do they dig the roots of your plants or do they eat the plants?

We have "woodchucks" here which are also sometimes called ground hogs and gophers. I used to battle them in my veggie garden at the previous house. The thing that works best is having a dog. Next, a gun. But since I have neither of those, I use barriers - mostly fencing and caging on the plants that they like.

Last year i started using hardware cloth around the roots of the perennials that the voles like best - Echinacea, Phlox, Savlia Black & Blue, etc. That works well and so does the castor oil.