I was asked by Zack to write a quickie on planting tomatoes, so hopefully this will be of use to people who have ... gasp! Gophers, damn, I hate the little buggers. Where we live our hills are swiss cheese wih pocket gophers, nasty little buggers. Anyway, we have a dog, so 100% of the commercial stuff for killing gophers (of the ones that actually work) will kill our dog, not good. There are the gopher stakes (battery pulse) didn't work very well for me last year, so I'm going back to what works. I get pre-made wire baskets (any good nursery will have them, come in a 1gal.,3 gal.,5gal.) and place them under the ground with the plant inside of the wire basket. You can make your own out of chicken wire and spend a half hour cussing and swearing ... or buy the pre-made ones with directions on them, me I am lazy. I am going to include some photos of the process for anyone interested. Hope this helps!
Dave Davisson
ps. note the deep well and berm to hold the water. I use this method over drip irrgation if possible. I tend toward deep watering once every 3 days to a week (depending on the weather, hot or not). Plus it makes you look at your plants, so you see how they are responding to your methods.
