What I Learned from a Gopher

Every spring, when my yard dries out from the winter rain, I begin my planting.

When we first moved into our house, it was brand new with only dirt for a yard. Over the years we have planted many plants, flowers, and trees. A lot of them are evergreen or at least perennial, so they come into bloom each year. But along with my standard plants, I also add new ones. I have pots on my patio in my backyard that are full of a variety of flowers. 

In my front yard, I have a lawn, a kidney-shaped area with a flowering plum tree, and a flower bed that spans the length of my house. By my front door is a larger rounded area with flowers. It is planted in cool shades of purples, pinks, and blues. The mound has some tall fuchsias in the back, along with a purple hydrangea for height. I have a few other plants that flower, and “forget-me-nots” that live up to their name. Every year I add some flowers to this area. I plant a variety of pink and purple petunias, some blue and white lobelia, and some alyssum. These flowers fill in the space. Then I add some shredded bark to finish it off.

I love this space. It makes me happy going into and out of my house; it feels like a living welcome mat.

I have never had a problem with gophers in this flower bed. We get moles sometimes in our lawn, but my husband is good at trapping them.

I was not prepared for the havoc one gopher can make…maybe he has friends. I went out to dump the trash one morning and glanced over at my flowers. “Wait a minute, where is that big lobelia plant? Did I transplant it? No, I’m sure I didn’t. It was right across from the other lobelia.” 

Then I looked at the second lobelia…gone. Not a leaf or petal to be seen. Only a small clump of dirt where there used to be a flower. I've seen chewed up plants and big dirt mounds, but never have I seen an entire plant disappear overnight. 

Over the course of the next week, I watched as six petunia plants and five lobelia disappeared. 

My husband set multiple traps everyday with no luck. The gopher wasn't even trying to hide his work anymore. I would open my door each morning, hoping to see a sprung trap. Instead I would see dirt strewn everywhere all around the traps. Now we had an area that looked like it had been bulldozed. I was so frustrated. 

I went to the hardware store and asked for advice. They showed me the gopher trap. I told them we have plenty of those. Then he showed me some smoke bombs. It said on the package it wouldn't hurt plants…I only had a few left anyway. We don't have animals in the front yard, so I felt it was safe. 

I took the bombs home and decided this was all out war now! I asked my husband to try to smoke them out. He wasn't as enthusiastic about the idea as I was. So he continued with the traps, and I went online to get advice. I read about bubble gum, a concoction of dawn dish soap, chili pepper flakes, and castor oil. I decided to try it all. I found about five good holes. I put some chewed bubble gum in the hole, followed by the liquid mix. I then spread dirt over top and a rock on top of that for the finish. “Aha! Take that, Mr. Gopher!” 

For two days I watched and saw no new mounds of dirt or obvious tunnels.

I was almost ready to declare victory when I came out the next morning and dirt was flung almost to my feet as I stepped out on my porch. I think I made Mr. Gopher mad. It looked like he crawled out of his hole just to fling dirt at my front door! 

I felt like waving a white flag. “You win, Mr. Gopher, well played.” But now my husband was ready to try the last attempt. The smoke bomb. I’m not sure if it was the gopher mess that got to him, or my complaining. Probably the latter. 

So on a Sunday after church, my husband went searching for a good hole. The rest of us were inside chilling. I was starting to doze off when I heard a great commotion in the living room from my children; immediately followed by a cloud of smoke and the worst smell ever. 

As I jumped up I saw smoke pouring into our living room. I rushed everyone outside. There was my husband, not realizing that the smoke bomb he just put deep in a hole that went under our house, would actually come up into our house. It seemed to come up through the siding and maybe through the outlet on that wall. I read the package which gave all sorts of warnings about not inhaling it. Great…

So I called the poison control center on the package. I wasn’t too concerned about us since we ran outside quickly, but I wondered when it was safe to go back inside. There was still smoke and a horrible sulfur smell. The poison control center told me to call the fire department because they have a monitor that can tell us when it's safe to return. 

I was very thankful when the chief's small fire truck came. His first question was, “Did you catch the gopher?” He went inside, opened all the windows, the front door, and turned on all the fans we had. Then he said he needed to make a call.

Next thing I know, the big fire truck with four firemen pulled up to our house. As they jumped out they said, “Did you catch the gopher?” Boy, we are never going to live this down. Neighbors are starting to look out their windows and doors. My husband assured them there was no fire. The firemen used a fan that they reversed to suck the air out of our living room, and then they left. I could hear the chuckles as they headed to their truck.

Okay gopher, I give up. But I didn’t really. He seemed to head into the lawn, which although it was still annoying, was a compromise I could live with. After a week I replanted some petunias and lobelia. I replaced the shredded bark that Mr Gopher must have padded his trail with. My husband still sets traps in our lawn, but no luck yet. 

It's pretty amazing, kind of silly really, how frustrating this whole thing was for me. 

So I prayed and thought, “What can I learn from this?” 

First of all, I will not use smoke bombs again. 

But on a more spiritual level, on the outside my little mound looked pretty.

Flowers were blooming, it all seemed great.

But underneath was a busy varmint.

If I just kept ignoring the signs of a gopher, my flowers would become a mess. 

What are things in our lives that maybe God wants us to deal with? The stuff we push down, and try to ignore. 

Maybe we put on a sunny face at church or around others, but underneath things are brewing. Eventually those things poke their heads up like the gopher. They really don’t go away by putting up a front. 

We all have stuff underneath that God wants us to deal with.

You can ask someone to pray with you about it. 

God wants us to shine on the inside as well as the outside. 

He brings healing and hope. 

The gopher and I are at a truce. But God showed me a lesson through it.

Have a great rest of the month, and I pray blessings over you and yours.