Tip from the test garden

Gophers tunnel through the ground to eat tender bulbs and shoots. Here's how to keep them from dining on your garden's most promising nuggets.

Use wire baskets. Place a wire basket in the planting hole, add a layer of soil, then add bulbs. Cover the bulbs and the basket with soil.

Use a regular hanging basket, or buy a chicken-wire pouch sold at nurseries for lining planting holes.

Use hardware cloth. Line the bottoms of raised beds with barriers of hardware cloth; bend its edges up inside the frame as shown.