One of my first lessons in home gardening was learning how evil pocket gophers are. I vividly remember sitting at my kitchen table, seven months pregnant, looking at all our baby plants in our new ...

It’s an exasperating experience. You go to the nursery, pick out a flowering plant, shrub or tree and bring it home only to have some critter damage or destroy it within the first week. Pests cause ...

That mischievous gopher might steal the scene in the classic comedy “Caddyshack,” but you’ll undoubtedly want to channel Bill Murray’s energy in getting rid of that rodent, should you ever find one in ...

Question: Gophers are wrecking my garden. What can I do to stop them? A: Take heart. We have some tips for managing them. Five species of pocket gophers are found in California, with Botta’s pocket ...

If you live in one of Napa County’s towns, you may be one of the lucky gardeners who does not have to deal with gophers. Gardeners who live in or near the county’s rural areas are usually very ...

The most devastating tragedy in gardening is when a favored plant topples, suddenly dies, or even worse for a smallish specimen, disappears as it’s pulled underground. The creator of such tragedies is ...

From the perspective of a pitiful pocket gopher, the barn owl must seem like the perfect killing machine. Consider: The owls see prey in the dark from several hundred feet away. They can hear a mouse ...

It’s an exasperating experience. You go to the nursery, pick out a flowering plant, shrub or tree and bring it home only to have some critter damage or destroy it within the first week. Pests cause ...