Would this be an effective way to get rid of gophers?

It’s worth a try. Perhaps you’ll get answers from someone with personal experience.
My friend was having problems with gophers. Her across the street neighbor was a pro football player. He solved her problem with a pitchfork, which he would jam full force into the ground and the gopher. Makes me shudder to think about.
Good luck.

My bro-in-law traps woodchucks (similar predators), one by one, in an appropriate Havahart. He then drives the woodchuck at least five miles away to the state forest. B-I-L-says having the enraged animal in the trap in the back seat is an experience he finds difficult. So far he has captured 15.

I know @Luckyguy will have a more permanent solution.

It sounds like you have a good idea for bulb plants. Other plants who’s roots that grow through the chicken wire would be fare game though.

Moles use to be a big problem in our yard. The moles seem to laugh at the expensive smoke bombs, repellents, poisons, traps that I have tried. Car exhaust worked good but the back pressure is hard on the car’s emissions control mechanism.

Perhaps my solution to my mole problem will help you with your gopher problem. Our two cats are old and are poor mousers any more but they still help out around the house in mole control. The most effective way that I’ve found to control moles is the waste from our cat box (poop and pee). I dig into the mole holes and dump as much cat poop as I can down the hole and then I sprinkle used cat litter about the area. The moles seem to hate that and move over to our neighbor’s yard. Then I just deposit cat litter around the border of our property to keep the moles out. Every once in awhile a mole will attempt to re establish it’s self in our yard and I make it’s life miserable with cat poop.

^^^ The deer and my neighbor’s dogs love the dirty cat litter.

I’m sorry but you will likely be chasing this problem forever until you physically do something about it – like continuously trapping the critters and dropping them off at someone else’s place. Or you can deal with them permanently with something like this: Gopher Gasser . They come in a 4 pack. You light one end, drop it in the hole, and cover it with a rock. In 30 seconds the problem is solved.
People say moth balls in the hole discourages them from coming back but I have not seen any effect. A neighbor tried putting gasoline in the hole and that odor worked but his garden was a mess. The gopher gassers work.
Or you can not grow a garden. :-(

I had problems with this in my yard too, tried a whole bunch of stuff and nothing worked. In the end I had to end up just borrowing a gun from my pop and shooting them. I didn’t really want to shoot the gophers but it came down to them or my garden.

You asked if we thought the chicken wire would be effective. I’d say, no. Gophers can attack your plants from above or from below. The roots will grow down through the wire and will still be destroyed.
Gophers are persistent and relentless.

Damn. Little fuckers.

Move to Manhattan?

I already live in L.A.

Maybe we’ll do raised beds.

Raised bed would probably be the best idea, I’m thinking.
BTW…I’m pretty sure you got gophers from @LuckyGuy .”...until you physically do something about it – like continuously trapping the critters and dropping them off at someone else’s place.” But…I’m not a doctor so…. ;)