The most challenging part of gardening in my neighborhood is stopping the critters from eating or digging up our plants.
Some methods haven’t worked for us. This includes spreading eggshells, coffee grounds, hot pepper flakes/sauce, feeding the squirrels (They aren’t hungry. They’re bored.) and other tactics.
But we’ve discovered a few methods that DO work for us.
This is an image of one of my homemade slug collars and two layers (now) of stick ‘fencing.’
The homemade slug collars, crafted from old 2L ginger ale bottles, were free to make and they have been, as far as I can tell, very effective both from guarding plants from slugs and as a last line of defense against the squirrels.
The stick fencing, in this photo, was crafted from bamboo skewers from the dollar store. I prefer to use actual sticks. That looks more natural and is free. But I needed so much fencing this year that I ran out.
The stick fencing is to keep out squirrels and also bunnies. Multiple layers are needed as they easily plow through a single layer.
I had sections of wire shelving that I was no longer using and they serve as wonderful squirrel barriers for the tops of containers. It is important to leave a gap between the soil and the top of the container because the squirrels will try to reach between the wire to dig.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby bought these wire baskets at the dollar store. I put them over planted seeds or roots and then remove them when the plant reaches the top of the basket. By that time, the plant should be established and the squirrels are less likely to pull it out of the soil.
This is a dome made from chicken wire. It allows pollinators to access the plants while stopping the squirrels from digging the plants out. It is AWESOME for entire rows that require safeguarding. And I plan to reuse it every year until it falls apart.
This is the combination I crafted to protect my newly planted asparagus. I created a cylinder from chicken wire to prevent the asparagus from being eaten. The tomato cage gives the cylinder stability. The two layers of stick fencing stops the squirrels from digging the asparagus up.
All of these protections, unfortunately, have to be maintained. Sometimes the squirrels will dig through one layer and I’ll have to re-erect that barrier. But they do work…for us. Your situation might be different.
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