by Connie Oswald Stofko
We’re getting into the time when squirrels start to store acorns for the winter. I don’t mind when the squirrels stash their hoard in my lawn, but I do object when they dig up a container that holds perennials.
Here’s a tip from Lyn Chimera of Lessons from Nature:
To keep squirrels and chipmunks from digging up potted plants, cover the top of the soil with a layer of pea gravel after the container is planted. The sharp gravel hurts their paws and they don’t bother your containers.
More on squirrels:
- Check out tips on how to keep squirrels from digging up spring bulbs.
- Here are some tips on how to keep squirrels from eating your tomatoes. (Make sure you read the comments.)
- You can be a citizen scientist and share your squirrel observations with Project Squirrel.
Cat, thanks for those tips!
I have both chipmunk and squirrels digging up my potted herbs so I lay chicken wire over the top of the pot resting on the soil and folding it and crimping it to the pot, or I surround the herb with a piece of chicken wire about 18 inches high, sink it into the dirt, close it and secure it with twist ties and then make a top out of more chicken wire and secure it to the “fence”. For rabbits in my veg garden I lay scat mats around the young veggies, sand or kitty litter for slugs. Haven’t come up with a good deer deterrent yet, in the Southeast they eat everything.
Hi Reni, my best advice is to contact Cooperative Extension again. If it’s not a pollination problem, maybe it’s a soil problem, or lack of light, etc. They’re the best people to help you sort out this problem.
I have tried for 2 years to successfully grow butternut squash to no avail. I was advised by Cooperative Extension to try to pollinate myself with a child’s paintbrush due to possible lack of pollinators but even that didn’t work. I am trying to raise them in plastic raised garden boxes. Can you advise me what I’m doing wrong? Thank You.