Who’s Been Sleeping…Errr…Digging Up My Flower Beds?

Sharing the fun and creativity in my world and encouraging the same in yours.

Who’s Been Sleeping…Errr…Digging Up My Flower Beds?

June 29, 2012

I’m surprised I haven’t shattered our windows and given myself a bloody hand when I bang on them to scare these rascals away from my plants and flower boxes. Tapping no longer works. Unfortunately, they just keep coming back but man, can they jump!

I’ve been trying to capture a photo of the dirt-digging, dirt-flinging perpetrators for a while now. Finally, I got one!!! I actually ended up with a series of photographs.

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To dissuade these guys, I’ve tried chili powder in a soap spray, and a peppermint soap spray, all to no avail. Cute as they are, these darn squirrels keep coming back and digging up my flowers anywhere I plant: in window boxes, in containers on my porch, even the flowers I plant in the ground are dug up!

I know that sometimes they are burying the acorns from the oak tree in our front yard but most of the time, they’re not carrying anything in their tiny scrawny hands. I swear they can’t remember where the hell they’ve planted their stash, and they don’t care what they dig up to find it.

There are so many sandy holes in my yard, you could play miniature golf for hours.

For this reason, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have any kind of garden without some sort of cage around it to keep the squirrels out. Back to the drawing board…or sketch pad!

Category:

Gardening

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Comments on: "Who’s Been Sleeping…Errr…Digging Up My Flower Beds?" (5)

Nikki said:

July 30, 2012 at 4:31 pm

Oh no that’s so sad! The pictures are adorable but your window boxes are too cute to be ruined each night. Is there nothing that can be done to prevent this from happening?
- Lisa said:
  
  July 30, 2012 at 7:08 pm
  
  Hi Nikki, Sadly, I’ve tried peppermint oil soap spray, a cayenne pepper soap spray, a garlic soap spray, even put in a few cloves of garlic on top of the soil, and nothing has worked. Squirrels don’t seem to notice. They love climbing on the porch railing to get to this one box. For now, I just bang on the window to shoo them away (tapping doesn’t work) but by then, it’s usually too late. Fast-moving creatures!
  
  Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.
  - J.Q. Rose said:
    
    August 1, 2012 at 9:40 pm
    
    Oh I know how frustrating it can be to have critters, varmints, pests in the yard. We have a garden the deer, rabbits, even wood chucks love, not to mention the tomato worms, squash and potato bugs, Japanese beetles…okay the list goes on. And STILL my husband puts out a garden every year. I wont’ go into weather problems.Gardeners are optimists every spring!
  - Lisa said:
    
    August 8, 2012 at 5:25 pm
    
    Whenever we have a garden, we’ll have to have it enclosed in some way to keep out the squirrels and neighborhood cats or the seeds will never be able to germinate much less bloom then fruit! lol
    
    Several years ago, I read an article about a family who has a large garden every year with similar problems as yours. One year, they decided on doing something ‘different’ to ward off the voracious pests and wildlife. They wrote and read out loud (outside) that if Mother Nature’s critters could please refrain from eating their produce, they would gladly offer what remained to them after the harvest. Meanwhile, they did section off a bit of plot in the back of their garden where they said the bugs and wildlife were welcome to. Sure enough, they were able to harvest a huge amount of produce that year. Afterwards, they went outside, thanked the insects and animals for their patience, then invited them to enjoy what was left. By the next morning, the garden had been completely cleaned out! I’ll see if I can find the full article. It’s wonderful and begs for a repeat of that experiment, don’t you think?
    
    Thanks for your comment.
celiaboop said:

August 7, 2012 at 9:49 am

That is so cute Lisa! and funny!

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Sharing the fun and creativity in my world and encouraging the same in yours.