As the weather gets warmer (hotter, for those of us living in the High Desert), every one scrambles to the stores to stock up on cool drinks, snacks and others items to stay at home. The same scenario applies to animals as they search for their stores of stashed seeds, nuts and whatever they can find. I have seen Squirrels running in my neighbors backyard and just a couple ran across ours to get to the other side. There are just too many of them this year and they are starting to dig around. From the single squirrel I’ve seen on our property, they are now two.
This morning, I found a bunch of holes in my children’s raised garden beds. I was saddened to see some of the Gladiolus bulbs pulled out, lying on the ground, partially eaten and the stems cut off. We had stunning Gladiolus blooms (Fiorentina, Pears, Star, Yellow and Orange) the last couple of years and I can’t say the same for this year. We have two more larger raised garden beds (not pictured) next to the ones below. One of which has Pink Tulips bulbs and the other Onions; both sustained damages as well.
To give me some peace of mind and to prevent further damages until we find a permanent solution, my husband decided to wrap some chicken wire around the top of the garden beds.
How Can You Fight Back?
- Build Raised Garden Bed Fencing
- Use Chicken Wire on your Garden Beds
- Mulch with dried out Pine Needle
- Sprinkle Coffee Ground around bulbs/base of your plants
The first two options are the best as a hungry squirrel will take high risks to get to its food source.
By JM Perez
