I was busy last week, planting out hundreds of Spring bulbs. I had visions of a wonderful display of tulips like those I saw at RHS Wisley earlier this year. Just gorgeous!
So I broke my back and a trowel, digging down deep into the clay soil to put out my lovely new selection of blooms. It took me two days, and I was pretty chuffed after I'd finished, sat back, rubbed my hands and thought 'Job well done'. Hmm, it never does to be complacent as a gardener does it, because when I came out the morning after, a certain something had dug a good proportion of them up. Eaten some, discarded half munched others. I could have cried. Oh alright, I did shed a little tear. I'm sure you've already guessed who was responsible.
Oh, they look cute, and most of the year I can rub along with them, even after they've broken three birdfeeders, knocked over the birdtable twice and generally rummaged all over my plants. But grrrrr, my bulbs...really, when you're fed and pampered all year round!! Squirrel family, this is war! Stick war.
Not the most attractive option, but it's partly working. I ran out of sticks and they managed to get into one little patch, and they also burrowed under the strawberry netting that I thought would be the most secure option, but the other areas are untouched. Sigh. I'm hoping when I start putting my yearly bark mulch down they'll be deterred a little, but I'm not holding out much hope. Maybe I'll need to leave the sticks in until Spring? I'm guessing I've never had this problem before as my garden is usually so jam packed with plants there's no room for them to dig. This year, after my revamp, there are lots of bare areas and I guess that is heaven for a squirrel.
Here's hoping I still get some beautiful Tulips next Spring like these stunners from Wisley.
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Oh dear.....totally understand. I have the same problem. I stopped growing tulips a long time ago now as they were just too much effort. I find satisfaction at looking at other peoples gardens and enjoying their displays.
ReplyDeleteI am told that putting chicken wire over them and covering with a mulch does the trick. It might just work ??
Yes, I've heard that too Cheryl, but I'm not sure how chicken wire all over the garden would work out with my cats :-/ .
DeleteI sympathise as squirrels are a problem on the allotments. Use sticks, wire, rose cuttings and as Cheryl says to deter them. Leave them in place until the bulbs appear then you should be okay. Fingers crossed that your spring display will be wonderful. Flighty xx
ReplyDeleteLet's hope so Flighty, I'd hate to have put in all that effort for nothing!
DeleteI feel for you, I really do. I have to admit to thinking that squirrels are cute, but I'm not plagued by them in my garden. The photos you've taken at Wisley are fabulous, I like that second to last photo, just beautiful. I remember seeing some container displays at Harlow Carr and being inspired by them, the RHS really know how to stage them.
ReplyDeleteThey do don't they Jo, I just love Wisley, I want to live there, lol!
DeleteSuch great pictures ! Squirrels are so cute. I have a problem with cats of my neighbors. They do a lot of damage in my garden at night !
ReplyDeleteHave a nice weekend :0
Now, I don't have a problem with cats Ela, probably because I have my own so others tend to stay away. I know they can be a pest for digging though.
DeleteSame problem here. I don't even think I will plant any bulbs because I know they will just dig them up right away and eat them or whatever they want to do. I love the squirrels but that really makes me mad that they dig things up. I feed them too and I give them sunflower seeds and corn. They are just spoiled I guess. Always looking for something better. This year they ate all the walnuts, almonds and many other yummy things they could find. Ugh! LOL I hope you get some pretty blooms in spite of them!!!!
ReplyDeleteThey are spoiled Cindee, you're right. I never thought about them eating the actual nuts that people grow, that must be really maddening. I'm on daily squirrel alert now!
DeleteOh, I would be crying, too! I love tulips and look forward to seeing the first blooms every spring. I haven't had much trouble with squirrels (fingers crossed), but last year for the first time, deer and rabbits munched off a bunch of my tulips before they could bloom. I'm not giving up, but I am going to plant more daffodils than tulips this year. Hope you find a successful deterrent for these pesky little creatures!
ReplyDeleteI'm so thankful I don't get deer or rabbits here, Rose. Fancy eating all your gorgeous tulips...naughty, naughty pests! I've planted lots of daffodils too, but the squirrels here aren't fussy and have dug those up too!
DeleteI hope you get some tulip blooms next year! Living so far out in the country there aren't many squirrels out here, but if they discovered bulbs I know they'd eat the heck out of them. Voles are my main arch nemesis here. Any edible bulbs or roots have to be encased in a sunken plastic pot with the bottom cut out and the top surface mulched with sharp gravel. Otherwise they eat *everything*.
ReplyDeleteI have such sympathy for you sweetbay. I've heard squirrels don't like digging in gravel either, which is great for pots but not much use when the bulbs are in your garden.
DeleteYou ask for feedback on a previous post (blackberry chutney)
ReplyDeleteIt is absolutely delicious.....quite hot as it contains chilli peppers and ginger.
I have made another batch as I really enjoyed it (so did the family)
It can be found on the Kilner jar website.
I stick with daffodils, because nothing will eat those. But tulips are so gorgeous! I do hope you have a wonderful display next spring that makes all your hard work worth it. The squirrels? I would be tempted to put out some traps! (Only tempted, but my hubby would probably actually do it.)
ReplyDeleteNo, but the darn squirrels here are still digging my newly planted daffodil bulbs up Deb. I've had to replant quite a few now. I guess it's just something you have to live with :-/ . I'll carry on with the sticks for now and hope that deters them.
DeleteI've been lucky in terms of the squirrels and my tulip bulbs, but I recognize the possibility of mayhem. I like to cover our bulbs with some kind of wire mesh over where they are planted.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to do that, but I don't think it would work out with my cats using the garden too. I'll have to stay with the stick solution for now I think.
DeletePaula I am so sorry you have a battle with the squirrel mafia ... I have to stick to daffodils, it just makes my life as a gardener less stressful ? sometimes you just have to adjust your needs and wants ? BIG sigh ! ... but hey I don't get off completely ... the raccoon mafia ares so mad they can't get inside our attic anymore they pooped on the roof and on the far end of the deck (considerate eh ? haha) .... I think they thought I would get their message ...nature's little darlings !! haha
ReplyDeleteJoy
ROFL Joy. You have the raccoon mafia, I have the squirrel squad ;-)
DeleteI feel your pain. ;-) I stopped growing Tulips a long time ago because they're a favorite rabbit food. They chew them down to the ground. I planted quite a few Daffodils a couple of years ago and they looked great the first year. Rabbits don't eat them, so they were spectacular. The second year, they were sparse--I don't know if that's because of squirrels or because of the brutal winter we had. I guess I should try planting more this fall, hoping the winter will be a little less harsh. I like your stick idea!
ReplyDeleteRabbits, squirrels, raccoons, slugs and snails, the pests never end do they! What a shame about your Daffodils. Nothing has ever touched the ones already in my garden, but the squirrels have certainly enjoyed digging my new ones up. Little horrors!
DeleteHi Paula, wow, you have been working so hard in your garden planting hundreds of bulbs in just two days! I am very positively surprised that you still can think of squirrels as cute, after they have been digging up a lot of them. That speaks of a gardener that has really found her inner peace ;-). Hope that your "stick solution" will help to preserve the rest of the bulbs. Come to think of it, putting all these sticks into the ground must have been again a lot of work... It never ends, doesn't it? Wishing you a nice rest of the week!
ReplyDeleteChristina
Lol, I try for inner peace Christina, inner rage sometimes leaks out though ;-)
DeleteHeart breaking, after all your hard work and they are expensive too. Beastly squirrels they are a pest in my garden too. They love freshly planted tulips although they never dig up old ones.
ReplyDeleteI have a huge, old walnut tree but they get all the walnuts before I do. Every one. Then they bury them all over the garden and I get walnut trees coming up in the most unlikely places.
You get walnut trees popping up Chloris, I get monkey nuts buried all over the place. What are those squirrels like!
DeleteI have the same problem with tulips, though a few have sneaked past the squirrels. I've had really good luck with a few species tulips- I planted some T. praestans unicum, gorgeous red with variegated foliage, and they dug up one but abandoned it on the ground in the next bed. I didn't see it there but it bloomed the next year anyway! The others were OK, but for some reason they all disappeared last year after 10 years of blooming. T. batalini Bright Gem and T. Little Beauty are still blooming after 11 years. I also planted some checkered Fritillary bulbs a couple of years ago and they are doing fine, though I tend to mostly plant daffodils because squirrels here seem to have heard that they are poison. Muscari also do really well for me, my favorite is Latifolium. Putting the Tulips in pots sounds like the perfect solution!
ReplyDeleteWell, the squirrels here don't seem to be at all fussy Hannah as they are digging up everything! They've eaten my crocus bulbs too :-( . What a shame your tulips disappeared, it seems there are many problems associated with growing them, so I may just stick to keeping them just in pots.
DeleteI hate the blessed things, I have a large horse-chestnut so now the little blighters are digging up anything I have planted recently taking advantage of the softer ground to bury the conkers.
ReplyDelete