- 1. squirrels, black, red, grey
- 2. Chipmunks
Homes-n-gardens Pests
Actually I have 2 pests in the garden that keeps me busy. The rest I can work around them.
Squirrels and Chipmunks:
Squirrels at my house have won the seed battle, but I won the bulb war.
Squirrels are the most tenacious of all my pests.
They're up before me and go to bed long after I'm indoors.
The wire cages are working and I'm sharing how I made them below.
Please let me if you try these or if you have other ways of keep the squirrels and chipmunks from eating your garden.
I'll share the fruit from my fruit trees, but not my bulbs or my sunflower seeds. :)
Squirrels at my house have won the seed battle, but I won the bulb war.
Squirrels are the most tenacious of all my pests.
They're up before me and go to bed long after I'm indoors.
The wire cages are working and I'm sharing how I made them below.
Please let me if you try these or if you have other ways of keep the squirrels and chipmunks from eating your garden.
I'll share the fruit from my fruit trees, but not my bulbs or my sunflower seeds. :)
- this is how I made my bulb baskets.
- I also use these wire mesh to cover already planted bulbs, lilies etc.
- So far it has kept them out and they have tried really hard to get at them.
-Specially in the early spring when food is scarce.
<-- click on pictures to see large graphics of the same pictures.
-as you can see I used galvanized wire mesh.
-I think the holes for this basket are 1/2" x 1/2". Large enough for the plants to grow through, but too small for the squirrel's head. If you want to know for sure, please let me know.
<-- click on pictures to see large graphics of the same pictures.
- on this picture, I snipped the roll of mesh in half lengthwise.
- decided the size of cage I wanted and snipped off the corners.
<-- click on pictures to see large graphics of the same pictures.
- I decided that 5 holes deep was deep enough for my bulbs.
- after the corners were removed, I just bent the sides up and wired the corners together.
- or if you have any wire there you can use that to attach your corners.
<-- click on pictures to see large graphics of the same pictures.
- the tops or lids,
- you can used a flat piece of mesh and wire the basket shut.
<-- click on pictures to see large graphics of the same pictures.
- on this picture
- I used two bottoms to make a box,
- it was easier for me than cutting another piece of mesh for a lid and wiring it down.
- in some cases where the bulbs were already planted...I just dug around the bulbs making a little trench and covered the bulbs with a bottom of a wire basket.
- what's handy about the box is;
- when it's time to divide the bulbs, you can pull the box out with all the bulbs in it.
- No more guessing where all the bulbs are and no slicing through any bulbs with a fork or a shovel either.
Bulb Planting Baskets For Moles:
I used the same dimentions for the metal mole cage box as for the other critters except for but the bottom part of the box I used 1/4" x 1/4" hardware cloth and for the lid I used 1/2" by 1/2", so far so good. It also saved my bulbs from me many times.
How do you plant bulbs, tubers, corms in a cage?
I just make a square hole in garden - a little bigger than the wire box.Fill box with some soil
Plant my bulbs - pointed side up - fill with more soil
Put down the lid and cover the hole box with more soil.
If the bulbs are not pointing up, they will find the way in the spring.