Hey guys! Today I want to share the best method I have discovered so far for how to keep squirrels out of your garden. Or rather, out of my garden – but hopefully this will translate to yours as well.

I have a little flowerbed outside my front door, and last year was my first time trying my hand at planting flowers. The thing is… I quickly learned that, love my garden as much as I did, the squirrels seemed to love it more. We live on a pretty large property with tons of trees, which makes a pretty welcome home for the little critters. It wasn’t long after putting my flowers in last year that the squirrels in the yard quickly got to work digging them up.

I’m really not sure what it is they love about digging up flowers; they don’t seem to eat them or anything, they just love to pull them out of the ground and leave them to die. It’s very sad, and VERY frustrating. If you’re here because you’ve got a similar problem, you know what I mean.

Needless to say, my flowers didn’t last too well last year. Some of them died from the abuse they repeatedly received (although I faithfully re-planted whatever I could save), and others didn’t seem to flourish very well (because I frankly had no idea what I was doing).

How I Started This Year

This year I opted for a little more education on the whole process and lot more caution. Rather than planting annuals like last year, I decided to get myself some perennials. Also, rather than just planting them and adding some top soil, I made sure to get some good sheep manure, garden soil, and Miracle Grow type fertilizer to prepare the ground for healthy plants.

For my choice of flowers, I got some pink cone flowers for the back (they grow to be about 2 feet tall), some shasta daisies for the middle part of garden (a little shorter than the cone flowers), and some purple creeping phlox to fill in the gaps in front (a low-lying ground cover that flowers in the spring).

The Method: How To Keep Squirrels Out of Your Garden

Two words: Chicken Wire (or Wire Mesh). I had a bunch of wire mesh left from another project, and desperate to think of something, I decided to cut out little “collars” (pictured below) with a pair of scissors to go around each plant. (Note: If you do this, be careful; the wire frays and is super sharp!)

I have to say, I’m soooo thankful I decided to do this the same day I planted them; the next morning, there were little ditches dug around the wire collars of many of my flowers, but not a single plant was harmed. I’m so thankful!

One note: I wasn’t a huge fan of the ditches either, so I googled other ways to keep squirrels out… I found out that some people recommend using cayenne pepper or chilli flakes. So, I tried that around my wire collars… And here’s my review on that: Don’t do it! I used cayenne, and it quickly grew mould, which actually infected a couple of my flowers with fungus and they died. So I’m not going to be using that again anytime soon!

Here’s my winner little collars, propped up on the watering can; not too fancy, but totally functional. The opening in the middle is probably about 4″-6″ across, and the outside is probably a good 12″-14″.

When the Plants Start to Spread

After my collars had been on them for a little while, my creeping phlox started to spread – So, I just cut the collars, spread them out a bit, and pinned them down with shish kabob sticks to stay in place. That has been perfect!

I’m hoping that by next year, the plants will be established enough that the collars will no longer be necessary. We’ll see how it goes!

I hope this little garden hack serves you well, and I’d love to ask – what other ways have you found effective for keeping pests out of your garden? Like I said, I’m pretty new to all of this – and I’d love to learn from your experiences as well.

Bye for now,

Naomi