Last year was the first year I planted bulbs around my house. I planted a majority of them in the landscaping which turned out to disaster, courtesy of the local rabbit population.

As an experiment, I had also planted two lasagna-style containers (crocus/daffodils/tulips) and placed them in my garage with the hopes that overwintering in the garage would work. As it turns out it did, however when the crocus started to break the surface (I brought the containers outdoors) the squirrels went to town on them immediately. It was a good thing I noticed their presence early on because I quickly fashioned mesh screens (with chicken wire fencing) over the tops of the containers (held in place with bungee cord) and then removed them before any stems started growing through the mesh material.

Based on the relative success of those two containers, this season I plan on planting all of my tulips in containers (and overwintering them in my garage). However I am in need of suggestions for alternative ways to keep squirrels away from the containers once I bring them outdoors in the spring.

I've read that planting certain types of daffodils inside the tulip containers is one possibility.

The pics below are my two larger containers. The crocus was starting to break the surface but was devoured shortly thereafter by squirrels. The daffodils and tulips eventually surfaced but did not last very long thanks again to squirrels or possibly chipmunks.

Periodically I sprayed the tops of my containers with Havahart Deer Off 2 (which is labeled as being effective for squirrels and rabbits as well) but it really reeks, it's quite an expense, and its effect was limited. I ended up trapping some squirrels and releasing them a few miles from my house but it was impossible to keep up with them.

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