Put some 1/4" hardware fabric on the soil, and cover it with mulch.

Mulch with 1-2" smooth round stones or terra cotta balls.

Shoot the squirrel.

If you shoot the squirrel, you have to dig a hole to bury it.

Mulching with stones works for me.

The mulching with stones seems to be working great but is not practical for everything. My sister said to cut up steel wool (I wouldn't use the kind with soap in them), but I don't know if that would deter them or not, haven't tried that yet.

Here is what I just got done doing. The chipmunks and/or squirrels will dig any loose soil anywhere, still have to deal with my 10 pots of geraniums and a couple others. The 5 gal with my plumbago which I used potting soil mixed with some sand they haven't bothered yet, same for some stargazers planted in a 5 gal pot in regular potting soil. The rain seems to have tamped down the soil in those, I don't know why they haven't bothered those because there are lots of bare spots still.

I tried to foil them by using some cheap plant stands and buying a couple more, then setting my dishpans with seedlings on those. Nope, they climbed up the metal legs and got in there, too, just one of those though it seems.

I spot planted some perennial seed in ground that is difficult to keep moist because I'm tired of starting in trays, transplanting, etc., and some don't like to be transplanted anyway. I covered the spots with soda bottles with the caps off and bottoms cut off, and as long as there was water vapor in the bottles, they seemed to be getting adequate moisture. Rather than to have to mist up to 5 times a day, I only had to water around the bottles every 3 or 4 days or so.

Now it is time to take the bottles off for most of it. My first trial run of that earlier this year, the chipmunks dug up nearly everything I had struggled to grow that way except just a couple. The harder you can pack the soil, the better. This soil was potting soil I'd stuck in holes to give them a better start, some covered with vermiculite.

Then last night and this morning I have been cutting chicken wire "patches" about 5" square, placing them over the seedlings, and pinning them down with those landscape pins. We'll see how that will work. I can remove it at some point. I will have to water them a little more regularly during this period of adjustment because it's getting up in the 90's and things dry out very fast and I'm not ready to mulch some of the areas yet.

Now cutting chicken wire is a pain, I was using tin snips I had sharpened, then they just kept slipping and not cutting, then bought some $5+ wire cutters at the hardware store. The wire cutters are too hard to work, useless for most wire, will need a more heavy duty kind at some point. I checked the bolt on the tin snips and tightened it, and was able to cut the chicken wire a little more easily but it is a job. Hardware cloth sounds good but would be even harder to cut. What do you people who know how to do things right cut it with?

They ravaged two window boxes I HAD to get out in the sun and hard to elevate off the ground. There were a few seedlings left in the one, so I covered the whole thing with chicken wire, so I think I saved some of those seedlings and will transplant those later out of it. My violas in another windowbox are ruined for this year, but now I know what to do.

It will still be an ongoing problem. I considered the cayenne pepper thing but read they can be blinded (don't know if it is true, but don't want to risk that as I adored those critters). I must say I am very cross with them now, but don't want to injure them.

You can also trap them with a live trap and relocate them several miles away which would be a hassle.

I guess I'll use what's left of my landscape stones, patch up the holes in the geranium pots with fresh potting soil and try that for those. It will help conserve water in them, too, as they dry out very fast in the hot sun.

It does seem that once containers have more mature plants and are well filled in with growth, they don't bother them. They haven't touched my large clay pots chocked full of plants for some reason.

I have always heard that sprinkling bloodmeal (ie dried blood) on the soil deters squirrels so last night I bought a bag and sprinkled it on. Let's see if it works.

They don't seem to bother containers, or new plantings in the ground, that are covered with cocoa mulch. As long as no soil is exposed, it works for me.

here's a tactic to try on squirrels (and cats and chipmunks) that are digging in your pots. get some sharp plastic forks and bury them business end up. alternately, cover the soil with a layer of crushed oyster shell -- it's very sharp and the critters don't like to dig in it bec. it can cut their paws. (i use this to protect my bulb plantings.)

Those are some good ideas. Thanks. I guess I got my bulbs planted deeply enough they haven't bothered with them. Yet.

I will check back and see how the blood meal works, please let us know. I thought I read it attracts something else you don't want but can't remember.

Blood meal will attract both carnivores and omnivores. It's most well known for calling in raccoons. Depending where you live, it'll also attract wolverines, which are prodigious diggers.

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BUSTED!!!

Thanks for your ideas everyone. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have chipmunk or had them until my three legged cat decided that she liked to play with them. She has been catching them and bring them inside where she lets them loose and then spends hours chasing them around the house. Eventually she kills them and I throw them out. The cat loves the garden/container area and lays there many hours during the morning and late afternoon and I have had no more problem with the little critters. AND NO, Dawg (my cat)doesn't dig in the containers or garden. She is a turtouse shell and when she is on the ground amongs the leaves and stuff you can hardly see her. She is one heck of a hunter even on three legs. Before her I never liked cats, but this one earns her keep big time and most importantly she keep this old man company.

Shooting worked for me. I am hoping I only have one rougue one as it has been about 4 days and no activity in my pots or in the mulch around the house. I heard lava rocks might work but I saw others talking about smooth rocks.

I use chicken wire pegged down with pins made from cut down wire coat hangers. It does work but is hard to get done. My Christmas cactus have had to be sequestered in a big "trunk" made from hardware cloth as the squirrels were chewing and tearing them apart when it was nest-building time.

One of the dogs killed a squirrel yesterday, maybe the word will get out. Should have taken that little carcass and nailed it to a tree as a a warning.

Suzanne

The squirrels have so far destroyed two containers worth of beautiful succulents. In any case, I now cover what I can with chicken wire. Those that I cannot cover, I have moth balls on them. They seemed to have worked so far. However, the problem with moth balls seems to be that they dispel butterflies too. I guess you can't win everything.