Hi Sammie! Looks like we have the same problem--and we were posting at the same time :) I'm in Lodi, CA, but ground squirrels are ground squirrels, I guess. I will check out the AZ gardening forum suggestion on your thread. Mine ate my tomato plants, but that's all I have. Best of luck! Keep me posted if you find out anything, and I will do the same.
Mia

Short of committing "geno-gopher-cide", I would at least try something like "Repels All" spray. It can be found at all the home improvement stores.

Being a rodent, they also are repulsed by the scent of their own dead - specifically the blood.

Fencing probably won't help for very long. They are among nature's best tunnel makers.

Ted

I've fought squirrels, along with deer, rabbits, and birds for so long, winning some, but losing in the end. Squirrels are very smart and never give up. I finally enclosed my 12' x 60' plot with a 6'+ high 1" chicken wire fence nailed to evenly spaced 4" x 4" posts with an attached bird net roof. This kept the deer, rabbits and birds at bay but I thought the squirrels would climb up my fence and chew thru the poly bird netting, but they didn't, and along with the rest of the varmits, have given up. This is going to be my 4th season of worry-free gardening!

There have been lots of good posts on this topic, so do a search for squirrels. Some say blood meal works (didn't seem to for me.) Fox Urine: not for me. Bird netting: good for birds, not squirrels. Supposedly Home Depot has product called Rid (or something like that) that you apply in a barrier fashion and many claim it works.

I'm gonna repeat something that worked for me last year to see if it was just luck or not. Once it got really hot in Dallas (late May), I put up sun shade cloth over the top of 3 of the plants. The squirrels never touched those plants, but ate tomatoes from other nearby plants that were not covered with anything except bird netting. My theory is that squirrels see your plants from above (trees, fence tops, roofs, etc.)and if you cover the tops, they don't see the fruit below and leave your plants alone. So, if you or anyone else trys out a similar approach, I'd love to hear if it works for you.

Going along with what Ted said about their staying away from their own dead scent - why don't you trap one, and drain its blood around your garden, and then chop up the remains and use them for fertilizer? ;)

Catman, I know that was said with tongue-in-cheek, but you have no idea how cathartic that would be for those of us who suffer from pests. Plus, the sheer poetry of using the carcass to fertilize and nourish the plants that it once destroyed is delicious. Oh if only I didn't have such close neighbors:)

Garden centers carry rolls of plastic fencing, fairly inexpensive.
These are about three feet tall by various lengths.

After erecting a barrier made of galvanized panels, I covered it with poultry netting attatched with zipties around the garden,........ this plastic fencing was applied to the bottom of the panel and buried in the soil a few inches.

The holes in the plastic fencing are very small and keep the rodents from entering the "plant zone", or burrowing under it.

The galvanized wire panels along with poultry netting can be found at Farm and Home centers etc. Concrete reinforcing wire works just as well.

This panel creates a ridgid surface to either erect as a fence or make a tall circular cage.
The holes are big enough to let in wildlife but the poultry netting keeps out the bigger animals and the plastic fencing helps keep out the little critters like chipmunks and the like that stay on the ground.

Bird netting loosly draped over the top in layers keep out squirrels. They don't like getting tangled up in it so they can't stay atop it long enough to chew then climb in.

Kind'a elaborate for the casual gardener but well worth the effort and can be taken apart and stored if need be.

The last part of the process involves makeing a gate, or cutting an access door big enough to reach in easily enough to attend to the plants and harvest. (attend to all of the sharp edges)

After years of gardening, I have found it is iether this,.... a pellet gun, or the "swimming pool".

When I lived in San Diego I had ground squirrels that progressively damaged more and more of my plants. I got a Hav-a-hart trap and eventually got rid of all of them. Then I had to trap some young ones that would come into the area every spring. I used peanut butter on bread for bait. How you dispose of them is up to you and local ordinances.

Awwww chop one up. Great "Organic" fert.

Sammie, just a follow up:

You and I had the same problem, except my ground squirrels ate my tomato plants. I ended up putting waxed milk-carton "sleeves" over the plants (even though they were only about 3-4" above ground at that point), and piling a little dirt around to keep them from blowing over. I was concerned that they would be too shaded inside the cartons, or get too much leaf moisture, but they are doing GREAT! They are all now peeking over the tops of the cartons, and look healthier than ever. Bonus: the cartons served as shields from a cold-spell and high wind we had last week. Now that the plants are bigger, they probably aren't as tasty and will be OK. Even if not, the main stem is now protected by a pasteboard sleeve, so they can't be "beheadded". We'll see how they do for the rest of the season, but this seems to have worked.
Mia

Sammie, I too am in the Tucson area (Marana) and had almost given up on keeping the ground squirrels at bay. I am not sure how my fall crop will do, but it looks like hardware cloth is about the only thing that will keep them out. You'd be best off with 1/4" hardware cloth. Chicken wire isn't fine enough to keep them out. You can buy hardware cloth at Lowes in the gardening section, though it seems a bit pricey.

You'll have to bury the hardware cloth six inches deep to keep ground squirrels from digging under it, and you will need to put some over the top of your garden. They are decent climbers and can scale a three-foot fence with ease, if they're hungry enough. I've watched them climb six feet up a wooden fence to get into a bird feeder.

If your plot is small, you might also want to consider self-watering container boxes like the Earthbox, Grow Box, and EarthTainer. With these small containers, you can build PVC pipe frames and cover them with hardware cloth. You could then attach shade cloth over the hardware cloth to protect plants from the summer sun. I'll be doing that with a couple of EarthTainers this fall. Self-watering containers also conserve water.

Here's a good site with more info:

"Kindly Keep Out"

I need some advice. I planted container tomatoes last night. When I got home from work today, they were gone - eaten by ground squirrels. I have had some problems with them before but never tomatoes. I'm going to try the milk carton sleeves. But will the plant come back if the root system is still there? I'm not sure if I should keep watering and hope for the best or start over. Any advice will be appreciated.

A .22 rifle or larger works. That's how I ended up clearing them off of my parents property. They can also be trapped. Just put a have-a-heart with some apple chunks as bait near their burrow. They love apple chunks.