I use reinforcement mesh cages. They work great for support, but would do nothing to defend against squirrels! Come to think of it, I can't think of anything that would keep them out.

While I have a lot of the bushy tailed rats running around, I can't remember a time they have ever bothered my gardening efforts.

Last year I had a few extra tomato plants that I did not have room for in my raised beds. I put them in pots and used three sticks, five or six feet in length that I wired together at the top and stuck into the pot, creating a tripod. Not perfect, but free. Unruly tomato vines were tied to the supports. As they got top heavy, I ended up connecting them to a fence so they did not blow over in our wind.

For squirrels, I found putting out a large dish of water directly on the ground is the best way to keep them from messing with my tomatoes. They certainly still got into the garden but did relatively little damage.

I use tomato cages for plants in containers. If the containers are very large, like the molasses feed tubs that are roughly the size of whiskey half barrel planters, the cage is stuck into the soil inside the container and stakes are used to keep it upright. Then I use zip ties to attach the cages to the adjacent fence. If the containers are smaller and one of our homemade cages will fit around the diameter of the container, I put the cage over the whole container and stake the cage into the soil of the ground instead of staking it in the soil within the container. I still zip-tie the cages to the garden fence.

Squirrels generally aren't a problem in my garden. You'd think they would be, since we have 10 acres of woodland and it is directly adjacent to the garden, but we keep waterers filled with water for the wildlife and that means they mostly leave the tomatoes alone. The squirrels are much more of an issue with the peaches and plums, and all that really works, more or less, is to put bird netting over the tree canopies. Some of the smarter squirrels find their way beneath the netting, so I always figure we'll lose some fruit to the squirrels and to birds as well.

I have tons of squirrels but have never seen damage to my garden from them. On the other hand we had to replace the wiring harness in a vehicle which they destroyed.

Squirrels showed up last year practically wearing bibs and carrying forks for plums and they were stripping pine cones with glee. This was the first year the dogs didn't keep them run out of the yard. Maybe because they stayed inside more than usual, due to the rain. My steely-eyed cowdog mix has spent hours under the pines barking and running off squirrels in the past. I'm going to look into the bird netting for the plum tree, but the pine trees I'll have to leave to Betty.

I almost lost my coffee on that one, Dawn! That's a great idea, though! I may spray paint a couple of tennis balls for the plum tree...then wait and watch.

In 2013 I read to plant cayenne peppers in with the tomatoes so the birds would leave the tomatoes alone thinking they were peppers. I think this was flawed on 2 counts. First, the peppers take a long time to turn red, birds had been busy long before they turned red (and snakes and who knows, maybe squirrels). Second, I don't think birds are effected by hot pepper. We put bird netting over them that year and hung CDs around to scare them...NOT! Oddly, I haven't had much of a bird problem since, but then I learned to bring them in after they "blush" so we get them and not the critters.

Sandplum, It is an old, proven squirrel "remedy" that works for many people. If you do a test with the plums, please let us know how it works out.

Amy, You're right. Birds are not affected by the capsaicin in the peppers, but squirrels are, so it might work for keeping squirrels out. In fact, there is at least one brand of bird seed that is sprayed with pepper oil. Why? To foil squirrels who raid bird feeders. The squirrels taste the hot pepper flavor and back off, and the birds aren't affected, so they can eat the bird seed.

It is hard to foil any determined animal, bird, etc. that wants our veggies and fruits. The hungrier or thirstier they are, the harder it is to keep the critters out of our stuff.

Dawn