I have the same problem. Rabbit repellent and wire cages doesn't have an effect. We have squirrels and rabbits and birds getting ours. I may go to Walmart and just buy a few cheap geraniums since the critters seem to leave those alone.

I had the same problem with chipmunks and the solution that worked was to place small thin, flat pieces of flagstones--puzzle fitted around the plants.

Plus rat traps baited with peanut butter to reduce the numbers of chippers. Besides digging up plants, they dug holes & tunnels underneath the front porch slab and rainwater would run into the tunnels.

Before I hit on the using the flagstones, I cut & fitted hail screen (hardware cloth) into the top of pots and cut out holes large enough for the planting the bedding plants. Flagstones work for me & easier to deal with than the metal screening.

We don't have a squirrel problem, in fact, we seem to have just one red douglas squirrel who visits occasionally in the 10 years we've been here. His (hers?) biggest offense so far is to plant clumps of sunflowers in some unlikely places for me.

But I've used Critter Ridder granules effectively to keep cats from digging in my gardens at my former house. Made by Havahart - the Pet Friendly People is what they call themselves. If it worked as well for squirrels - but I don't know that from experience.

Critter Ridder

I think Bobbex makes a small animal repellent too. Their spray for deer is effective if one remembers to spray it with some regularity (I don't get it applied as often as I should) but that one works for taste as well as scent and it sounds like your problem is digging, not consuming.

It's frustrating, I know. I never dreamed I'd be planning my garden around deer preferences - and that eliminates all roses which I miss.

Have you tried gravel?

When I lived and gardened in NY, I think I used gravel with success.

moth balls work against some critters ...

I was thinking of mothballs. Such a horrible smell it might work. I also heard spraying plants with vinegar also might work.

Try Milorganite. Home Depot, Walmart, Lowes all have it.

Cayenne Pepper - like McCormick ground cayenne red pepper. Squirrels don't like it, but it doesn't affect the birds. Of course - you have to reapply after rain, but it is quick and easy if you use the shaker bottle.

https://www.amazon.com/McCormick-Cayenne-Pepper-Red-Ground/dp/B001PQMJD4/ref=asc_df_B001PQMJD4?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80333185695341&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583932713747327&psc=1

Hello lily,

You mentioned chicken wire and that it is unattractive. No argument there. You could put some little pieces of wire on the top of each pot to create a mechanical barrier to digging. Just lay them on the surface of the growing medium, close to the plant stems. Chicken wire has holes that are probably too big to be effective and screen wire may have the wires too close together. Gopher wire or hardware cloth has an intermediate wire spacing and you could cut it into convenient little shapes with tin snips and place little pieces of it in your pots, on top or maybe covered a little, to act as a barrier to digging. I used buried gopher wire as an effective barrier to moles. It is similar to hardware cloth and better, in my opinion.

ZM

Rocks on top of the soil have worked for me. I don't understand why, though, because I know squirrels could just paw them away.

I find that once summer really sets in the squirrels leave our pots alone.

I was so tired of squirrels digging up flowers, etc so bought cat scratch mat with spikes! Works. You do have to those garden to hold in place. Cut to fit around your plants. I bought mine on Amazon

Please don't set peanut butter baited rat traps or any type of snap trap that kills the animal outside - - - you will also attract songbirds, flying squirrels, and other wildlife that is completely innocent. Even if it does catch and kill chipmunks they are quickly replaced. You will never eradicate them!

How about moving your flower pots to an area of your yard that is more protected from the critters and try a real repellent designed to keep the offending animals away? Moth balls are great at keeping moths away in an enclosed area, but are really useless against rodents outdoors.

I've never tried it but hot red pepper sprinkled around the plants/soil might work.

Though this is an unpopular bit of news, the use of the white, smelly mothballs is illegal. They are a truly hazardous, extremely toxic product and should be used only in accordance with their label in a sealed container of some sort to repell and kill fabric eating insects. Mothballs are a known cancer causing agent with the fumes being a primary issue let alone the incidences of accidental ingestion.

I have used cayenne pepper powder sprinkled liberally on plants and on the soil, and even on the bird seed that goes into my feeders. I found it to be quite successful at repelling critters. Some retailers sell big, big containers of it.

Exclusion is probably the best idea. I like the flagstone or gravel idea for containers, or even a hardware cloth collar around the plants covering the soil.

My nightmare story with chipmunks occurred a few years ago. A past president of the American Camellia Society and I had been communicating for quite some time. He had, as one would hope, a large collection of glorious camellias in his home gardens. He collected and sent me numerous seeds after they had ripened and fallen to the ground.

After months of me holding them in cold, dark storage wrapped in sphagnum, they were all fully sprouted when I planted them in a a couple of trays to place on a table on the patio in order to develop some roots. Little did I know that chipmunks, squirrels, and birds would consider them delicious, a huge treat. I was heart broken and only managed to save a couple.

I have successfully used pieces of broken clay flowerpot to stop squirrels digging in pots of bulbs.

I know mothballs are toxic and I don't want to use them. I will put pieces of pottery and flagstone thru the pots till the plants get really thick.

Jeb, you are preaching to the choir. I adore almost every animal on the planet and would never ever hurt one. I won't use traps for mice inside my house although I have none I know of now. I rescue any my cats get and release them away from the yard.

What is wrong with this picture?.....Kill the wildlife so you can enjoy the flowers.

Would something like this work in potted plants? You could use black or dark colored ones so they would be less noticeable.

Rusty

Since I have flagstone walks everywhere in this 1/2 acre, I walked around and picked up fragments and a few pottery ones and placed them strategically in the pots and urns. No chemicals, mothballs, but an environmentally friendly solution. Let's hope it works.

I was going to suggest the fork treatment Rusty posed above.

Lily, do not use vinegar! It is an herbicide. I spray it on our gravel driveway to kill weeds. There is a horticultural grade, and the usual kitchen grade of vinegar. Either one will harm/kill plants.

Liquid fence. I had to resort to it after squirrels kept digging up my seedlings this year.

Made of eggs, and other natural ingredients

https://www.liquidfence.com/Products/Deer-and-Rabbit-Control.aspx

I second the recommendation for Milorganite. It is considered a nitrogen fertilizer but my favorite nursery recommended it as it contains sterilized waste products that repel ground squirrels, deer, etc. So far it is working. It doesn't smell horrible but I don’t want to bury my nose in it either.

Cayenne pepper works great!

Wish I had a magical remedy for you, but a few things you could try would be mulch, predator urine, or motion activated water sprayers. Good luck, hope one of those works!

I used cayenne powder on the soil (not the plant) successfully this spring, in a couple of pots that the squirrels dug into.

I also have used the plastic, green "chicken wire" style fencing, cut to fit and sit on top of the soil. The holes are big enough for my seedling plants to grow through, or are easily snipped to be larger, and it does stop the digging.

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I use the large size river rocks. They look good and the varmits will not move them.

I have heavy flat pavers and slabs of slate that I use to keep critters from digging up stuff in my yard. I've used hardware cloth over planters I started seeds in.

And I was thinking the pottery shards and rocks would need to be heavy enough, or wedged in, so that a squirrel or little chippie wouldn't be able to move them easily

And I think those forks would have to be a LOT closer together to have an effect 🙂

Despite the slabs of granite, flagstone, and rocks, it's still happening. Worst year ever but I think it's because of the devastating drought making the ground like concrete.

Used coffee grounds are supposed to keep slugs away. Although I have not tried it yet. But I wonder if it would keep these critters away too. Just a thought.

Thanks, I did try the coffee grounds and they didn't work. I'm hoping the plants will grow and get thick with no exposed soil.

Okay, I'm declaring war! I have been having to buy annuals to fill in where critters have dug others out but this takes the cake. I planted some newly bought impatiens in an urn replacing dug-out ones and three minutes later when I walked down the flagstone path, there was the newly planted impatien laying in the middle of the path. Just three minutes! Is he just watching and waiting? On the trail today I saw so many tiny sweet bunnies but the one in my yard ate my lantana, so I don't love him.

@lily316 I had a similar experience this morning. I planted four lovely new impatiens yesterday in the cutest pot. Today the pot was dumped, dirt and rootballs scattered on the ground, flowers and stems all gone. And one of my fat healthy HUGE geraniums was eaten down by half, all the blooms gone. I bungee-d a plastic laundry basket on it and sprinkled it with cayenne pepper. Fingers crossed for tonight. (I think my varmint is a deer.)