5 ways to keep squirrels away from your garden

Having a squirrel in your garden might not seem like much of a problem. Squirrels are cute, right? Try planting tomatoes, pumpkins or other fruits, waiting patiently and caring every day to see the ripened fruit of your hard work chewed on, missing or turned into a pulpy mess on the ground. Gardeners know how much of a nuisance squirrels can be and you will too if have pesky squirrels ruining your long-awaited produce.

Here are some ways you can deal with your squirrel problem:
 

1. Cage your crops 

Here’s a humane way to protect your precious plants from the squirrels. You can set up a framed chicken wire fence around your plants to keep the squirrels out. If setting up various little cages around each plant is a little too much work, you can just set up one large cage to contain all your plants. If you are covering your cage with chicken wire fence, then make sure you only grow determinate tomatoes because they are compact enough to grow fully in your cage. Keep the height of your cage more than 4 feet at least. Buy crop cage netting here.
 

2. Plant flowers that squirrels dislike

Yes, lucky for you, there are some flowers that squirrels find repulsive either because of their smell or their taste. These flowers include crocus, lilies, alliums, marigolds, daffodils, columbine, hyacinth and geraniums. Planting these around your precious plants will not only keep the squirrels away from them but can also serve an ornamental purpose for your garden.

3. Have a pet cat or dog

Cats can effectively drive out squirrels from the garden. Start placing your cat’s food bowl in your garden and it will chase away the squirrels into the abyss. If you don’t have a cat, you don’t have to get one. You can attract neighbourhood cats into your garden by placing cat food in your garden. If you are a dog person, dogs can be just as effective against squirrels, especially border collies. You can train your dog to chase the squirrel away on command. This will keep the pesky critters away from your plants and help your dog get some exercise as well
 

4. Apply predator urine

When squirrels sniff a predator’s urine in a place, they would want to get out of there as fast as they can. Wolf urine can scare the living ghost out of them and no, you don’t have to get your own wolf. You can easily order wolf urine online and spread it around your garden. Not only is this helpful in keeping the squirrels away, but it is also just as effective against moles and other varmints.
 

5. Use cayenne pepper

Sprinkling cayenne pepper on your plants and soil will make sure that squirrels don’t hang around anywhere near the area. The first time they lick cayenne pepper off their paws, they would not want to mess with that area again. However, if it rains, you would have to get sprinkling done once again. If you have pets, you might want to be careful with the cayenne pepper and only use it in areas where you know they won’t wander.