Lyn Rennick wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I live in London but recently I have been getting a lot of squirrels
in my garden. They are very cute and I love to watch them, but I've
now found that they are ruining my garden!

I recently built a raised bed as a memorial to a friend who died in
July and planted some plants in his memory, plants with names which
meant something to us but the squirrels have destroyed a lot of the
plants, especially a climbing rose called Schoolgirl. They keep
digging up the plants, and the ones they don't dig up they seem to
have sucked all the life out of them..leaving leaves dry and withered
with a lot of evenly sized holes in them.(Sempervivums..I guess they
like the fleshy leaves.) I've not seen anything like it before.

Does anyone know how I can stop the squirrels from getting into the
bed? Is there anything I can put down, which will not harm them? Is
there something they don't like which will deter them? I don't want to
use netting of any kind so as to spoil the look of the bed.

Thanks for your anticipated replies.

Lyn

Hi Lyn,

I wonder if you planted your rose with bonemeal fertiliser? If you did,
it's possible that a fox or dog has been digging there. I (and my
neighbours) have had this problem in the past. Last year, when I planted a
plum tree with the aid of bonemeal, I arranged bricks over the root area
then sprinkled loose bonemeal over the soil close by. This was intended to
persuade the local foxes that I had not buried a bone (yes, that's what
they're looking for!), but that the bone odour they could smell was only
grains of bone on the surface. The ploy worked! No digging at all, and my
tree has grown away well. I suspect I didn't even need the bricks to
protect the root area, but it was extra 'insurance'.

I can't explain away your holey sempervivums as easily. Slugs, perhaps.
Have you actually seen the squirrels raiding your border? They do bury
things and occasionally steal bulbs, but they don't usually just dig up
plants. The only other thought I have is that you may have fed your plants
with slow-release pellets.
Apparently, these are quite yummy! I have certainly had my planters raided
by squirrels on account of these.

If any of this rings true, perhaps you should try watering your plants in
with a liquid feed in future, especially valued memorials or gift plantings.
Having planted up the graves of much-loved cats, I can truly appreciate your
disappointment and distress.

Hope you can resolve the problem.
Spider