GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - I'll get those pesky squirrels .............

David E. Ross · 26-04-2009, 07:19 AM posted to rec.gardens

On 4/25/2009 7:27 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:47:03 -0700, "David E. Ross"
wrote:

On 4/25/2009 8:13 AM, David E. Ross wrote:
On 4/25/2009 4:29 AM, wrote:
Put out food and water for them and they'll most likely stop marauding
your area.

Kate - squirrels gotta eat too
The problem is that the food they prefer includes the guavas, kumquats,
loquats, and peaches in my back yard. They also really like the leaves
on my dwarf orange tree, and the poor tree (being so small) doesn't have
many leaves.

One major problem is that squirrels in this area (especially ground
squirrels) carry plague.

I'm a docent at a showcase garden. I'm there every Tuesday morning and
Saturday afternoon. After I wrote the above, I went to the garden for
my Saturday shift.

Near the garden's resource center are two large white mulberry trees
(Morus alba), that seem to be late leafing out this spring. During my
shift today, I watched a squirrel running up and down the bare branches
of one of these trees, devouring all the little green shoots. No wonder
the branches are bare!

If they had a better food source, would they harm the mulberry?

Kate

The showcase garden is in an urban area, directly across the street from
city hall (city has a population of ~127,000). On the same side of the
street as the garden, there is a neighborhood shopping mall on one side
and an up-scale steak house on the other. On the street behind are
apartments and small houses.

The garden is not intended to be a lunch buffet for rodents. It's
intended to be a showcase of garden design concepts from different parts
of the world.

Let someone else feed the squirrels . . . and put up with squirrel crap.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary