Hungry Neighbors: How to Critter-Proof the Garden

These tips will help protect all of your hard work from the squirrels and other wildlife. 
Hungry Neighbors: How to Critter-Proof the Garden
Installing fencing around your garden can help prevent hungry animals from eating the plants you've worked hard to grow. Maren Winter/Shutterstock
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Vegetable gardens, flowers, and even woody ornamentals can be a tasty buffet for squirrels, chipmunks, voles, rabbits, woodchucks, gophers, moles, deer, raccoons, and birds—particularly crows. It’s a daunting list, but your plants and carefully curated outdoors can be protected.

The first step is to remove items from the garden that will attract four-legged or winged pests. Bird feeders help local wildlife stay healthy in the winter, but the downside is that they’ve probably marked your garden on their Google Maps app under “Good Eats.” To lessen the attraction, use hanging feeders, and consider squirrel baffles or trick poles to keep squirrels and other climbers away. Also, remove the feeders as soon as the weather warms.

Sandy Lindsey
Sandy Lindsey
Author
Sandy Lindsey is an award-winning writer who covers home, gardening, DIY projects, pets, and boating. She has two books with McGraw-Hill.