Don't feed the animals

I’m not a real fan of squirrels (flea-ridden rats with fuzzy tales and good P.R.), but when they started digging up and eating bulbs in my garden, they dropped into the Endangered Species category.

We planted the first batch of bulbs in October on a cold and rainy day, and I was stiff and sore for three days. So as I limped through the garden, the sight of freshly-dug soil and flower bulb husks definitely added insult to injury.

Rotten squirrels. Evil, mangy, thieving vermin. To make it worse, the parasites seem to favour the most expensive bulbs. No run-of-the-mill narcissus for them (which is too bad, because they’re TOXIC); their taste runs to the more exotic Anemone Blanda (windflower).

So after some online research (thank you, GardenWeb forum participants), when we planted another batch of bulbs this weekend, we added bloodmeal (supposed to smell like death to squirrels) and placed a layer of chicken wire over the newly-planted areas. We didn’t bother doing so where we planted narcissus and allium, since, as I said before, narcissus are toxic. And alliums are in the onion family, and I guess squirrels don’t like onion breath.

But, we discovered on Sunday that just because squirrels don’t EAT those bulbs, that doesn’t stop them DIGGING THEM UP!!! So we’ve added his-and-hers slingshots to our Christmas wish lists. Good-bye, cruel squirrels.

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