F'in Squirrels eat my food.

[tooqk4u22]

Well this year I decided to plant a small simple garden and see what happens and if I can turn my brown thumb into a green one (Generally speaking I convince myself that my thumb is brown because I won't waste time, energy, and water to maintain my yard and plants, but I digress). BTW, planted cherry tomatoes, eggplant, green beans, lettuce, cucumber and green onion.

Anyway, my simple little garden was going ok and things were growing (just water and good soil) and the the tomatoes started showing up along with these tiny eggplants, so did the lettuce.  Cucumbers and green beans are just starting to come in.  Everytime a tomatoe started getting red or an eggplant got to be about an inch or two long the next morning they would be gone.

Not sure what to do about it because unlike rabbits an enclosure won't keep the f'ers out.

Anybody have any ideas? 

[sideways8]

Get dogs!

[kisserofsinners]

Why not an enclosure? I was thinking a simple green house with PVC frame and plastic sheeting might keep them out.

[tooqk4u22]

Get dogs!

I knew that would be one answer but not on the list right now.

Why not an enclosure? I was thinking a simple green house with PVC frame and plastic sheeting might keep them out.

I didn't think greenhouse style but I guess that would work but then won't the garden fry in the heat and peak sun?  Also not real attractive, not that I am too worried about that but my neighbor 20 feet away might be.

[ShavenLlama]

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/squirrel-proof-my-garden.htm

[kisserofsinners]

I'm modifying your needs into a plan i have for a roof garden. 4 stories up in SF is really cold, even on clear days. The design in a monkey hut http://www.chromatest.net/Lovemonkey/ using clear plastic to cover. I'm not sure of your space limits, but cutting this down should be too hard.

My step-mom uses her green house year round in very high heat. She finds that an aggressive water schedule keeps things healthy. Aggressive=daily, and morning and night on really hot days

You can also cut little holes (reinforce with duct tape to prevent unwanted tearing) in areas that the squirrels can't get to. If you don't have many, a well placed two with a good cross breeze is best. Again, i'm at a loss to imagine your set up...

If breeze holes won't work, oscillating fans; this also helps maintain healthy stems for happy plants in the absence of wind.

[James81]

Try putting a radio in your garden.

[arebelspy]

Try putting a radio in your garden.

And leave it running all night?

How loud does it need to be to be effective?

[bdub]

Get dogs!

No way that would ROI.  It would be cheaper to buy the veggies!

BB gun is your best bet.

[Bakari]

I won't waste time, energy, and water to maintain my yard and plants,

http://eartheasy.com/blog/2011/04/5-secrets-to-a-%E2%80%98no-work%E2%80%99-garden/

For the squirrels, try a motion sensor activated sprinkler head.
I have one to keep cats from using the planter box as a liter box.
or
Perhaps a frame of wood stakes with fine bird netting draped on top.

[sideways8]

Haha yeah I wouldn't get dogs solely for the purpose of keeping out the vermin... not very cost effective! The motion sensor sprinkler sounds like a cool idea, though. I'm going to store that in my memory worms for future use. Even better would be one with remote control muahaha!

I've heard of using the radio to get critters to leave chimneys/attics... from what I've heard, talk radio works better than music.

[James81]

And leave it running all night?

How loud does it need to be to be effective?

It doesn't need to be super loud. My neighbors used to keep on in their garden. The only time I could hear it was late at night when I was laying in my bed and had the windows open. But I liked the station, so it was cool. lol

They used to play a radio at a reasonable volume (cue Milton) and they had a string around their garden with those disposable pie pans tied to it. Not sure if it worked, but it seemed like a good idea.

[arebelspy]

They used to play a radio at a reasonable volume (cue Milton)

Hah!  Red swing line stapler gun will take care of those squirrels!

[englyn]

I've heard of spraying plants with chilli spray for some pests.

[Will]

Maybe if you buy some food specifically for them, they will stop eating your vegetables.

[Jamesqf]

Try here: http://www.backwoodsbound.com/zsquir.html  Squirrel's actually quite tasty,  Ate a lot of it in my childhood - and no, it doesn't taste like chicken :-)

[tooqk4u22]

Maybe if you buy some food specifically for them, they will stop eating your vegetables.

That is not happening, I have enough of them roaming around as it is - I certainly don't need more because there is buffett.

I won't waste time, energy, and water to maintain my yard and plants,

http://eartheasy.com/blog/2011/04/5-secrets-to-a-%E2%80%98no-work%E2%80%99-garden/

For the squirrels, try a motion sensor activated sprinkler head.
I have one to keep cats from using the planter box as a liter box.
or
Perhaps a frame of wood stakes with fine bird netting draped on top.

I told my wife that is what we need but that I didn't think it would exist - thanks Bakari. 

Get dogs!

No way that would ROI.  It would be cheaper to buy the veggies!

BB gun is your best bet.

This would certainly solve the problem, but the wife and neighbors would frown about it.

[igthebold]

I built a chickenwire cage over a square foot garden that worked pretty well, actually. It was a lot like this plan: Building a Wire Cage to Protect Your Square Foot Garden.

It was more difficult for taller plants, but you're having trouble in the seedling stage. For that, I built 1sf cages as follows:
- Cut a 1'x3' section of wire fencing (thick gauge, rectangular spaces between wires)
- Fold it into three 1'x1' sections at 90º angles, becoming a side, top, and side
- Wrap chicken wire around the sides and tie it off however you like.

Each one of these went over the seedlings as they were planted, then came off when the plants were too big to fit underneath. With something like peppers that grows into a nice, clean bush shape, you can leave the cage on, and it'll grow through the top where there isn't any chicken wire.

Didn't have any mammalian pest problems any more, but my kids loved to play with them. :P

[ShavinItForLater]

My local squirrels don't seem to have touched my garden, so I've left them be.  Same with the opossum (apparently they not only eat snails, slugs, spiders, cockroaches, rats, mice and snakes--when around humans they also eat trash--seems quite symbiotic, even "green").  I did have an awful rabbit problem though, with my landscaping especially (even though the landscape design was supposedly all rabbit-proof plants).  Since rabbits are lazy creatures, for the garden all it took was a wire fence a couple feet high.  But for the landscaping, no way to fence that in.  Drove me absolutely batty.  Tried all sorts of things, long story short, a quiet and powerful .22 pellet rifle was effective (and to the best of my knowledge, my neighbors are none the wiser).

If that isn't an option for you, I'd suggest something that didn't work for my rabbit problem.  I tried putting out rat poison pellets in my back yard, it is a blood thinner that causes them to get lethargic, and eventually go to sleep and not wake up.  Vitamin K is a quick and effective antidote for pets or people if there were ever an accident, although I probably wouldn't have tried it if there were pets or little kids frequenting my back yard, since it's quite possible a dog or cat could die before they figured out what the problem was.  Mixed it with bananas or apples, which some people said the rabbits would then eat.  The problem I had is that the squirrels always ate it first...

[atelierk]

For a long time, I also assumed that the squirrels were getting my tomatoes. Then one day I looked out and saw three crows hopping around in the garden. Went out and sure enough, there was a half red/green tomato on the ground, pecked open. Crows are scavengers and they like tomatoes as much as anything else. Plus, I suspect that in the hot summer they're also after the moisture inside.

My solution is to wrap the tomato bed in bird netting, which you can buy at any big box garden center. I hold it in place by pulling the netting taut over small screws driven into the wood sides of the bed, plus the judicious use of a few clothes pins here an there which makes it easy to still get to the tomatoes when ripe. Since I started doing this, the tomato predation has completely stopped.

[tooqk4u22]

Thanks for all the input, sounds like chicken wire or some kind of screen is best alternative. 

It is just frustrating - all the work with none of the payoff, but now I know for next year. 

BTW - it is definitely a squirrel because one a day a came out and there it was taking a tomato and running off with it.  But rabbits and crows may also be participating in the feast. 

[arebelspy]

With today's job market you could probably cost effectively hire someone with a liberal arts degree to act as a live scarecrow the whole growing season.

[tooqk4u22]

With today's job market you could probably cost effectively hire someone with a liberal arts degree to act as a live scarecrow the whole growing season.

Very funny, very sad, very true. 

[igthebold]

With today's job market you could probably cost effectively hire someone with a liberal arts degree to act as a live scarecrow the whole growing season.

What about an out-of-work Liberty Tax Waver?

[ShavinItForLater]

To the best of my understanding, rabbits will not bother tomatoes, green peppers, and anything in the onion family.  My test of that theory has proved true this year--I planted chives, green onions, tomatoes, and green peppers outside of the secure perimeter, and they have been largely untouched.  Sunflowers planted in the same area were razed before they made it to 3" height.  One way to recognize rabbit plant damage is that the bites are completely flat, as if cut by a knife.

Wish I could advise more on your nutters specifically, I'm guessing maybe there's less other available food sources in your area than mine.  Not sure what the squirrels around me eat, and there are plenty of them, but it hasn't been my plants.

[igthebold]

To the best of my understanding, rabbits will not bother tomatoes, green peppers, and anything in the onion family.

*In general* this has been my experience. However, when the tomatoes are tender, I've seen rabbit damage to them, so there's no guarantee. Cutworms will also damage a plant in a similar way, but I've never seen them where I live. Hornworms are very active in tobacco country, where I live, but they typically don't show up until the plant is larger so they can take huge bites out of your precious maturing tomatoes.

[Jaherman99]

I live in Florida and have a square foot garden inside my pool enclosure.  I was totally pissed that the freaking bugs were eating all my veggies even inside the screen!

Then I caught my Golden Retreiver grazing on my radishes...I have to admit, seeing his fat dog butt sticking out of my vegetable garden was funny as hell, even as I was chasing him out.

[JJ]

With today's job market you could probably cost effectively hire someone with a liberal arts degree to act as a live scarecrow the whole growing season.

Something like this? http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-02-22/

[zanycaswell]

Shoot the squirrels, Use this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooked-squirrel/

win/win

[Monkey stache]

I have a garden and a compost pile. The squirrels don't mess with the garden produce because there's so many delicious things in the compost. I'm not sure if it'll work but it's worth a try. Worst case you'll get some great nutrient rich soil for your garden.

[manchops]

Relevant: http://mlkshk.com/r/J2PO