Frustrated by Squirrels Digging – Container Garden Tour

Let’s have a garden tour of my upper and lower container gardening spaces. Unfortunately, the squirrels have been destroying every container recently. So, I’m trying something new to deter them!

Happy Gardening!

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Hey guys, welcome back. So, the rain has finally passed. I had three or four days of rain. The week before that, we had rain. So, there’s standing water in a lot of places. I need to take care of that today. But, I have a major ordeal going on with squirrels on my deck. So, I have an upper deck and a lower deck. We’re going to work on those today. I have started a few projects that I’ll share with you, and I’m going to share a tip that I’m trying with the squirrels to keep them from digging in my containers. It is an ongoing battle. They’re very fierce right now. I think I have a couple like teenage juvenile squirrels that were born, you know, a couple months ago, and they are just making havoc in all of my containers, my green stalks. So, I’ve got an idea. It may not work. Um, but yeah, I want to share this quick little video with you guys. We’re just going to do a few things. Do a bit of a tour with some of these containers. Um, it’ be like a container garden, small space, patio, deck tour, and some ideas to take care of those swirls. Before we head outside, um, I’m indoors in my kitchen at my bay window that overlooks the upper deck, and I just wanted to show you guys how beautiful the Mexican patunias are right now. They are flowering. They’re so lovely. Uh, very just calming to watch them kind of float in the wind. And then I’ve also got this dwarf maringa tree that I literally just grew this summer. It’s probably about four foot tall at this point. So lovely, so graceful. And it’s around the time of day when the birds show up on my deck. I’m not sure if you can see them here on this tomato plant in front of the deck, but every day around this time, I get a bunch of birds coming around looking for food. And I am so hopeful they’re eating army worms, they’re eating hornworms, they’re eating aphids, whatever they can find. I just love watching them out the window. Okay, let’s get outside and get to touring. And I was hoping I was really hoping that the hummingbird would come up here to the window as we were filming, but no luck. But I do have a hummingbird that comes up here on the deck quite often. It’s so sweet. There’s another bird down in there. Of course, every time I move my camera, they take off. Standing on my lower deck. Here is an example of one such horrible mess. Container of strawberries knocked over during the night by a squirrel. Let’s move up to the upper deck and start there because you’ll you’ll see just soil from pots just scattered everywhere. They have been so incredibly destructive. Yep. We’re going to clean it all up. We’re going to work area by area and then I’m going to show you what I’m trying. I don’t know if it’ll work. I need to go get one more ingredient. All right, we’re going to start in this corner. I’ve got my dragon fruit plant who has been on here all summer long. And he has different seedlings growing down in there like bok choy and parsley, not parsley, celery, just from selfseeding from this container. So, I’m going to cut the video here. We’re going to go back in time. And I did work on this like a month ago, but I failed to do one important thing, which is my fault. I did not put that netting back on. And in the past week, the squirrels have dug so many holes. They’ve destroyed so many seedlings. And it’s kind of my fault, but it’s mostly their fault. So, we’re going to clean up this bed again. Uh, I’m just going to leave seedlings as is. And then once I see what is actually growing, we’ll thin at that point. You can see there’s tons of celery babies. There’s bok choy babies in different stages. So much celery. I really don’t need that much. So, it’s okay to thin. But first, we’re just going to have to figure out what to do. I’m going to have to cut the celery to make the netting fit. Unfortunately, the celery will have to be bent slightly for a while until the squirrels slow down digging and burying for winter. Um, so you saw by that clip that this bed was much much worse off and it’s looking actually kind of better even with all the squirrel damage. And you saw that I removed all the strawberries and I put them into these containers. The squirrels have even been digging over here. I just cleaned that one up yesterday. Um hopefully these guys will do okay. And also also um let’s talk about the cors. They’ve also been digging. You can see here. Um, I’m trying to have a whole another pot of the Corska mint. I’m hopeful it will overwinter close to my house in this container because it is a zone 7 and it should be in the ground if I want it to overwinter and be um happy next spring, come next spring. And then I’ve got a container here of the Corska mint. Got a container of it there. And also I am trying it on these wall containers because I would love to be able to move when we relocate with a whole bunch of this course cement to use as like a ground cover in the ground. So pretty. I think it’ll do fine since it’s up against the house. And if we’re getting a super hard frost um or I’m really worried about these containers, I can always move them into the garage. I want to say a couple extra words on the course. If you are a perennial growing zone seven and up, you may want to heed caution if you put this into your garden and not a container. It could potentially become invasive, especially in the southeast, perfect growing conditions. Um, it can tolerate some shade, quite a bit of shade, and still look vibrant and beautiful, much more than say thyme would. Um, it’s definitely a plant I want to have in my garden, but I realize its potential for invasiveness. So, I’m going to take extra caution and use it in very specific areas. The dragon fruit will go indoors inside my house uh before first frost. Remember, we’re going to weed and uh there are some winter weeds starting to gather, I noticed, but we’re going to weed and thin, let’s say, in about a couple weeks um so that we have adequate spacing for our bok choy and celery. That’s all that’s going to remain in this bed. And both are self-seeding and keeping themselves in a cycle. Now, I have not had to plant celery for 4 years. Just keeps itself going. That’s selfseeding in this container. And I’m hopeful the bok choy will continue to do the same. Um I was very successful growing it last fall into winter and now it’s just knowing the exact time to uh germinate those seeds. And hopefully we will have a nice flush of bok choy when they’re mature. And this little shelf is stable. We’ve just got a bunch of sedum, a little corbell I dug up out of the yard in this beautiful impatience which will die with the first heavy frost. And the leaves are starting to gather. So fall is definitely upon us. And it’s only a couple of days away now. I can’t believe it. Of course, the squirrels do not bother the dragon fruit because it’s so spiky. They do not dig in his pot. Now, I do need to pot up my indoor aloe. I will get to that eventually. I’ve been trying to do that for like six or seven months. Um, and then that pot will be gone. And let’s see. Yes. So, these patunias, three, I’m thinking about putting them in my kitchen window, keeping them as indoor plants over winter, and then I will relocate them outdoors after our last frost. Got some bush beans here I need to process and get the seeds out of. And you can see I had a tray of Brussels sprouts. I think a few will make it, but the squirrels were actually digging in here as well. And I tried to save as many as I could. You can see many are not going to make it because of the squirrels. So, let me see. Okay. Um, I did actually work in this area. All of this area. Um, and these pots need to get cleaned and packed away in the brush. This ginger did flower. Now, it’s ugly. It’s so pretty for like 3 days and then it’s just not that pretty. Um, but all of this got cleaned up and relocated. Some of this stuff came from other parts of the deck. I decided to hang on to the eggplant for a little bit to see if I could get some fruit. I don’t think it’s going to work out. So, before we go get our fall starts, and I I will have to buy some this year. I am going to take out the eggplants. There’s only two. One on the far end and this one. And I’m still going to leave the parsley that I did plant pea seeds in here, but the squirrels dug all of those up. There are no peas germinated or growing. our Mexican patunia that we looked at earlier. Looks gorgeous right here. And then our uh moringa. My plan is to do an experiment. I’m going to take cutings from the Mexican patunia like I did last winter, keep them in water all winter, and then come, you know, last frost, um, we’ll start to harden them off to go outdoors. That’s where all of these plants came from. They lived in a glass of water that I changed occasionally throughout the winter in my garage. But I want to try to just cut them down, push them up under this bay window, insulate with more pet bedding, which is what’s on there now. Maybe some straw, maybe some leaves, and see if they will overwinter in that pot under my bay window outdoors. This is a zone 8 plant, which I absolutely love, and it’s gorgeous. It will overwinter in the ground here, but I don’t know if it will in a pot with the conditions that I’m going to try to give for it. Um, it’s an experiment. The same thing with the maringa, which I do not expect it to survive. That is a zone, I think, 10, but it’s going to be a fun experiment. If I decide not to do that, I could cut it down um to the soil level and then just stick it in my garage, see if I can overwinter it that way. I may not have the space, though. So that’s why I thought I’ll just stick both of these pots under the bay window. See what happens. But don’t you just love the Mexican patunia? And there’s a really cool spider up there, too. See if I can get some cool pictures of him from inside. Okay, so that’s the plan. Eggplants out, parsley stays, some kind of starts u for fall into winter. I’m thinking Brussels sprouts because I’ve already got the trelluses here in place. Um, maybe I’ll try to race seed with peas as well. We’ve got a ice plant, some mint. I think it’s spearmint. Some corbells. We already talked about these guys. Some more corbells. How pretty. And then this ginger will be a separate video. This poor ginger. Um, cuz it has a long story. So yeah, we will talk about that. But he can stay on here until end of October, early November before we get our first frost. Be perfectly happy. And I have some video clips to share about these guys as well. So, I cut them back severely so I can have cutings. Plus, they were so wild and wonky as you can see here. They’ve been trying to flush back out and flower again. It’s a beautiful black patunia. Thinking about moving them out front now that our sunlight is kind of changing and not as much light during the day. Um, and it’ be like a fall kind of Halloween flower out front. Let’s see. I’ve got some in this container as well. I think I’m going to take this whole container in the house uh before first frost and keep it as a house plant so that I have this flower in production. And I also took cutings as you saw in that clip. Let’s see if any of them developed roots. It’s not looking promising over there. Have not been changing the water. Yeah, that don’t look good. Yeah, I don’t think any of them look worth keeping. It’s kind of gross. The water is really stagnant. H been very neglful this summer for sure. Normally, I can take cutings off of this plant and uh propagate it. It usually does much better in soil, and that was the plan to get these cutings into soil, but it never happened. And now they’re kind of gooey. So, when we head to the store to get the fall starts, I will be getting some pansies and or violas for some of my containers here in the backyard. And anywhere you see an impatient on the deck or lower deck, those will also become imp uh viola or pansy for fall and winter. And then right here we’ve got a polkadotted plant that makes a great indoor house plant as well. I could take it in. I might. I’m not sure yet. Got a white rose that just flowered. And I did cut it back last time I worked on the deck. And you can see it’s already put out new uh beautiful growth. All of this is new. It looks so pretty and healthy right now. Um yeah, sweetly listen is starting to look pretty for fall. There is um a rooted tomato top which it’s not going to have time. That can probably come out. Um this pepper can keep growing. It should be able to produce um a good amount of fruits before first frost. We still have a little bit of time. Yeah, I still have a mess over here. This is All of these need to get washed and put away. While I’ve got this all open, cleaning up the squirrel’s mess, I think I’m going to go ahead and mix up my potion and show you guys what I’m thinking. Now, what I do to help with squirrels, uh, with my container gardening and inground as well, I buy these little containers, uh, wire baskets or trash cans from Dollar Tree. They used to be a dollar. I think they’re 125 now, or they could have went up to 175. I have seen some Dollar Trees trying to charge $1.75 for different items, which is ridiculous, right? They’re going to have to change their name soon. So, I’m gonna put down the mixture that I’m mixing up. Something I also do, here’s the the larger size. You can see I use forks. I like to use black forks because they match the soil better. Does it work? No. Does it deter them maybe slightly? Um, there have been times I’ve gotten so frustrated with the squirrels that I just line an entire uh container with as many forks and you put them upside down like that so that the spiky end is pointing up. They do also kind of secure things in place if you flip them this way. I do do that as well. But yes, I will try some forks. I’ll try our mixture. We’ll try barrier method for seedlings. This is a tiny little Brussels sprout. It’s called Catkill. Okay. So, let me go get the mixture. All right. So, what this is is a bunch of old tea leaves that I did not want to use that I wanted to make into compost. I went through a purge of my uh kitchen many months ago and got rid of any tea bags that may have had microplastics. It’s like a an issue. So, look into that if you drink a lot of tea. This is also my homemade cayenne dried powder from my pantry that I made I think last winter. And then this has been sitting out for a long time. My fault, of course. Uh yeah, this was from the spring squirrel control. I just left it out and it got water in it. So, I’m going to try to put some in here, maybe break it up. And I’m just going to start sprinkling this in the containers. The only problem I’m worried I’m hopeful my dog does not try to bother the containers. Hopefully the hot pepper will deter him as well. That is the goal. I’m hoping this Oh, I got to stop. That just went up my nose. I’m going to sneeze. They really like this container. Think I’m putting it in too heavy. This container. They love this container, too. I don’t know why. So, I applied it to all of these containers here. Now, if it rains, guess what? We’re going to have to reapply. That’s the only negative. And I could not uh get this out. I mean, that’s pretty gross, right? There’s probably mold grown in there and everything. But, I still have quite a bit to go. So, I’m going to get busy uh and continue with my containers and then we will start back up on the bottom deck. And it looks like they were digging here, too. So, definitely I need to put some They were digging there, too. They’re pretty much every container. And then we’re going to work our way down here and see what we can do to help out our plants. I’m also applying Sluggo Plus when needed, where needed. Um, slugs aren’t too knocking wood bad up here just yet, but sometimes I do have to treat, especially under that bay window. Okay, so I forgot to talk about these two containers off my deck. I put a salad bowl blend. Um, you can see a couple started to germinate of lettuce. And of course, the squirrels came over to this corner and dug a hole. And now these little seedlings are just no good. So, I have these mats. They’re kind of like bird scare away mats. They don’t hurt. They’re plastic. You see, I’m pushing on it. It does help slightly uh to get some direct seeding done and get things germinated and big enough um to where if the squirrels came along, um it’s just you can’t cover every single square inch. There’s a couple seedlings that are alive because of these little mats. So, I do use them when I’m starting seeds. It’s a pain that I have to do that. I wish I could just start seeds and not worry about squirrels or chipmunks or any other creatures that are coming along. This was a patunia I cut back quite a while ago. Oh, there it is. It’s blooming. Look at how pretty. This is latte. That was from a separate video where I divided a planter full of patunias that I had got for Mother’s Day. All right, so now down to the bottom deck area. Now, I just did a video on my green stocks like a week ago. This is the current thumbnail. You want to look at it. Um, so I’m not going to talk about the green stocks. The only thing I will say is that I’ve got some germination on some of the seeds that we put in. However, the squirrels have been digging and destroying some of the little tiny Look at this pocket. It’s almost completely empty. So, I’ll need to re uh put some soil in here and reed or transfer some of the seedlings that are going to make it into this pocket, which it just kills me. I have to do so much work because of these dumb chickbunks and squirrels. Okay, so green stocks, you can find out about them in a separate video. Uh it looks like they’ve been digging in this container as well. My roses so pretty. So, so pretty. I will need to do my fall rose care really soon. And it looks like they were digging in that container as well. So, I will sprinkle some of that mixture, the cayenne on that container. And let’s see if there’s anything else new I can show you guys. I need to take care of this rose, too. It has been having a hard time. It’s got some holy basil here growing as well. This Well, here’s what it looked like last week. Such a beautiful rose. It’s called blue girl. You can see I’ve got my spinach starts covered. I did notice germination today and that is because of these containers that I get at Dollar Tree. That is the only reason I have any seeds germinating in these containers because if those containers were not covered, the squirrels would be digging, digging, digging. Yeah, I can hear them over there in the woods. They’re mocking me. So, for the figs, I’m not going to do anything to this one. this big giant one though. Um, I’m thinking about doing it now instead of waiting until it’s dormant. It’s already produced all the fruit and it’s already started to lose all its leaves for fall. It’s a deciduous plant. So, I’m thinking I’m going to go ahead and prune it now and make some cutings from the the the cut down. I’ll probably cut it maybe to about right here above this kind of joint. Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do. And then uh the remainder of what’s on the deck is my containers. Yeah, we got to clean that up yet. Yeah, it just kills myself really. Um I’ve got one pepper left and one container. This uh tomato will come out, but this one’s still got couple small fruits. I may wait on them. I should probably wait on him, but he is starting to get some fungal issues. Our nights are starting to get a little cooler. It’s kind of like the beginning of summer where you get all that blight issue in the beginning. Um, now we’re starting to have some of that similar weather. So, they’re starting to have some issues again, but they’re still putting out some flowers. Uh, realistically, would these have time before the first week of Novemberish? Maybe not. But this guy definitely would. But do I want to allocate the space just to wait on one or two tomatoes? Now that tomato has a lot of fruits. That’s like I’m in love with that tomato variety this year. Blazing. Not blazing. Blushing star. Phenomenal. It’s a hybrid. It has really performed. It’s still performing. I will not be taking this plant out. Knock on wood. It’s got lots of fruits to come. Right, Tonto? Yeah. Okay. And then I’ve got a couple containers here. I’ve actually got three on the deck. You can see I tried to protect these little seedlings. I had some lettuce uh germinating in here and they moved. They actually moved the scare mats with the fork attached. They are vicious. These little squirrels. And you can see this one. Uh, yeah, pretty rough in there. That’s a pretty big hole. All I can do is push the soil back, try to save any seedlings I can readjust these, sprinkle our hot pepper, and just hope for the best. That’s really all I can do at this point. They’re just kicking my butt, right? And look at this gorgeous salosia. I grew this from seed. I think it’s called embers something. And the beautiful thing about Salosia here is it will come back. It will sell seed like crazy. So pretty and vibrant. I really love it. All right, guys. Well, that is going to conclude the lower deck, which I’m on right now. The upper deck. I need to put this one back on the railing. We had to take it down cuz we had an air conditioner guy come out here the other day. Um, now that we don’t have rain, I’m going to be sprinkling that mixture everywhere. I’m also putting down the Sluggo Plus. I usually keep this container full. There’s a high concentration of earwigs over here, as you can see by the holes in my leaves. Yep. Yep. So, that’s the state of my two decks with my container gardening uh and my green stocks. So, if you have any suggestions Oh, I forgot to tell you about all these guys. Basically, just some shade plants. I’ve got tonto’s vanilla grass for him growing there. Some corbells, perennial deranium, uh some kale, some ferns, some a still bee. Next, I’m going to work on this front area. I’ve actually already started on the hydrangeanger, but that’s a separate video. But we can conclude with this beautiful tomato plant that I just really am so impressed with blushing star. All right, guys. Hope you’re having a wonderful, wonderful week and the squirrels are not driving you as nuts and crazy and just extremely out of my mind. I I don’t even know what else to say. Look at this beautiful. This is a volunteer Cissia from last year. Uh yeah. Yeah. I’m not sure if the squirrels will be uh my demise in the garden. I’d love to build a fortress that would allow the birds and bees in, but not the chipmunks. Not the squirrels and the deer and gosh, what else? Gophers and groundhogs and bulls and moles and h there’s so many things. All right, guys. Talk to you soon. I hope you’re having the best week. Bye.