It took me five hours rather than one hour to pot up my plants this year because I cut little pieces of plastic fencing to fit over the soil in every pot and planter. It prevents the squirrels and chipmunks from digging up the plants or burying seeds or nuts in the pots and flinging dirt everywhere in the process. Last spring was the last straw for me. Several times I opened the front door to find plants with torn leaves and roots lying on the ground several feet from the pot they used to occupy. The rodents in my neighborhood aren’t just ornery, they’re vengeful.
It felt like it took forever to cut all that fencing and secure it with landscape staples, but it gives me great peace of mind. It took a week before a chipmunk even tried to dig in one of the pots. He did manage to decapitate a begonia, but if that’s the only plant I lose I’ll be way ahead of last year’s trail of tears.
After two afternoon spent securing my pots and planters I was way too tired to cut fencing for my giant impatiens planter, so I devised Plan B. I stuck bamboo stakes into the soil every couple of inches or so. For now it looks ridiculous, but when the impatiens get bigger and cover all that tempting soil, I’ll simply pull them out.
